Company Profile: 3M
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With a long history of innovative manufacturing and exciting products, 3M has recently put some of their expertise toward eco friendly products designed to help them and their customer reduce their carbon footprint.
The most commendable aspect of 3Ms environmental policy is their free sharing of information and results regarding their carbon footprint. It is surprisingly easy to find their exact levels of carbon emissions on their website, both in the US and worldwide, all of which have been verified by an independent third party. As well, their reporting breaks down in much further detail different metrics about energy consumption and waste in their operations.
The company has set themselves some lofty goals for reductions in their carbon emissions in an effort to cut their carbon footprint. For their worldwide operations, they target a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from their 1990 levels. For their US operations, the goal is a 30% drop from 2002 levels by 2007. This latter goal is done in partnership with the EPA Climate Leaders Program.
And as their site if full of measurements on the emissions, it is not hard to see how they are faring on these goals, both of which have already been achieved with a reduction in carbon emissions worldwide of 54% and in the US of 50% from their respective base years. An impressive reduction in their carbon footprint. However, many of the metrics they share on their site are ‘indexed to net sales’, showing the amount of energy use for every dollar of sales the company has. This allows them to improve this measurement while still increasing their overall energy use. It would be far better to see the company stick to overall numbers and commit to reducing overall energy use, regardless of how much they sell.
3M focuses these improvements in three main areas: manufacturing process improvements, energy conservation, and additional pollution control equipment. On the energy efficiency front, 3M has seen an improvement of 78% from 1978 to 2007. In 2005 the company set new targets of a 20% improvement in energy efficiency and a 20% reduction in waste.
3M has also been active in using renewable energy sources to power their operations, making use of the most appropriate local projects. A plant in Wisconsin is expected to get 11% of their energy needs from livestock-derived methane. A plant in Canada recently installed a 2000 square foot solar panel. In Austin, Texas, a manufacturing plant gets 13% of their energy needs from local wind farms. It is certainly commendable to use renewable energy sources and to support local technology, but the total figures in each of these examples are far from mind-boggling.
For these efforts, 3M received the energy Star Award for Sustained Excellence in Management earlier this year.
3M’s efforts to cut their carbon footprint does not end with their operations. For their customers, they launched the Environmental Solutions Catalog in 2007 that highlight products that help reduce carbon emissions. The catalog contains products as varied as home cleaning soaps to graphics films, and of course their famous Post-It notes. The full catalog goes into great detail on each of the products and their environmental benefits. While we support educating customers on ways they can reduce their carbon footprint, the catalog is shockingly short for a company that manufactures thousands of different products.
So how do they stack up?
Business Strategy: 3.5/5 – while their catalog of products that help reduce your carbon footprint is a good start, it is still far too small compared to their total product selection. They have shown an interest in renewable energy, but it is still only a small fraction of total energy used.
Products & Services: 3/5 – a valiant effort to emphasize their environmentally friendly products, they just need to make more products that fit into this category.
Leading by Example: 4.5/5 – their open sharing of their environmental impact is far better than most companies and shows a true commitment to further reductions to their carbon footprint and their carbon emissions
Overall: 3.7/5
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