Why Care? A Conversation with Timberland President and CEO Jeffrey Swartz about Our Collective Responsibility

Hosted by School of Management

Jeffrey Swartz, president and chief executive officer of Timberland, visits Boston University to discuss sustainability, carbon emissions, and corporate responsibility to provide ethical consumer choices. Throughout the lecture, Swartz draws on his own business experience and his company’s attempts to foster sustainability, highlighting Timberland’s efforts to discourage waste, encourage community action by its employees, and reduce its carbon footprint. Kristen McCormack, faculty director of the School of Management’s Public and Nonprofit Management Program, moderates the event.

As Timberland has grown, Swartz explains, it has begun to focus more intently on curbing its environmental impact. He discusses Timberland’s aims to reduce carbon emissions in the manufacturing of its leather, to safely eliminate toxins produced in its factories, and to make sure its working conditions are safe. He also emphasizes the need for business competitors to work together to create change in the area of sustainability. Swartz describes his own corporate philosophy, saying he runs his company on a belief in the notion of “justice in commerce.”

October 14, 2009, 4 p.m.

Morse Auditorium

Video Length is 01:12:03.

About the Speaker:

Jeffrey Swartz is the president and CEO of the outdoor apparel company Timberland, one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Since joining the family business in 1986, he has created a social enterprise department to encourage employees’ community service and has spoken frequently on corporate responsibility. In 1988, he helped launch Timberland’s public/private partnership with City Year, a national youth service organization, where he has served on the board of directors since 1989 and acted as the board’s chairman from 1994 to 2003. He served on President George W. Bush’s task force on national service, Business Strengthening America. Swartz is a member of the executive committee of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, chairman of the board of directors of the Maimonides School in Newton, Massachusetts, and a board member of Birthright Israel. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University.

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