3M: Energy performance

Better Buildings, Better Plants Challenge partners strive to decrease portfolio-wide source energy use intensity (EUI) from a baseline year. In 2014, 3M met its original 25% energy intensity improvement target based on a 2005 baseline. 3M repledged to an additional 30% energy intensity improvement setting 2015 as the new baseline. As of 2021, 3M's portfolio consists of 77 facilities. 3M's corporate energy management program includes energy champions and teams at all major facilities worldwide. Since 2005, these teams have implemented nearly 5,000 energy projects, thanks partly to a capital set-aside program for energy efficiency projects. 3M designs new equipment and facilities to be energy efficient.

Looking at the percent improvement in energy performance across all facilities can provide insight into how an organization is saving energy. Several 3M's facilities are off to a good start posting significant improvements during the first reporting year. Conversely, plant expansions and modifications have increased the energy intensity at a few plants. These facilities are also a good target for future efficiency efforts.

The 3M’s pledge scope includes a total of 77 different plants, each manufacturing a complex mix of products. As a result, energy consumption is modeled and evaluated at several levels. Source energy use, production output, and weather conditions are tracked for each facility monthly and annually. 3M normalizes its energy use to account for the impacts of production volume and several weather-related variables. Interactions among these variables are also considered. Total corporate improvement in energy use is calculated by taking a weighted average of the improvements in energy intensity for each facility.