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Nevada, Missouri 42. |
Feature stories. |
Feature stories 8 9 3M 2020 Sustainability Report #improvinglives Introduction |
Consumer health care. |
Home care. |
Home improvement. |
Stationery and office supplies. |
Drug delivery. |
Food safety. |
Health information systems. |
Medical solutions. |
Oral care. |
Separation and purification sciences. |
Our four business groups 3M at a glance. |
Our markets. |
Abrasives. |
Automotive aftermarket. |
Closure and masking. |
Electrical markets. |
Industrial adhesives and tapes. |
Personal safety. |
Roofing granules $1.41B $1.24B $1.11B $1.20B $2.74B $3.51B $0.37B. |
Advanced materials. |
Automotive and aerospace. |
Commercial solutions. |
Electronics. |
Transportation safety. |
Our markets Our markets Our markets $11.6B $9.60B $7.43B $5.09B 2019 sales 2019 sales 2019 sales 2019 sales. |
Safety & Industrial Health Care Consumer Transportation & Electronics Our Vision 3M Technology Advancing Every Company 3M Products Enhancing Every Home 3M Innovation Improving Every Life $1.25B $1.94B $1.76B $3.71B $0.95B $0.41B $0.34B $1.18B $3.41B $1.32B $0.79B $0.38B $0.99B $2.31B $1.37B in sales $32.1* billion employees globally 96,000 patents >120,000 straight years of dividends 100+ companies on the Dow Jones Industrial Index. |
One of 30. |
Technology Platforms applied across four business groups 51 countries ~200. |
Sales in. |
Over products 55,000 sites >200. |
More than brands 800 *In addition to our four business groups, $32.1B includes elimination of dual credit, and corporate and unallocated business segments. |
Feature stories 10 11 3M 2020 Sustainability Report #improvinglives Introduction in R&D spend $1.9 billion 50+ c a u ro s u t n o d t m he e w r o r |
c ld enters |
In 2005, Ellen MacArthur became the fastest person to sail single-handedly around the globe. |
The 71-day, 27,000-mile journey required scrupulous planning, since what she took with her on the sailboat had to last for the entire race. “We managed it down to the last drop of diesel and the last packet of food,” she said in a 2015 TED Talk. The experience gave her a very real understanding of what it meant to have a finite set of resources. “Suddenly, I connected the dots. Our global economy is no different. It’s entirely dependent on finite materials we only have once in the history of humanity,” she said. |
For more than 150 years, our economy has been linear. We take products out of the ground, make something, and dispose of it once we are finished with it. A linear economy uses things up and creates waste, and it is not sustainable long-term — our natural resources are dwindling and won’t last forever. |
Ellen wanted to change this, so she left the sport of solo sailing and shifted her focus to creating a more “circular” economy — where resources and power are recirculated and regenerated, rather than used and thrown out. Set on finding a new way to design, make, and use things within the boundaries of our planet, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation was created in 2010 with three guiding principles: 1. Design out waste and pollution 2. Keep products and materials in use 3. Regenerate natural systems. |
In 2019, 3M joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy 100 (CE100), the world’s leading circular economy network, which brings together businesses, innovators, cities, governments, and universities committed to working together to learn, share knowledge, and build new approaches. |
Joining the CE100 is part of 3M’s strategic focus on Science for Circular, with the ambition to design solutions that do more with less material, advancing a global circular economy. |
“We are delighted to welcome 3M, another major U.S. brand taking a leadership position on circular economy,” says Joe Murphy, the CE100 lead for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “We look forward to 3M contributing to our diverse and dynamic community to achieve faster, greater success than any individual organization could alone.” |
Circularity at 3M. |
Two new products that demonstrate how 3M scientists innovate to create products that promote a circular economy are: • Scotch-Brite® Heavy Duty Scrub Sponges, sold in the United States, made with 100% recycled scrubbing fibers • 3M™ Thinsulate™ 100% Recycled. |
Featherless Insulation, made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. |
Collaborating for a circular economy by joining the Ellen MacArthur Foundation CE100. |
Within its supply chains, 3M also continually looks for ways to recover, reuse, and recycle byproducts and other surplus materials. |
3M’s Health Care Service Group helps extend the life of about 150,000 devices each year globally, which keeps electronic waste out of landfills. |
3M is also moving to more recycled and renewable materials in its product and package designs. |
We have removed PVC from more than 500 SKUs in an effort to improve the recyclability of our packaging. We have also joined the How2Recycle® program and have labeled close to 300 consumer products with recycling instructions. |
We created Lava™ Zirconia all-ceramic dental restorations in 2001. While the original system included a singlepatient block of zirconia mounted in. |
We collaborated with NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) to reduce paper instruction inserts for respirator cartridges. Customers said our respirator packages came with too much paper and felt the required inserts were not adding meaningful clarity. NIOSH listened to the feedback, re-evaluated its requirements, and is authorizing changes to reduce the number of paper inserts. 3M’s first-wave implementation of this change is projected to save 86 tons of paper annually. It is a great example of helping customers meet their Sustainability goals while maintaining performance and health and safety standards. |
