3M – a sticky business on its way to eco-safe manufacturing
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona on 02. 7.06
An eco designer’s biggest challenge is often finding the right material. This can be hard work, especially if you are designing a more complex object and those screws, adhesives, zips or switches that are supposed to hold the whole thing together just aren’t green enough and threaten to spoil the genius of your design.
Last week for example, someone from the o2 Group was looking for an environmental friendly adhesive. Remy Chevalier, one of our favourite tippsters, suggested having a look at 3M as ‘they were doing green management and design way before anyone else was, incorporating eco-safe manufacturing protocols into their product lines with little or no fanfare.’
3M is a technology company with brands such as Post-it, Scotch or Nexcare.
So I had a closer look at their web site which is now offering an extensive ‘sustainability’ page explaining their environmental protection, social responsibility and economic progress.
I acknowledged their eco-efficiency performance towards sustainability which involves requirements for Life Cycle Analysis for all their products in order to improve them. For example, they constantly develop new technologies and products to lessen and prevent pollution, which resolved in a 26% improvement in energy efficiency and a 25% reduction in waste between 2000 and 2004.
Furthermore I understood that they invest a lot into the communities where they work and are all about knowledge sharing and enhancing biodiversity but then I must admit it’s a lot of numbers and figures which at first glance seem very impressive but in the end Post-it notes and tape are still as un-eco as ever.
Sure, we should give 3M credit for their 'cradle-to-cradle protocol in their manufacturing' as Remy put it and I guess 3M sets a great example of how a big company should operate BUT what about the end product? Cleaner production surely deserves praise but I wonder if there is anyone out there who is smart enough to make clear green tape or eco-friendly zips and all those other less glamorous things we use in masses but seem to ignore easily when it comes to sustainability. If you are, please contact us immediately! Via the o2 Group ::3M
I use post-its... I use scotch tape... I'm sure you do too... I'm sure every wannabe greenie does as well, because it's easy, practical, and serves its purpose well. none of it is cheap either... 3M scotch tape and post-its at Staples cost a pretty penny, I guess you end up paying for all that 3M eco-tech savvy, as knock offs I am sure do not abide by that same philosophy. I'd be curious to know the tree-free content of post-its... and the lifecycle of scotch tape in landfills... I know outside in the sun it lasts all but one season... how toxic is scotch tape, probably not very, because I suspect 3M uses the safest of ingredients (everything is relative) in their primeval scotch tape soup. but the o2 question was (if my memory serves me right) more about adhesives in general, not just home and office use tapes... and in that department 3M has also pioneered glues and other industrial strenght adhesives... now that you got me going, i'm also curious about them. I know their fire proofing tape for example, which can withstands great heat, is a god send in multiple applications, not the least of which a few years ago, was the wiring of a lighting system for an art gallery in a nightclub so it would meet safety code! Maybe 3M should come out and play, but their direct competition is BASF which is who McDonough consults for... so there you go, corporate warfare superseeds planetary health. one more reason for a benevolent green dictatorship. have you heard of the "green"? It's the industrial strenght tape Duck makes exclusively for the military, notably the folks at electric boat in groton. until an article came out about it in New England magazine (now defunct) there was some serious black market for it... it's used to strap metallic parts together prior to welding, and it is SO strong, you get so much as a little of your skin stuck to it, and it's exacto knife time... they will not sell this to the general public for obvious safety considerations. It's called "green" because the backing is green to distinct it from other tapes. good luck finding some... I only saw it once, mid-80's.
Rem
Please know that while 3M may be now trying to be green (or is it green washing?), they have not always been green.
Check out their mining activities in Northern Minnesota and their dumping minning waste directly into Lake Superior as an example.
3M is actively polluting in my area. The have a small mining operation in Skillman NJ and have dust particles that have been washing away and polluting streams for 10 years. The pile is 8 stories high.
This whole "green" 3m thing is just greenwash. They're awful. Just ask our local wildlife. Oops! You can't. They're dead.
-janice
Lil Hugger & Janice, please send me urls or contacts on all this, via my email address on the lumag site. I aim to follow-up on all of it.
RemyC,
Sorry, I don't have any links. Maybe a Minnesotan Hugger can help us all out here.
If I remember correctly, the report I heard (radio) concerning their dumping mining waste material directly into Lake Superior came from Minnesota Public Radio about a year ago.
Unfortunately, 3M appears to be just green washing, as green is becoming popular. I could be wrong though and would love to be proved wrong on this point!
I do have an article (on my other computer) about GM and DuPont making a royalty off of every gallon of leaded gas sold since the 1930s though. Remember, leaded gas is still sold in parts of the world, and if this article is to be believed, than they still are profiting off of this blantant deadly toxins. I know it sounds crazy (and maybe it is), let me know if you are interested. I recall the article was quite long and detailed.
My god! 3M is being pegged as a green company? its one of the worst corporate polluters in America...
http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1991/05/donahue.html