The Timberland Company has a long-standing history of leadership and vision. Founded in 1973, the company was one of the first to introduce innovative injection-molding technology to the footwear industry in its iconic waterproof boots – a staple that remains one of the company’s top sellers today. Not one to rest on its laurels, though, Timberland soon transferred its technical expertise to other lines, eventually expanding internationally and adding clothing, women’s shoes and other accessories to its product offering. According to a well-known luggage manufacturer, “Timberland has long enjoyed a worldwide reputation for creating products that possess the durability, quality and functionality to conquer the most challenging environments.”

With such a tradition of innovation and a sense of community, this retailer, based in Stratham, New Hampshire, surprised no one when it became among the first to take a leadership role in the environmental arena as well. Dedicated to such green activities as the planting of trees and the practice of environmentally-sound manufacturing, Timberland is a strong proponent of corporate social responsibility and established a corporate philosophy called “Earthkeeping,” through which it is pursuing the achievement of long-term environmental objectives.

Among other goals, Timberland has committed to reducing its environmental footprint by cutting emissions created by its facilities and stores by 50 percent. Al Buell, Timberland’s Store Planning & Construction Project Manager and a 15-year veteran of the company, clearly recognized the significant portion of the company’s total energy that store lighting uses and identified it as a prime source for energy reduction. “We truly believe we can always operate in a more environmentally friendly way. So in 2009, we replaced the incandescent and halogen track and flood lighting in many of our stores with LED technology,” Buell says. “We’d been tracking LED technology for a while, and though it was still emerging, we felt we were ready to make the conversion to LEDs based on their progress at that time.”

Always open to exciting and efficient new technology, Buell and Timberland didn’t hesitate to upgrade once again in 2011 after being introduced to an elite new family of high-performance LED lamps from leading manufacturer Solais Lighting. According to Ryan Hunt, National Account Sales Manager for Wilmington, Massachusetts-based Standard Electric Supply, Timberland’s electrical distributor of record, “Timberland executives were already committed to using LEDs based on energy efficiency, but found they were not getting the desired light output they needed from their first-generation LED lamps. They wanted an LED lamp that would really draw out the colors in their stores and make their merchandise pop. As a function of Solais Lighting’s unique, actively- cooled technology, we found that Solais’ LR38 and LR30 Long-Neck LED lamps were really able to do this and allowed for a much higher lumen output” – a fact confirmed by LM-79 and LM-80 documentation.

Solais Lighting’s LR38 and LR30 Long-Neck LED lamp solutions feature outstanding lumen output of 850 to 1000, a high Color Rendering Index, strong center-beam candlepower, and a long lifespan rated at 50,000 hours. Fully dimmable and free of hazardous substances such as lead and mercury, the products feature Solais’ exclusive and actively-cooled Luxiance® thermal management technology, which enables a lightweight, high-performance LED product ideal for track and recessed applications within retail, commercial and hospitality settings.

The LR38 and LR30 Long-Neck were ideally suited to Timberland’s application. “In addition to delivering high performance and superior light quality, the 18 to 21 watts of energy these products consume – relative to Timberland’s original 50-watt halogen technology – will enable Timberland to enjoy a 58 to 64 percent reduction in energy consumption and costs – a benefit that clearly meets and exceeds its corporate energy objectives.”

Based on performance and applicability, Timberland oversaw the installation of 100 to 200 Solais LED lamps, between March and June 2011, in each of its four newly constructed, 5,000-square-foot stores – located on Newbury Street in Boston, Market Street in San Francisco, 34th Street in New York City, and Tanger Boulevard in Commerce, Georgia – with more to come. “We love how easy they are to install,” Timberland’s Buell says. “You just screw them right into the existing incandescent or halogen sockets; there’s no fixture change needed.”

According to Buell, green products and practices are always at the forefront of Timberland’s operating decisions. “As we gain experience and progress with store expansion, we strive to incorporate more environmentally-friendly materials in our construction, and energy is always something we consider,” he shares. “The efficiency offered by LEDs is great, but we’ve been especially impressed with the Solais lamps, which we feel duplicate the industry’s best-in-class metal halide offering in terms of their light output and color quality, but at a fraction of the energy consumption.” He continues, “The color and brightness of the Solais lamps are excellent. The store lighting is now exactly where I want it to be.” – so much so that Buell has identified Solais Lighting’s LR38 and LR30 Long-Neck LEDs as Timberland’s “go-to” lamps for all newly- constructed stores and as replacements for the stores’ older lighting technology as it fails.

Ryan Hunt agrees: “The newly-constructed Timberland stores that have been outfitted with Solais lamps are clean, bright and crisp, and the merchandise looks really sharp. We’re excited to have delivered the Timberland chain an LED product that offers such solid economic benefit and high performance, while being such a good fit with its green corporate strategy.”

Concludes Buell, “Through its cutting-edge lamp optics, Solais Lighting has really jumped ahead of the pack. Its LED products truly represent significant savings without any sacrifice to lighting quality or lumen output, and we’re extremely happy with the impact they’ve had on our stores.”