Goals & Progress
Setting goals to drive Sustainability progress is nothing new at 3M. We have been setting global environmental goals since 1990. A strong part of our company history, these goals have helped dramatically reduce our own environmental footprint and established us as a leader in environmental stewardship.
Moving forward, we are proud to expand beyond our own operations by focusing more on supporting the Sustainability goals and needs of our customers and our communities. While we recognize the importance of what we do in our own operations, and will continue to improve accordingly, we see that far greater impact can be realized when we partner to understand and overcome the challenges we face in partnership with others.
We approach our Sustainability goals and strategy by:
- delivering excellence in operations and across our supply chain;
- innovating to improve lives with our customers and partners; and,
- enriching our communities where we live and work.
When we think about our customers, partners, and communities, and our mutual challenges and needs, we see a shared opportunity. In addition to environmental challenges, we recognize the connectedness of social challenges we face in pursuing a better world. Our ambition, working collaboratively, is to realize a world where every life is improved – where natural resources are reliably available, people everywhere have access to education and opportunity, and communities are safe, healthy, connected and thriving.
We have framed our goals and plans for the next 10 years around shared global challenges, toward realizing that world in the future. Recognizing the interconnections and overlap of the commitments we’re making and their impact on multiple challenges, we have organized our efforts by the primary challenge each goal is working to overcome. Unless otherwise noted, all goals are global, have a 2015 baseline, and a 2025 end date.
We invite you to learn more and to join us on this journey toward improving every life.
Recent Accomplishments
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With industries ranging from healthcare to electronics to automotive, we invent technologies that make daily life easier, safer and more fulfilling. Some of the recent ways in which we’ve applied our ideas and innovation for a more sustainable future include the following:
- In 2014 we earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® award for our worldwide energy-conservation efforts. This was the 10th consecutive year 3M received the honor, an industry first. We were also once again listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index – a credit we’ve had since its inception in 1999.
- We have developed and launched an increasing number of sustainability-focused products, including energy-efficient films for tablets, Post-it® Greener Notes, air-barrier building solutions, Envision® graphics films, 360 Encompass™ health information system, and an energy-saving, award-winning LED technology.
- The continued success of our Pollution Prevention Pays program, which has prevented nearly 2 million tons of air, water and waste pollution, and the reduction of our global greenhouse gas emissions by 57 percent from 2002 to 2013 on an absolute basis (even as the company sales grew 30 percent over the same period of time).
- Ongoing support to protect and restore vital ecosystems around the world. By working with partners such as The Nature Conservancy, the 3M Foundation has provided more than $21 million to preserve more than 1 million acres.
- More than $61.6 million in global cash and in-kind product donations in 2013. View more 3M Community Involvement.
- In early 2014, we joined the United Nations Global Compact. While 3M has always acted in accordance with the core values represented by the Compact, we are proud to formalize our commitment to its 10 principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environmental and anti-corruption and to grow our partnership with the organization.