3M Announces Formal Requirement at COP24 for All New Products to Include Sustainability Value
December 05 2018 - 2:00AM
Business Wire
Global Company Commits to Build Sustainability into 100 percent
of New Products, Impacting Customers, Operations, Supply Chains
From Post-it® Notes to the connected roads of the future, tens
of thousands of products made by global company 3M are moving
toward becoming even more sustainable. Today, at the United
National Climate Change Conference (COP24), 3M is building on its
legacy of Sustainability leadership and announcing its first formal
requirement that a Sustainability Value Commitment will be included
in all new products introduced beginning in 2019.
“Sustainability is at the core of 3M—but we’re looking to do
more,” said John Banovetz, Chief Technology Officer, 3M. “Today at
COP24 we are proud to formalize our commitment to this next step in
innovating for a sustainable future.”
The impact of 3M’s new product requirement is global in scale:
3M launches approximately 1,000 new products each year, with
roughly one-third of its revenue generated from products released
in the past five years. Beyond 3M’s own operations, a primary
reason for the goal is to help customers achieve their
Sustainability goals. This new product goal creates even more
opportunities to collaborate with customers on solutions that
improve lives around the world.
Examples of 3M’s Sustainability Value Commitment for new
products include reusability, recyclability, energy, waste, water
savings, responsible sourcing, and/or renewable materials
appropriate to the specific product, from the beginning to the end
of each product’s lifecycle. This commitment also includes products
with a core purpose of helping to solve an environmental or social
challenge, such as improving air quality, reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and improving worker and patient safety in healthcare and
industrial settings. 3M will measure progress and impact of this
commitment and report on it annually.
3M invests approximately 6 percent of revenue into research and
development, much of it for creating new products. The new
requirement will take effect in 2019 and will apply to all five of
3M’s business groups: Health Care, Consumer, Electronics &
Energy, Industrial and Safety & Graphics.
“As a large and diverse global science company with customers
spanning many industries and global markets, we have the
opportunity to make an even greater impact in Sustainability,” said
Gayle Schueller, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer,
3M. “We’ve made such significant progress on the 2025
Sustainability goals we set in 2015 that we’re raising the bar. The
new product goal is an example of the aggressive targets we’ll be
setting in coming months as part our strategic focus on empowering
science for Circular, Climate and Community.”
3M has a long-standing commitment to Sustainability from the
Pollution Prevention Pays program that began in 1975 to 3M’s 2025
Sustainability goals that include water, climate, and energy
targets. 3M has long been a recognized leader in Sustainability and
has been listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for 19
consecutive years.
Requiring Sustainability Value Commitments in all new products
builds on 3M’s history of creating products that emphasize reuse,
recycling and reduced resource use for 3M’s operations and for
their customers. Those products range from energy-saving cooling
immersion fluids for data centers and window and solar film, to
lightweighting vehicles and shipping materials for fuel efficiency,
to water and waste-reducing cleaning solutions.
3M leaders will participate in events during the UN Climate
Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice. 3M is holding a
“Business for the Global Good” event on Thursday, December 6 with
Sustainability leaders from the public and private sector.
For more information about 3M’s sustainability commitment,
please visit this website.
About 3MAt 3M, we apply science in collaborative ways to
improve lives daily. With $32 billion in sales, our 91,000
employees connect with customers all around the world. Learn more
about 3M’s creative solutions to the world’s problems at www.3M.com
or on Twitter @3M or @3MNews.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181204005469/en/
Jennifer Ehrlichjehrlich2@mmm.com // 651-592-0132
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