Introduction
For this assignment, the author will review a sustainability report by the company 3M. It produces a wide variety of construction, safety, and medical equipment, as well as a range of consumer products for various purposes. In the report, the company features a variety of metrics, such as the number of females in the company’s management.
Essence
The graph shows a continuous trend of the metric increasing between 2014 and 2018, exceeding 30% in the final year (2019 Sustainability Report 135). Through this display, 3M seeks to demonstrate its commitment to gender equality.
The recordable incident rate is another nonfinancial performance measure featured in the report. While the numbers of issues in specific regions fluctuate year to year, the overall figure worldwide shows a declining trend (2019 Sustainability Report 141). As such, 3M provides the statistic to demonstrate its active efforts to ensure the safety and well-being of its employees. Water usage, which has been rising in terms of total consumption but falling significantly when measured as cubic meters per net sales dollar, is the final metric featured in this report (2019 Sustainability Report 158). It responds to the concern over industrial water usage that is prevalent worldwide.
Conclusion
Overall, 3M’s purpose in publishing the report is to generate publicity and goodwill among its stakeholders. Reputation is critical to a brand’s success, and companies prefer to be seen positively rather than negatively. The company’s willingness to hire women and put them in top management positions benefits its image in the overall social context. The work it does to minimize accidents makes it a more attractive place to work. Lastly, its efforts to reduce its water consumption benefit local communities by freeing up resources for other people to use. As such, the company’s reporting of its commitment to corporate social responsibility helps it become more popular on a variety of fronts.