plastic “frames” to protect the product during shipping and enable robotic handling of the material, the latest advancement helps dentists and dental labs make the most of their evolving milling technology, providing them with options that reduce the number of steps and materials required to produce crowns and bridges. |
Through careful control of raw materials and a wide range of zirconia processing equipment now available to dental labs, the latest advancement of the product, Lava™ Plus Zirconia, can be reliably shipped in a new multi-patient disc format. This new format allows for multiple restorations to be milled from a single zirconia disc, eliminating the need for the surrounding plastic frame. In addition, there is no need for a porcelain overlay or the steps required to make one. And if a dentist starts with a digital impression, the lab will work with that file, avoiding the need to generate a gypsum-based model otherwise required for lab work. Labs and dentists can go model-free, with less material left behind at the dental lab. |
Photo credit: GreenBiz Group. |
Reducing paper instruction inserts is projected to save 86 tons of paper annually. |
Feature stories Science for Circular 12 13 3M 2020 Sustainability Report #improvinglives |
3M launches hundreds of new products each year, spanning nearly every industry. |
Beginning in 2019, each 3M product entering the new product commercialization process will include a Sustainability Value Commitment that demonstrates how it drives impact for the greater good. |
This new, formal requirement embeds Sustainability into the pipeline that produces 3M’s diverse global products. Historically, about one-third of 3M’s annual sales come from products created in the past five years, so the impact will expand greatly with each successive year. |
Beyond impacting 3M’s own operations, another primary reason for the goal is to help customers achieve their Sustainability goals. This new product goal creates even more opportunities to collaborate with customers on solutions that improve lives around the world. |
Examples of 3M’s Sustainability Value Commitment for new products include reusability, recyclability, energy savings, waste reduction, water savings, responsible sourcing, and the use of renewable materials appropriate to the specific product, from the beginning to the end of each product’s life cycle. |
Products that incorporate the new 2019 requirement span all 3M business groups. |
A few examples include: • The Post-it® Flex Write Surface is a whiteboard surface that can be written on with permanent markers. To remove the marker, just spray it with water and wipe it off. Regular dry erase markers also work on this surface and can simply be erased. Post-it Flex Write Surfaces can be used to refurbish poorly performing dry erase boards and chalkboards, which reduces landfill additions. The adhesive on the product contains at least 60% plant-based material. The lightweight rolls weigh 9% of what a leading whiteboard of the same size weighs, which reduces the transportation footprint and decreases customer shipping costs. The liner, core, and box are also recyclable. Permanent markers can be removed from the surface with water instead of solvent. |
Embedding Sustainability into every new product • The 3M™ Molecular Detection System is a rapid molecular method with ready-to-use pre-dispensed reagents, a single protocol for all pathogens, and the ability to test for multiple types of pathogens simultaneously. When used with the 3M™ Molecular Detection Assay 2 — Salmonella, the system is the primary Salmonella testing method of the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service and has been validated and certified by numerous international and regional organizations. |
• 3M™ Natural Pozzolans, an SCM (supplementary cementitious material) used in the making of concrete, has an impactful Sustainability Value Commitment. This product helps reduce CO2 emissions as a 1:1 replacement of cement in concrete, a very large global source of CO2 emissions (from cement’s calcining step). It is estimated that each ton of SCM used to displace cement reduces CO2 emissions by 0.75 tons • 3M™ Envision™ Print Wrap Films are made in part with bio-based materials and are made without PVC, phthalates, or halogens. 3M Envision Print Wrap Film 480mC has earned the prestigious GREENGUARD™ Gold Certification, awarded to products passing strict testing standards for low emissions of volatile organic compounds into indoor environments. |
The 3M Molecular Detection System reduces energy and water use, waste generation, and greenhouse gas emissions relative to traditional Salmonella culture methods because the result is obtained via a streamlined test for a unique Salmonella genetic sequence, without the need for multi-staged cultural and biochemical tests performed individually in Petri dishes and test tubes. This simplified molecular method uses fewer consumable materials and less energy in order to screen out negative samples. |
This commitment can also include products with a core purpose of helping to solve an environmental or social challenge, such as improving air quality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving worker and patient safety in health care and industrial settings. 3M will measure the progress and impact of this commitment and report on it annually. |
“Sustainability has always been at the core of 3M — but we’re looking to do more,” said Chief Technology Officer John Banovetz, when he announced the new product requirement. “We are proud to formalize our commitment to this next step in innovating for a sustainable future.” |
