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Brazil.
Puerto Rico.
Key.
Pakistan.
Technical Capabilit Manufacturing & Co Sales & Marketing O.
Honduras.
Chile.
Bolivia.
Paraguay.
Dominican Republic.
Sweden.
Austria.
Lithuania Latvia Estonia.
Czechnia Hungary.
Slovakia.
Romania.
Poland.
Thailand.
Sales in 200 countries/regions Manufacturing & converting in 33 countries/regions Laboratory & application engineering in 51 countries/regions Sales and marketing operations in 69 countries/regions *3M Gulf consists of U Qatar, Lebanon, Egyp Oman, Kuwait, and B.
The impact of 3M’s new product requirement is global in scale. Beyond 3M’s own operations, a primary reason for the goal is to help customers achieve their own sustainability goals. This new product goal creates even more opportunities to collaborate with customers on solutions that help improve lives around the world.
Our robust New Product Introduction (NPI) process is used for developing products from idea to launch and incorporates our SVC in each phase of our process. To learn how SVCs evolved in 2020, see our feature story, Making strides embedding sustainability into new products.
Global capabilities.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 188 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
Unique and differentiated value.
The power of 3M is in the way we connect our fundamental strengths to customers. Those strengths are technology, manufacturing, global capabilities, and brand. They define us as an enterprise and combine to build a business greater than the sum of its parts. The power of 3M arises from our deep understanding of what differentiates us in our performance across every business in our enterprise. It truly reflects how we’re linked together in our portfolio, even though we operate in multiple markets. It’s about our technology but not just stand-alone science: It is technology supported by deep intellectual property, combined with multiple other technologies that enable us to do unique things with and for our customers.
3M is also about our manufacturing capabilities. We’re differentiated and have a competitive advantage through in-house 3M manufacturing site ownership that also uses 3M intellectual property. One-fourth of our intellectual property sits in manufacturing, much of it in trade secrets, enabling us to deliver higher-quality, better-performing, and more competitive products to the marketplace.
True global capabilities require more than just presence in markets around the world. They require the skills of our global organization to execute our business models and enable us to enter those markets successfully — to take our fundamental strengths and applications almost anywhere in the world. We have sales in nearly all countries, with more than half of our workforce and sales professionals working outside the United States. By employing integration and collaboration across our businesses, geographies, and scientific disciplines, we effectively and efficiently bring new ideas and products from the lab to the factory to customers’ homes and businesses everywhere.
Finally, it’s our brand — 3M Science. Applied to Life.™ — that adds value to every one of our businesses.
Leveraging these fundamental strengths — technology, manufacturing, global capabilities, and brand — is what truly creates the value of 3M.
Leveraging team collaboration 3M transforms diverse ideas and creativity into innovative technologies, business assets, and product platforms.
One of the many things that makes 3M unique is our commitment to collaboration. We collaborate with each other across businesses, across technologies, and across oceans and continents.
Case in point: 3M Tech Forum, a self-directed and self-organized catalyst for the 10,000-plus people in 3M’s technical community. Begun 70 years ago, Tech Forum gives 3M researchers the opportunity to compare notes with global colleagues, collaborate around the company’s 51 Technology Platforms, and develop new ideas that fuel the 3M innovation pipeline. The collaboration takes place at an annual global event, spring symposium, recognition programs, and many chapter events held throughout the year. Global Product Stewardship, Green Chemistry, and Climate are a few of the chapters within Tech Forum. In 2020, Tech Forum showcased over 800 events, including topics such as 3M Sustainability Conference, Sustainability in Healthcare, 2020 Green Innovators Mini-Symposium, Climate Action Simulation, and 100% Bio-derived Materials Designed for a Circular Economy.
Almost every technical employee at 3M has a story about how they leveraged the 3M Tech Forum network to solve a problem or create a new solution. “It’s like a candy store of technologies at 3M,” said Gustavo Castro, a staff scientist in the 3M Corporate Research Systems Lab, on what it’s like to be a member of Tech Forum.
One notable volunteer Tech Forum project resulted in inventing a better way to track polar bears. Wild polar bears are testing prototypes created by 3M scientists through the Polar Bears International (PBI) challenge. The pilot tags are non-permanent and combine currently available satellite transmitters with innovative ways to attach them.
To learn more about the project, see Bear Necessity: Polar Bears Test New Tracking Tech Invented in Polar Bears International/3M Tech Partnership.
