3M Mexico blends science and giving to drive sustainability, prosperity in local communities

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By WP Creative Group

June 16, 2023

Mexico is a land of vibrant cities, breathtaking vistas, rich natural resources and abundant plants and wildlife. It’s also part of the Global South, a region that the United Nations has identified as at risk environmentally due to sprawling urban development, lack of funding for sustainability projects and the need to maintain economic growth.

Amid such challenges, it’s crucial for multinational companies operating in Mexico to step up with solutions that can preserve the country’s environment while enabling opportunities. 3M, which has been in Mexico for 76 years, is doing just that.

The Minnesota-based company has four major plants in Mexico, making everything from sponges and tapes to respirators and aircraft parts. As centers of not just manufacturing but also innovation, 3M’s Mexican operations have generated more than 300 patents for the company.

“I am Mexican born. If a company like 3M is doing great things in my country, I want to be there.”

Jana Nieto, director of government affairs & ESG/sustainability at 3M Mexico.

To positively impact the communities that support these activities, the company is aggressively recycling waste, using renewable energy to power some facilities and is giving back through donations of goods and employee time.

A worker in a Panama hat harvests crops in an agricultural field.

For 3M, such initiatives align with its larger purpose – to use science to improve human lives. Its innovations around sustainability are helping to ensure a future where, among other benefits, kids can breathe easier thanks to cleaner air, farmers can prosper due to healthier soil and coastal residents can be less worried about rising sea levels caused by climate change.

3M’s environmental stewardship and philanthropic efforts in Mexico are driven by the fact that this land of 126 million people is not just a place where it conducts business, it’s home to more than 9,000 3M employees who live, work and raise their families in the country. “We’re more than just a company of innovation. We’re a human company. And we’re alert to, and conscious of, the ecosystem where we live,” said Jana Nieto, director of government affairs & ESG/sustainability at 3M Mexico. “I am Mexican born. If a company like 3M is doing great things in my country, I want to be there.”

Diverting for donations

Part of “being there” means donating to the community. 3M takes unused products that would otherwise end up in landfills and delivers them to institutions and individuals with specific needs. Working through non-governmental organizations like Fondo Unido-United Way since 2015, 3M identifies potential recipients and matches them with goods that are in perfect condition, but have been discontinued for sale. These can include older versions of 3M™ Scotch-Brite™ sponges, which help homes and small businesses in rural areas maintain hygiene, and 3M™ Post-it® pads, which can be used in educational settings.

“Considering that 50 percent of Mexico lives at or below the poverty line, there’s not as much access to education and hygiene. So we’ve found that this has been an enabler to solve societal needs,” said Nieto. To date, 3M has donated more than 2.5 million products through this program. “We are achieving an important impact for society,” said Enrique Koenigue, government affairs and sustainability manager at 3M Mexico. During the pandemic, 3M Mexico also donated personal protective equipment, including N95 masks, to local communities and healthcare centers.

3M estimates that its giving programs, working through about 130 NGOs, have touched more than a million people in Mexico.

Smiling teens collaborate on a classroom project.

3M is also helping to ensure Mexican businesses and organizations prosper by providing them with pro-bono consulting. With staffers having advanced degrees ranging from accounting to engineering and logistics, 3M Mexico has a wealth of internal knowledge. 3Mers involved in the consulting program devote 80 hours of time per year, fanning out across the country to share this expertise. As with the in-kind donations program, 3M works with NGOs to identify organizations that could most benefit from this help. Creating a virtuous circle, these often are enterprises that are themselves making a positive impact. For example, 3Mers helped a plastics recycler expand its reach. “We supported them in doing their business plan, and with help in how to scale up to go from Mexico City to other states,” said Nieto.

Young woman wearing a backpack walks a path beneath a bridge.

3M is also using its deep presence in Mexico as a platform to encourage students from local communities to pursue careers in STEM-related fields. As part of this, 3M will often invite school groups to visit its Mexican research & development facilities. There, they can meet 3M engineers who were the first in their family to obtain, for example, an engineering degree. Many children from these areas come from families where no one has been to college, so exposing them to new technologies and role models can help change their lives. “We know that students from marginalized communities have an incentive to go work on the streets when they are in high school. What we want is for them to be in school as much as possible,” said Nieto.

Nieto is particularly focused on ensuring girls, which are underrepresented in STEM in Mexico, as in most other parts of the world, are not left out. “As we’re proposing this project, it has to be for boys and girls. And when there’s not enough girls in our classroom, we have to make a special effort to bring them in.”

Reducing emissions

As a corporation, 3M is committed to reducing its worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and achieving 100 percent carbon neutrality by 2050. Its Mexican operations are contributing to this effort through an innovative program under which it is using solar energy to partially power one of its largest plants – its Edumex manufacturing facility in Juarez, home to about 6,000 workers. The project’s implementation is saving 420 tons of C02 emissions from entering the atmosphere annually, according to 3M officials. “We are bringing a lot of benefits to the community,” said Orlando Cisneros, plant maintenance and facilities manager at 3M Edumex.

Switched on in September 2020, the solar panels provide 27 percent of the energy used by the facility. There’s an added benefit for the local community: solar energy not used by the 3M facility is fed back into the grid, where it’s available to homes and businesses. “When we’re not utilizing that building, we’re providing that back to the city power grid. For instance, shifts we’re not working or during the weekend,” said Douglas Oglesby, site director at 3M Edumex.

3M plans to expand the plant’s solar output by 2024. One way this could be done is to install platforms over the parking lots, which would host additional solar cells. “We operate in a part of the country that gets 260 to 300 days of sunshine per year,” said Oglesby. “We are producing more energy than we estimated.”

An array of solar panels, with mountains in the background

To conserve energy, 3M’s Edumex plant uses software to monitor and control the usage of electricity, gas and HVAC systems. “You can think of it almost like people that are up in the control tower, watching planes come and go,” said Oglesby. The plant also treats and recycles non-potable water that can be used in its bathrooms as well as diverted to irrigation, which is crucial in an area prone to droughts.

3M’s sustainability and philanthropic activities in Mexico are enabled by science, but ultimately are driven by a sense of mission that comes from the heart. “This is a real personal commitment we make, and it’s not just compliance. It’s a personal commitment to make the world a better place for all of us,” said Oglesby.