Requiring Sustainability Value Commitments in all new products entering the new product commercialization process builds on 3M’s history of creating products that emphasize reuse, recycling, and reduced resource use for 3M’s operations and for their customers. Those products are wide-ranging, including energy-saving window films, materials that help in lightweighting vehicles, and water and wastereducing cleaning solutions. |
Feature stories Science for Circular 14 15 3M 2020 Sustainability Report #improvinglives |
In November 2019, Minneapolis-based outerwear brand Askov Finlayson, known for its celebration of winter and the hashtag #KeepTheNorthCold, introduced what they are calling the world’s first climate positive winter parka — which they say is made from “radically sustainable materials created by a climate positive business.” |
The Winter Parka, as it is aptly named, is the first product to feature the new 3M™ Thinsulate™ 100% Recycled Featherless Insulation, which became available in September 2019. The featherless insulation is made from recycled plastic bottles — and is an example of 3M’s commitment to using science to advance the circular economy, part of which involves designing solutions that keep products in use instead of creating waste. |
“All the fibers are post-consumer 100% recycled polyester with high performance,” explains 3M’s Lead Specialist Application Engineer Ken Cox. “It’s the kind alternative to natural down.” |
When Askov Finlayson decided to create a climate positive parka, the look and design were critical. “We had the environmental/Sustainability focus on it from the get-go, but part of being sustainable is having a design that you will want to wear year after year, and made in a way that’s going to last year after year,” says Askov Finlayson Marketing Director Laura Smith. |
Connecting all the elements — design, performance, and Sustainability — became their focus. As they began looking at insulation, the options were either down or a synthetic product. They were interested in synthetic insulation because of its performance benefits and leading Sustainability innovation. |
“Spending time with polar explorer Will Steger and looking at his old outerwear gave us inspiration,” says Devin O’Brien, Askov Finlayson’s Vice President of Marketing. |
“Every parka of his had a 3M Thinsulate patch on it. 3M was a partner of his, and we thought, ‘3M has really invested in this — maybe they can do it with us.’” |
The Askov Finlayson team set up an informational meeting with 3M, during which they learned about the 3M Thinsulate 100% Recycled Featherless Insulation. It was an exciting option, but would it perform up to Askov’s requirements? They began testing it, and according to Smith, “it kept passing every test we could put in front of it.” |
When washed, many other insulation options tend to ball up and clump together — but 3M’s didn’t, even after 10 washes. Because of this, Askov was able to design the structure of the jacket so the finished product feels like down — a huge win from a design standpoint. |
“Our entire design team, with decades of collective technical apparel experience, has never seen a synthetic product that feels as close to down as the 3M Thinsulate 100% Recycled Featherless,” says O’Brien. |
Parka partnership makes history by introducing 3M Thinsulate 100% Recycled Featherless Insulation “We sampled our parka in down and synthetic fibers from a few sources, and we had a hard time telling the 3M product apart from natural down.” |
The new featherless insulation had not yet been released to the market, but since the quantity the Askov team needed was small in the scheme of 3M production, they were able to get the product ahead of time. They launched in November 2019 with 3,000 parkas, each using about 17 recycled plastic bottles worth of insulation,* with a plan to expand production for next season. According to Askov Finlayson founder Eric Dayton, “The fact that this partnership came together, and the technology was already being developed here, is something that is hugely valuable to us. I love that it’s a local partnership between two companies in Minnesota,” he says. |
Getting from 75% to 100% recycled. |
The new 3M Thinsulate 100% Recycled Featherless Insulation is 3M’s latest step in creating filling that uses recycled content. Two years ago, 3M launched a 75% recycled product using a two-fiber blend. “Marmot was one of the earliest adopters of the 75% recycled product and one of the stronger voices wanting to move in that direction,” says Cox. Marmot and other outerwear companies are evaluating the new 100% recycled product for their 2020/2021 product lines. |
“It was a little bit of a hurdle to get to 100% and the high performance we wanted,” says Cox, who worked with a broad team in both China and the United States to bring the featherless insulation to market. |
“But our understanding of recycled fibers and how we would use them and blend them into our products has improved. We had the internal tools. It’s the onward march of science.” 3M Thinsulate 100% Recycled Featherless Insulation has received the OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 Class I Certificate, is bluesign® approved and is certified to the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) by Control Union Certifications, which verifies recycled material and tracks it from the source to the final product. |
Each parka uses recycled plastic bottles worth of insulation.* ~17 * Calculation is based on a 20-gram plastic bottle and the average 3M Thinsulate 100% Recycled Featherless Insulation usage for The Winter Parka from Askov Finlayson (Male and Female fit, size S to XL). |
Feature stories Science for Circular 16 17 3M 2020 Sustainability Report #improvinglives |