Almost every technical employee at 3M has a story about how they leveraged the 3M Tech Forum network to solve a problem or create a new solution.
Fundamental strengths.
Unique and differentiated values.
Technology Manufacturing.
Global Capabilities Brand.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 189 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
A Nobel partnership 3M has continued our collaboration with Nobel Prize Outreach to bring light to important global issues, like the future of scientific education and sustainability. The partnership gives us the opportunity to jointly focus on educating, inspiring, and engaging a broader audience on big issues that impact people’s lives around the world.
3M is an international partner of Nobel Media, and the two entities have collaborated since 2016 to hold global, inspirational events that have brought Nobel laureates to all corners of the world, including Delhi, Tokyo, Seoul, and Madrid. Each event addresses a global topic; past events have focused on teaching and learning, the future of health in our society, and climate issues. 3M is committed to strengthening and enriching the dialogue between our scientific community and the general public, and our collaboration with Nobel Media helps us to do so.
For more information about and examples of our collaboration with Nobel Media, see 3M partners with Nobel Media for global event focused on health and wellbeing, 3M and Nobel Media Bring Prestigious Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative to Minnesota, and 3M Supports “Nobel Prize Series” Event in India to Discuss “Teaching and Learning.”
A process built for innovation.
New-to-the-world processes are primarily developed in 3M’s Corporate R&D Process Laboratory, and the development of these new processes is captured in our New Technology Introduction (NTI) framework: • Explore: Identify the market opportunity • Qualify: Identify superior product concepts to meet customer needs • Deploy: Develop the technical solution.
Meanwhile, our New Product Introduction (NPI) process provides the robust framework for developing products from idea to launch.
Together, 3M’s NTI and NPI processes provide a common framework for technology and product commercialization for all global businesses. Deliverables are required at every phase of these processes. For NPI, this includes the Sustainability Value Commitment. Having consistent practices throughout the company for technology and product creation assists in risk analysis by providing a common language from which to share tools and best practices and manage project portfolios.
Product innovation that takes the long view 3M works to produce products with environmental performance across the entire product life cycle. We also work with our suppliers and business partners so that their operations support these same objectives. These combined efforts help define, protect, and assure the long-term success of our company.
Life cycle management (LCM) is 3M’s approach to assuring that product environmental, health, safety, and associated regulatory considerations are integrated into the development and commercialization of 3M products through 3M’s NPI process.
During NPI, our business teams provide LCM deliverables. These include, at a minimum, raw material composition; assessments in human health and environmental toxicology, electrical and mechanical safety, and other disciplines, as appropriate; conformance to regulatory and customer EHS requirements; and hazard communication documents.
Likewise, we evaluate LCM impacts from product modifications through our corporate product management of change process. We leverage these LCM processes to continuously improve the EHS performance of our products.
Life Cycle Management.
Unique and differentiated values.
Raw Materials Acquisition.
Distribution & Transportation Disposal/ Recycling.
Manufacturing & Production.
Research & Development.
Product Use & Reuse.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 190 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
Best-in-class product stewardship framework.
Responsibility for product stewardship at 3M is shared across a broad spectrum of functions positioned within businesses, areas, and corporate staff groups. Together, individuals across this spectrum work to support 3M’s core value of respect for our social and physical environment.
In 2020, 3M’s Environmental, Health, and Safety organization combined with 3M’s Product Stewardship organization to become the 3M EHS and Product Stewardship (EHS&PS) organization, aligning protection of our employees, our communities, and our customers.
Within 3M EHS and Product Stewardship, we have over 400 product stewards, embedded within 3M businesses and countries of operation, who act as champions of product EHS, regulatory compliance, and sustainability. They help assure our products meet or exceed requirements stemming from 3M policies, governmental regulations, and our customers.
Our framework for product stewardship provides structure and consistency for overseeing daily activities in a proactive, not reactive, mode. For example, we have a self-auditing program to identify leading indicators. 3M has also been on the leading edge of product stewardship audits, beginning with self-assessments in international regions in 2007 and incorporating global audits in 2014. These audits evaluate, among other elements, product hazard and risk assessment, chemical control, life cycle management, and consumer product safety. The goal of these audits is to assure that businesses are meeting corporate standards and to share best practices globally. Our audit program is agile, and we have conducted deep dives into specialty topics as requested by our businesses that are seeking to improve their operations or meet evolving external standards, including audits for life cycle assessment and human subject research.
