BY STEPHANIE POON

“There is only one way to conduct business and that is the right way.” That statement by George Buckley, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, sums up 3M’s overall corporate philosophy. 

With operations in more than 60 countries and global sales of US$25 billion, 3M, a science-based company established a century ago, is keen to communicate the company’s role in sustainable development. From health care and highway safety to office products and abrasives and adhesives, 3M manufactures and markets more than 60,000 products worldwide. More than half of these products are sold in Taiwan. The company prides itself on actively contributing to sustainable development through environmental protection, social responsibility, and economic progress.

3M’s sustainability policies are carried out based on guidelines stressing such primary values as corporate governance and environmental awareness. Topping the list of such values is honesty and integrity, as 3M strives to uphold its worldwide reputation as an ethical and law-abiding company. The second principal is to offer innovative technology and superior quality, value, and service to customers. Also part of the corporate ethos is to look out for stakeholders’ interests by bringing positive returns through sustainable growth, respecting the social and physical environments, and developing employees’ talents, initiative, and leadership.

In 2008, 3M launched a project to develop three strategic principles for achieving sustainability, including the pursuit of customer satisfaction and commercial success within a framework of environmental, social, and economic values. The assignment was given to an internal strategic-planning team that included representatives from such departments as environmental operations, corporate communications, strategic planning, and various 3M business units. The team used feedback from 3M’s external stakeholders – including customers, non-governmental organizations, governments, investors, and others – to draft a set of proposed principles. That was followed by 50 feedback sessions with 3M employees across the globe over three months to get their input before the final principles were reviewed and endorsed by 3M’s corporate operating committee consisting of the executive officers.

To implement the program, several sustainability objectives (subject to annual review) were identified for incorporation into 3M management systems such as ISO 14001 and Six Sigma methodology. The foremost goal is to manage and reduce the company’s environmental footprint, so as to address the serious environmental challenges being faced by society. Internally, the company strives to establish a culture that promotes employee pride and well-being. Objectives include maintaining a safe and healthy workplace, providing a supportive and flexible work environment, and supporting educational and other local needs in communities where 3M employees live and work.

3M's Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Management System imposes a stringent set of guidelines governing product manufacturing and operations processes, and promoting environmental, health, and safety management at the company’s facilities around the world. The EHS Management System requires each business unit to identify pertinent EHS issues, develop formal prioritized action plans, set goals, and measure results. Since 2001, for example, all 3M business have been required to perform a Life Cycle Management (LCM) review of all new and existing products on a prioritized basis. The LCM Program examines the environmental impact and safety of 3M products throughout their entire life cycle, from manufacturing through customer use and disposal. With hundreds of new products launched each year, LCM is an integral part of 3M's new product introduction process worldwide.

Next-generation environmental solutions are also devised through 3M’s new Community of Practice known as “Solutions for a Better Environment,” in which 3M’s R&D, technical, and marketing staff collaborate to develop and commercialize new products that bring environmental advantages starting from the manufacturing stage. One of the Corporate Research Laboratory’s initiatives, for instance, is to promote the utilization of renewable materials to replace petroleum-based polymers and monomers in 3M films, fibers, adhesives, molded products, and elsewhere. The program aims to reduce the environmental footprint of 3M’s products and create a more cost-effective source of supply as oil becomes scarcer and prices fluctuate.

Through its Package Engineering program, in addition, 3M seeks to gain environmental and cost benefits in terms of product packaging through such approaches as redesign, reduction of materials, reuse, recyclability, increased recycled content, and improved space utilization for storage and transport. Other aims are to reduce energy use in the packaging process, cut transport costs and emissions, and lessen the space needed for storage or disposal.

The company has made several product catalogs illustrating its environmental solutions. The “Environmental Solutions for Buildings” catalog, for example, showcases products for the building management and construction markets. Using the products in the catalog can contribute towards receiving certification under one or more of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating Systems. The “Environmental Solutions to Address Climate Change” catalog lists 3M products that may help reduce energy use, decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and extend battery life.

The 3M effort to reduce the environmental impact of its products and processes dates as far back as the late 1960s. In 1975, the Board of Directors adopted a formal 3M Environmental Policy, stating 3M’s environmental commitment with special emphasis on preventing pollution. The voluntary Pollution Prevention Pays (3P) program, introduced the same year, seeks to prevent pollution at the source – within products and from manufacturing processes – rather than removing it after it has been created. Over the last 34 years, the program is estimated to have prevented the creation of more than 2.9 billion pounds of pollutants and saved nearly US$1.2 billion in clean-up efforts.

In 2005, 3M established a new set of five-year corporate environmental goals. By the end of next year, 3M aims to have reduced volatile air emissions from its facilities by 25%, improved energy efficiency by 20%, reduced waste by 20%, and completed 800 3P projects. In 2002, the company also set a goal of reducing its worldwide GHG emissions by 50% (from a 1990 base year). 3M achieved this goal in 2006 and continues to drive additional reductions. By 2008, 3M had reduced global GHG emissions by 69% from 1990. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were also reduced by 95% compared with 1990.

Through advances solventless technology, 3M has decreased the need for emission controls and associated energy demands. It has also reduced GHG emissions by making greater use of on-site renewable energy.

Another environmental effort has involved water management to reduce water consumption through recycling and improvements in corporate buildings and manufacturing processes. 3M wastewater, in addition, is heavily treated to reduce its environmental impact. Waste minimization is one of 3M’s key strategies for reducing environmental releases, and in 2008 it had achieved a 45% reduction in waste from a 2000 base year. The company has also been working to preserve biodiversity, both on its own property and by supporting such organizations as The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International. Over the past few years, the 3M Foundation has donated over US$10 million to The Nature Conservancy to help preserve habitats in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and China.

In Taiwan, 3M has been implementing the company’s innovative development, technology, and quality control programs ever since 3M Taiwan was established in 1969. A Quality College was created in 1984 to educate 3M Taiwan staff about high quality products and related technology. When the first phase of the Yangmei factory was completed in 1992, 3M also began engaging in corporate social responsibility activities in the area, such as the donation of reflective uniforms to environmental protection and street-cleaning volunteers. Automatic soap dispensers are also donated regularly to public facilities and local elementary schools to promote sanitation, and the company participates in local campaigns to promote nature conservation and the greening of the environment.

Over the years, 3M Taiwan has engaged in several ad hoc charitable activities, donating 3M products or organizing fundraising events. After the 921 earthquake in 1999, the company raised more than NT$5 million in cash and donated bandages and other medical supplies to help the victims. The following year, it donated air filters to Shin Kong Wu Ho Su Memorial Hospital for World Asthma Day. In 2002, it presented NT$2.5 million worth of products to the Taipei City Government to aid the underprivileged. During the SARS epidemic, it gave 150,000 N95 masks to the central government and another 50,000 to the Taipei City Government, and in 2008 it distributed water-saving valves worth more than NT$1 million to kindergartens and day-care centers to help fight against enterovirus. 3M also frequently teams up with organizations such as the Red Cross, Ministry of Education, and various foundations to organize charity or advocacy events.

As 3M enters its fourth decade in Taiwan this year, a customer appreciation day was held on July 31 to celebrate the company’s 40th anniversary. More information is available at www.3m.com.tw