3M 2006 Annual Report Download - page 17

Working Our Magic 15
Our progress toward sustainability Respect for the environment
has long been a guiding principle of 3M’s business policies and
practices. And we continue to maintain our position as a corporate
leader in sustainable manufacturing.
Our innovative Pollution Prevention Pays (3P) program is still
having a powerful impact more than 30 years after its inception.
During 2006 alone, 364 employee-inspired 3P projects prevented
the generation of more than 70 million pounds of pollution and
saved nearly $53 million. Since it began in 1975, this program
has produced more than $1 billion in fi rst-year savings and has
prevented the generation of more than 2.6 billion pounds of
pollution in the fi rst year of the projects alone.
The 3P program continues to be heralded across the globe.
3M received the Air and Waste Management Association’s Waste
Management Award during 2006 in recognition of our waste
prevention efforts over the last 30 years. And abroad, 3M’s Asia
Pacifi c facilities were presented the 2006 Asian Corporate Social
Responsibility Award for Environmental Excellence. This award,
from the Asian Institute of Management, recognizes 3M’s work
to prevent pollution in Asia.
In 2005, 3M established a new set of environmental goals extending
through 2010. Over this fi ve-year period, we aim to reduce volatile
organic air emissions by 25 percent, improve our energy effi ciency
by 20 percent, reduce waste by 20 percent and undertake 800
pollution prevention projects (all goals, except for 3P, are indexed
to net sales).
We’re on track to meet these goals, building on the progress we’ve
already achieved in reducing our environmental footprint. Since
2000, we’ve reduced volatile organic air emissions by 66 percent,
substances listed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
(EPA) Toxic Release Inventory by 72 percent and waste by 33
percent (all amounts are indexed to net sales).
At the same time, we’re signifi cantly improving our energy
effi ciency. We’ve reduced our energy use, indexed to net sales,
by 35 percent since 2000. During 2006 alone, 3M achieved
annual energy savings of more than $25 million by means of 278
employee-inspired projects. We continue to adopt new methods
to reduce our energy footprint, including the use of alternative,
renewable energy. In 2006, we received the ENERGY STAR®
Sustained Excellence Award for Energy Management from the
EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy in recognition of our con-
tinuous improvement in energy management. 2006 marked the
third year in a row that 3M received the award – tying a record
for an industrial company.
3M is a member of the EPA’s Climate Leaders program, a voluntary
industry-government partnership that encourages companies to
develop comprehensive, long-term climate change strategies. We
reduced U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent over the
period 2002 to 2005 (exceeding our goal of a 30 percent reduction
by 2007), and we’ve reduced global greenhouse gas emissions by
45 percent since 1990.
All new 3M products, everywhere in the world, are subject to Life
Cycle Management. This takes environmental, health and safety
issues into account at every stage of a product’s development
– from design and manufacturing to customer use and disposal.
Life Cycle Management also supports the environmental objectives
of our many customers around the world.
In recognition of 3M’s commitment to sustainability, in 2006
the company again was selected for inclusion in the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index (DJSI), which tracks the performance of
leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide. This is the
sixth consecutive year that we have led the “diversifi ed industrial”
sector in this index, which is used by socially responsible investors
globally in their portfolio decision-making. 3M also led the DJSI
supersector list of “industrial goods and services” companies for
the second straight year.