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The first priority has been to protect 3M’s 96.1K employees, many of whom are essential workers.
Reusable face masks.
The 3M™ Daily Face Mask launched during the global pandemic in 2020. Consumer research drove many of the reusable mask’s design features, including its color. The three-panel design conforms to the face, making it more comfortable while keeping it in place. “We wanted to offer consumers a mask that was both breathable and reusable,” says 3M Global Business Leader Scott Fairbairn. The main packaging contains 30% post-industrial recycled content, and the shipper also contains recycled content.
3M also launched a consumer-facing hand sanitizer, with recyclable empty bottles and shipper boxes, to help in the public fight against the spread of COVID-19. The hand sanitizer is now available in nine countries across four areas: United States/Canada, Europe/ Middle East/Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Reusable respirators.
In early 2021, 3M introduced an exhalation valve filter with a 99% BFE (Bacterial Filtration Efficiency) for the 3M™ 6000 Series Half Facepiece reusable respirator, giving health care workers a reusable alternative to the disposable N95 respirator.
“It’s great that 3M is bringing our technologies to bear in so many unique ways as we work to tackle the pandemic.
We are staying focused on our customers, using our innovation and operations to help them work through the challenges they face.”
John Banovetz Chief Technology Officer.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 10 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
for unprecedented collaboration.
During January and February 2020, Rodney Hehenberger, global R&D leader for respiratory protection at 3M, was part of a team focused on getting the right respirators to the right places around the world as COVID-19 was spreading.
In March, when the World Health Organization declared it was a global pandemic, he began receiving calls from companies wanting to help 3M as it worked to meet the surging demand for its respirators.
In a matter of days, 3M created the External Collaboration Resource Team (ECRT) to vet offers from what eventually totaled more than 1,100 external contacts wanting to help. “It took a great deal of internal collaboration to respond to them,” Hehenberger says. “This was a social imperative. We were moving a hundred miles an hour in about a thousand directions, but we had an unequivocal priority: to deliver qualified respirators to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.”
Collaborations included one with engine manufacturer Cummins and another with Ford Motor Company. Both were instrumental in increasing production of PAPRs (powered air purifying respirators). PAPRs use a battery-powered blower to send filtered air into a hood that covers the face. This can help provide increased levels of respiratory protection for aerosol-generating procedures for front-line health care workers.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 11 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
Cummins and 3M collaborate on filters.
Cummins was one of the companies that reached out to 3M, offering help. “I didn’t know much about Cummins, so I was looking them up online and their auto filters kept popping up,” Hehenberger says. He remembers thinking that their auto filter looked a lot like a 3M PAPR filter. “I thought, ‘if they can adapt their auto filter, it could give us the ability to manufacture more PAPRs.’ It was serendipitous because it had nothing to do with what they originally called us for,” he says.
On a Friday evening, he contacted the Cummins team to discuss filters. Overnight, a 3M engineer sent Cummins the product drawings, and the next morning the Cummins R&D team said, “Yes, we can build this,” and requested some 3M parts.
By Sunday afternoon, Cummins had the parts, both companies had their teams in place, and they started the project. “Forty-eight hours earlier, we didn’t even know each other’s names,” Hehenberger says.
Guided by 3M’s design, employees in Cummins’ facility in Neillsville, Wisconsin, modified existing equipment normally used to produce diesel engine filters to make the high-efficiency particulate filters used in PAPRs.
The relationship increased the current production of the filters severalfold, which was needed as 3M ramped up PAPR production to meet the huge increase in demand.
Ford builds new PAPRs with 3M’s help.
In late March, 3M announced a separate collaboration with Ford Motor Company regarding the production of PAPRs. With 3M’s design guidance, Ford began production of the Ford Limited-Use Public Health Emergency PAPR made from off-the-shelf parts like seat fans for F-150 trucks and power tool batteries. The PAPRs were rapidly designed in close collaboration with 3M and prototyped and approved in less than 40 days.
By May, more than 10,000 of the newly designed PAPRs shipped from Ford’s facility in Michigan to select 3M-authorized U.S. distributors, who delivered the respirators to health care facilities for their workers.
In addition to collaborating with 3M to build their own PAPR, Ford sent dozens of engineers to 3M manufacturing facilities throughout the United States to share their expertise, which helped increase the production of 3M’s PAPRs and N95 respirators.
“The value they brought with their engineering bandwidth was impactful,” says Hehenberger.
