Improving every life is an exciting endeavor and an ambitious one. It’s the right thing to do and core to who we are.
Imagine a world where every life is improved – where natural resources are reliably available, people have access to education and opportunity, and communities are safe, healthy, connected and thriving.
We aim to help make that world a reality. But an ambition that big won’t be easy. So we at 3M pledge the following:
Learn more about our Sustainability goals and how we’re improving lives.
March 11, 2016
Learn just a few of the ways our goals at 3M are #improvinglives in accordance with, and in support of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
September 16, 2015
Learn how our internal design workbook, Compass, guides 3M designers to address sustainability issues throughout the innovation process.
March 16, 2015
3M™ Speedglas™ Auto Darkening Filter technology allows a welder's screen to go dark as quickly as 0.1 milliseconds of the arc strike.
March 16, 2015
Use silver metallized and weatherable polymeric film with a solar-weighted total hemispherical reflectance of 94% to direct light. The result: brighter LED lamps in Africa.
March 11, 2016
Learn just a few of the ways our goals at 3M are #improvinglives in accordance with, and in support of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
September 16, 2015
Learn how our internal design workbook, Compass, guides 3M designers to address sustainability issues throughout the innovation process.
March 16, 2015
3M™ Speedglas™ Auto Darkening Filter technology allows a welder's screen to go dark as quickly as 0.1 milliseconds of the arc strike.
March 16, 2015
Use silver metallized and weatherable polymeric film with a solar-weighted total hemispherical reflectance of 94% to direct light. The result: brighter LED lamps in Africa.
Collaboration is an important part of our sustainability strategy. We partner with a variety of organizations to gain a diverse set of viewpoints on sustainability, a better understanding of the positions of our stakeholders, and a mechanism to learn from the successes and failures of our peers.
Together we have funded projects in the U.S., China, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico.
A $500k 3M Foundation grant will help secure the single largest private land purchase for conservation in Canadian history, spanning from Yellowstone to the Yukon. This land will help restore caribou habitat and other critical species by connecting protected areas.
A $1.5 million grant to protect 89,000 acres in northern Minnesota will make it one of the largest intact forests remaining nationwide
In 2011, 3M provided a $1 million grant to knit together a 60-million-acre network of protected public lands across Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and into southern British Columbia. This represents two of the largest conservation acquisitions in North American history.
3M has been able to earn emission reduction credits under U.S. environmental laws for reducing its air emissions beyond environmental regulatory requirements. In most cases we either sold those credits and contributed the profits to environmentally beneficial projects or contributed the credits themselves to state and local governments for air-quality improvements.
We’re working with the World Resources Institute and our fellow members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to develop a global protocol to quantify carbon emissions in the supply chain and throughout product life cycles.
Our Building and Commercial Services Division participates in a Design for the Environment (DFE) initiative through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As part of the initiative, 3M researchers work with government specialists to identify effective chemicals for cleaning products that protect both human and environmental health.