Starting in 2020, 3M has been building out our EHS and chemicals management audit program to best-in-class capability with the addition of: • Adding new features to allow sites to audit their own programs, involving 3M experts from outside a site’s auditing program, and having external, non-3M specialists visit and audit 3M sites • Expanding coverage for compliance and management systems • Increasing physical monitoring of site emissions • Utilizing periodic, formalized evaluations of our underlying processes to determine and communicate EHS requirements to operations 3M values the continued professional development of its product stewardship professionals. In addition to supporting attendance at a wide variety of external classes and conferences, we offer an internal education program covering regulatory updates, policies and standards, toxicology, systems and business processes, and orientation to product responsibility. In 2020, we expanded our longstanding U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) internal education program to offer a formal TSCA certification program, certifying 39 employees.
In 2020, the EHS&PS Department offered 34 live programs and added 130 on-demand sessions to the educational catalog for the product stewardship network, covering over 8.80K training instances.
The department also quickly pivoted to online meetings, including a virtual Product Stewardship and Sustainability poster session for 3M’s Tech Forum audiences.
The corporation sponsors a 775-page website containing over 1,350 reference documents dedicated to product stewardship and global regulatory requirements. We also publish a monthly global newsletter to keep the network informed of recent and upcoming regulatory and program changes.
We employ a staff of AIHA Safety Data Sheet (SDS) registered professionals who have demonstrated competency in the skills and knowledge needed to properly prepare or review Safety Data Sheets and labels to meet Global Harmonization System requirements.
3M commits to professional development, education, and training by covering fees for professional certification exams, recertification dues, external conferences, and other professional development opportunities for employees.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 191 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
Supporting our customers and innovation teams with life cycle assessments (LCA)
In addition to the LCM program, which applies to all 3M products, we also conduct LCAs for select 3M products. At 3M, our ISO 14040-compliant LCAs are typically cradle-to-gate since our products often have use and disposal life cycle stages that are dependent on how our customers use these products. This often provides a unique opportunity to collaborate with and help our customers understand and reduce their environmental impact.
We also complete ISO 14040-compliant cradle-to-gate LCAs for several internally produced materials. The evaluation of these intermediates allows us to better understand the potential environmental impacts of key components and processes used in the production of our products. Our LCA teams also conduct LCA screenings to help answer internal questions early in product development.
In 2020, 3M LCA teams in the United States and Europe renewed their process certifications from The International EPD® System to demonstrate that appropriate procedures are in place to produce scientifically sound, technically defensible LCAs and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). The teams will continue to undergo an annual recertification process that evaluates the conformance of the underlying management system with the program rules and ISO standards. This global certification of the LCA process for multiple parts of our organization is thought to be the first of its kind.
We realize that we can make far greater contributions to addressing climate change concerns by helping our customers reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the use of our products. To calculate these customer emission reductions toward our Science for Climate goal, we have established a process based on life cycle thinking and the ISO 14064-2 standard for comparing emissions from the project scenario against a baseline scenario. Additional details of these efforts can be found in the Climate and energy section of this report.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 192 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives
Looking forward.
As the expectations of our customers, employees, investors, and stakeholders continue to increase, we are here to meet them — and grow our business — by investing in purpose-driven innovation and building it into our products, manufacturing processes, and new technologies.
Postponed in 2020, 3M will release its internal global product Change Management Process and application in 2021, consolidating more than 100 systems used today to capture product change history. Our priority is to assure changes are properly evaluated, communicated, and approved prior to implementation.
In 2021, 3M will launch its redesigned LCM system, which will integrate multiple product stewardship systems and processes onto a single platform to achieve greater visibility, consistency, and productivity in managing the extensive product stewardship and sustainability data for our more than 55,000 products.
In 2021, 3M will internally launch a revised Product Stewardship Key Performance Indicator dashboard, providing a greater emphasis on leading performance metrics and outcome-based metrics.
3M will continue building out our EHS and chemicals management audit program and continue rolling out our internal chemical management certification for product stewardship professionals.
As we continue to strengthen the SVC program, we will explore the social justice lens of product development by incorporating it into our Sustainability Value Commitments.
We will continue our strong foundation of innovation with our new internal EHS&PS organization — keeping the safety of our employees, communities, and customers top of mind.
Feature stories Who we are How we work What we create About report 193 3M 2021 Sustainability Report | #improvinglives.
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