Other collaborations create innovative solutions 3M continues to work in innovative ways with many other companies to help in the fight against COVID-19, including partnering with Nissha Medical Technologies to develop a face shield with anti-fog capabilities to improve the visibility and comfort of health care providers during prolonged clinical wear.
For more information, see how 3M is helping the world respond to COVID-19.
The PAPRs were designed, prototyped, and approved in less than 40 days.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 12 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
helps reduce electronic waste stream.
What does a doctor do when her 3M™ Littmann® Stethoscope needs repair? What does a hospital do when its patient warming device needs a new part?
Keeping 300,000 electronic devices in working order each year, instead of in landfills, is the mission of 3M’s Health Care Service Group (HCSG). The HCSG provides service and support for more than 50 different 3M health care products in the areas of Medical Solutions, Food Safety, Oral Care Solutions, and Negative Pressure Wound Therapy.
With repair locations in 18 countries around the globe and connections with over 80 authorized service providers, “the work of the HCSG has become a pivotal intersection for 3M’s Science for Circular pillar,” says Lisa Schmit, service manager for 3M’s Health Care Business Group.
How does the HCSG intersect with the circular economy?
The work of the HCSG supports the second guiding principle of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation: Keep products and materials in use. In 2019, 3M joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the world’s leading circular economy network.
Joining the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is part of 3M’s strategic focus on Science for Circular and builds on the ambition to design solutions that do more with less material while advancing a global circular economy.
When a customer needs service on a device, they send it to the HCSG, where it is repaired.
Then, it is tested and calibrated prior to being returned to the customer. “We are reducing the electronic waste stream and extending the life of that product — so instead of the customer throwing their device away, we’re participating in the circular economy by keeping that device up and running for our customers,” explains Schmit.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 13 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
Solution-focused teams.
The Health Care Service Group does more than repair devices. The group consists of four teams with distinct roles.
Operations: The Oakdale, Minnesota, site is the HCSG Center of Excellence (COE) and the source of supplies for all service parts globally for Medical Solutions, Oral Care Solutions, and Food Safety. The COE sends out approximately 100,000 parts each year and also trains 3M global service centers and provides them with onboarding for servicing newly launched products. The COE also leads communication on upgrades, defects, and recall execution on all hardware and software. The San Antonio, Texas, site is the COE for Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) devices and sends out approximately 2.5 million NPWT service parts globally each year.
Technical Support: This team handles phone-based technical support and troubleshooting.
Bench Repair: Located throughout the globe, these teams manually repair the devices and aim for a turnaround time of 48 hours once they receive the product needing repair. This effort has grown 50% in the last five years for NPWT alone, reducing electronic waste.
Service Engineering: As a part of the New Product Introduction (NPI) process, service engineers make sure new hard goods products are designed with serviceability in mind, driving toward solutions that provide long-term service and support of the device. For example, the product design and servicing processes for the new 3M™ Littmann® CORE Digital Stethoscope were developed to include efficient, reliable servicing via the customer self-service Littmann Warranty and Service website.
Recycling packaging.
Sometimes reevaluating the packaging of a device can help drive sustainability and circularity. A great example is 3M’s patient warming system. The Bair Hugger™ helps maintain patients’ normal body temperature by gently dispersing warm air through a disposable blanket or hospital gown.
When a Bair Hugger unit is shipped to a customer, it is packaged using two-part injectable foam molding. Looking for a more sustainable solution, the HCSG updated the packaging used to send the repaired product from the service center back to the customer. They now use an all-corrugated cardboard packaging solution instead of the two-part injectable foam. It was a huge win for them — not only does it take up less space, but it is also recyclable.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 14 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
embedding sustainability into new products.
Sustainability is a core commitment of 3M, and we always want it to be top of mind in our operations and our products.
To make it a focus from the outset, in 2019 3M made it a requirement that every product entering our new product commercialization process must include a Sustainability Value Commitment (SVC). This formal requirement is designed to embed sustainability into the pipeline of every new product 3M launches each year. As a part of the process, every new product must show how it will drive impact for the greater good — for example, by demonstrating reusability or recyclability appropriate to the specific product throughout its life cycle.
2019 was a learning year, as teams began determining how to incorporate the SVC requirement into their new product plans. By the end of 2019, all active projects initiated in 2019 included an SVC. In 2020, the initiative evolved in several ways. “We made big strides,” says 3M Sustainability Manager Kristell Miller. 3M strengthened the SVC requirement in 2020 in three main ways: • We strengthened the questions asked during the new product approval process. New products must pass through three separate reviews: business case acceptance, development, and scale-up. Products must have an SVC that passes each review in order to move forward.
