3M Company:

In Practice

Partner Profile

Founded over 100 years ago, 3M is a global, diversified, technology company that prides itself on innovation.  3M makes a wide variety of products ranging from post-it notes to pharmaceuticals. 3M has been an ENERGY STAR partner since 1997 and was named an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for several consecutive years. 

Industrial Partner Since 1997

Awards & Recognition

  • Partner of the Year - Energy Management(2004)
  • Sustained Excellence(2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013)

3M Company

Contact Information:
 3M Company
3M Center, Building 223-5N-10
St. Paul, MN 55128
651-737-0849

In Practice

1: Make Commitment

See this Guideline Step
Making a Commitment to Continuous Improvement

3M commits $1 million in funds per year to encourage smaller energy projects.  In recent years, 3M relaxed the payback period from two years to four years to ensure completion of more projects.  By dedicating resources, the company also enhanced its reporting system to benchmark over 150 additional facilities worldwide.  Additionally, to further continuous improvement throughout 3M, the company places emphasis on helping the top 25 energy-using plants meet their targets.

1.1: Appoint an Energy Director


1.2: Establish an Energy Team

Upstream and Downstream Management

As a large diversified manufacturer, 3M operates hundreds of different manufacturing facility types.  Because of this, the 3M energy program relies on multi-disciplinary teaming and coordination to achieve their annual average 7% reduction. The 3M energy team makes use of the engineering, finance, environmental, plant operations, R&D departments, as well as their suppliers and vendors.  This ensures that their energy team covers all stages of the production process, both upstream and downstream.  Including the financial division also helps energy programs secure the necessary capital funding for major energy efficiency projects. 

1.3: Institute an Energy Policy

3M's Energy Policy: Integration and Accountability

3M has created an integrated worldwide energy policy that extends the accountability of the energy program beyond environmental and operations divisions to coordination with their research & development organization, process engineers, and facility design engineers.  This policy sets challenging, yet attainable goals that support the broader goals of the company to drive innovation with energy saving products and optimize capital investment.   3M revised their energy policy in 2004 after soliciting feedback on their policy from manufacturing directors, plant managers, plant operations and executive management.  This process paid off when reviewers suggested the inclusion of manufacturing directors in energy management activities because their support is essential to program success.  The energy policy revisions continue to show significant results for 3M in improving their energy efficiency year after year.

2: Assess Performance

See this Guideline Step
 

2.3: Benchmark

Determining scope and scale of benchmarking
 
3M's energy program oversees hundreds of facilities worldwide and all are required to report on energy efficiency.  To make this possible, 3M has devised a system to prioritize energy reporting: facility size dictates the level of required reporting.   Each of 3M's plants, and any other facility over 30,000 sq. ft, must report energy use, intensity, and cost monthly.  Because facilities' products and processes vary greatly, each facility is measured against its own previous performance.  While 3M facilities can't benchmark their performance against each other, their performance is closely monitored and benchmarked over time. 

3: Set Goals

See this Guideline Step
 

3.3: Establish Goals

Goal

3M met their 20 percent improvement in energy performance within 5 years goal in 2010.  3M established a new goal of a 15 percent improvement in energy performance within 5 years.

4: Create Action Plan

See this Guideline Step
 

4.2: Determine Roles and Resources

Reaching out to get the whole picture


3M has had an established energy program for many years, so when looking for opportunities for further improvement, the corporate energy director must look beyond facility and plant improvements.  The corporate energy team at 3M now works with the scientists in their Research & Development department to identify opportunities for minimizing energy use in manufacturing processes through improved design.  The R&D team uses life cycle management to continuously search for energy use reductions in their extremely diversified manufacturing processes.  Energy is considered when choosing not only processes, but also raw materials and product formulations.  Going beyond the basics of energy management has allowed 3M to continually improve their energy performance, producing an additional 9% in efficiency gains in their worldwide operations.