• We shared the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with teams and had them choose SDG(s) to which the new product could contribute.
• We conducted an internal SVC quality audit to analyze the process and content of SVCs.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 15 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
Audit findings and opportunities.
In mid-2020, 3M conducted an internal audit of all active projects being tracked in our new product commercialization process. The goal was to determine if SVCs submitted met baseline quality expectations and contributed to the overall goals and objectives of the SVC initiative.
The audit revealed that, overall, teams are doing a good job incorporating SVCs into new product plans, but it also uncovered some opportunities for improvement: Teams across all four business groups identified meaningful sustainability value commitments related to circular, climate, and community, but they did not always quantify the benefit. “Initially, the SVCs were broad, such as saying a product reduced waste — but now we are working to measure the attributes, which increases the robustness of the initiative,” explains Miller.
3M developed and began offering four separate group training sessions to help teams with the process: Sustainability Value Commitment (SVC) Workshop101, Quantifying Attributes in Science for Circular, Quantifying Attributes in Science for Climate, and Quantifying Attributes in Science for Community. Going forward, the workshop content will continue to be refined and expanded and offered as a rotating series to 3M product development teams.
Here’s how SVCs came to life for three products that launched in 2020:
Scotch® Box Lock™ Packaging Tape sticks instantly to any box, including harder-to-stick-to 100% recycled boxes. Its extreme grip ensures boxes stay securely sealed, even during rough handling.
SVC: • Made with strong, durable, solventfree hot melt adhesive that seals and protects • Works on all box types, including 100% recycled cardboard boxes • Seals with one strip — you don’t need layers of tape.
Scotch-Brite® Greener Clean NonScratch Scrubbers keep more than just your dishes clean. Inside and out, this durable scrubber is made with 75% post-consumer recycled plastic. The soft foam alternative creates a rich lather, while the recycled plastic netting scrubs away everyday messes.
SVC: • 75% of the product is made with post-consumer recycled plastic, both inside and out • No glue • Dye-free • 100% recycled content and recyclable packaging.
As we continue to strengthen the SVC program, a main focus is exploring how to incorporate social justice and pandemic response into the SVC requirement.
Scotch-Brite® Advanced Scrub Dots Non-Scratch Scrubbers are designed to rinse clean, resist odors, and dry fast. The easy-to-hold hexagonal shape and thick scrubbing pad are designed to work hard and last long.
SVC: • Scrubbing fibers are made with 75% recycled content • Dot-printed web and small foam pores help this product use less water to rinse clean and less soap for more lather than traditional cellulose • Packaging is made from 100% postconsumer recycled cardboard and is recyclable.
Every new product must show how it will drive impact for the greater good.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 16 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
on our Sustainability Framework.
How can a diversified company like 3M determine what our stakeholders expect of us when it comes to sustainability?
We want to better understand the way our external reputation and leadership opportunities relate to our sustainability efforts.
One way we do this is through a materiality assessment — a comprehensive review that helps 3M identify priority issues and actions and helps evolve and enhance our company’s sustainability strategy.
To gather this critical information, 3M commissioned in-depth reports through an independent research consultancy called GlobeScan in 2014, 2016, 2018, and again in 2020.
“The materiality analysis is the bedrock of strategic planning,” says GlobeScan Director Eric Whan. “We need a future where business can thrive and where society can thrive also. They go hand in hand. You can’t have a successful business in a failed world.”
How the study was structured.
The 2020 study explored people’s perceptions of 3M’s sustainability strategy and its three pillars: Science for Climate, Science for Community, and Science for Circular.
The initial portion of the study was a survey that included customers, suppliers, and external stakeholders (NGOs, corporate/private sector, academics, government, media, finance, etc.) and was representative of 3M’s four business groups and all regions of operations.
In the survey, these stakeholders were given prompts about more than two dozen specific topics.
Issues and opportunities identified in the materiality survey were further explored through qualitative in-depth interviews with a diverse group of stakeholders in order to add context, nuance, and strategic insights to the initial study findings.
One of the objectives of these interviews was to understand perceptions and expectations of 3M, both in the current, evolving context of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as from a long-term perspective.
3M’s key stakeholders included internal as well as external audiences, so it was important to capture and understand the perceptions of both groups. A separate survey of 3M’s employees was also analyzed and incorporated into the research findings.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 17 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives