Environmental Impact

Global Sustainability Goals and Progress

We focus on four key sustainability metrics: energy intensity, greenhouse gas emissions intensity, waste intensity, and water withdrawal intensity. Our sustainability metrics are intensity based to show performance independent of business change. We normalize these metrics by metric tons of production to accommodate for changes in output.

The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide powerful guidance for partnering with all our stakeholders for good. H.B. Fuller fully supports the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development and is committed to contributing directly to the most material SDGs within its scope of activity and monitoring their impact on society. And by sharing our SDG commitments and progress, we work to drive sustainable practices in our sphere of influence. Our current corporate responsibility and operations align with the 11 priority goals highlighted below.

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Globally, significant progress has been made in advancing health and combating disease. However, disparities remain, and too many people are not living healthy lives. To achieve this goal, significant work will be required to address pollution, preventable diseases, sanitation and hygiene, child and maternal mortality, and access to health systems, among other root causes.

Goal 4: Quality Education

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Access to education can improve quality of life and shape the future leaders who will find solutions to global challenges. Providing children around the world with education in relevant skills, including technical, vocational, and entrepreneurial, will be the foundation of sustainable development. To make quality education available to more children, investment is required in scholarships, educational facilities, and teacher training. Gender disparities in access to education must be eliminated.

Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Clean water and adequate sanitation are essential for ensuring health and opportunities for individuals and families. Water resources need to be managed efficiently, responsibly, and equitably. Adequate sanitation and hygiene must be made available to all.

Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.

Universal access to energy will be a foundational step toward achieving the other Sustainable Development Goals. Recent advances in technology have driven substantial progress, including increasing energy from renewable sources. However, further expansion of access to clean energy will continue to advance economic opportunities and solutions to environmental issues.

Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.

Greater employment opportunities will help eliminate poverty. Ensuring that working conditions are safe, that technology is leveraged where possible, and that gender disparities are removed will support strong labor productivity. Efforts must also be made to decouple economic growth and environmental degradation.

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.

Manufacturing and industrialization can be important drivers of economic development. Investments in infrastructure and technology can lead to advances in health and education levels, supporting achievement of multiple other Sustainable Development Goals. High-tech and efficient manufacturing processes can build empowered communities and strengthen environmental protections.

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Reduce inequality within and among countries.

Inequality persists in income, access to resources, and opportunities across regions and populations. Reducing these disparities is essential for sustainable development. Efforts must focus on eliminating discrimination, ensuring equal access to education, healthcare, and employment, and promoting social, economic, and political inclusion for all, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or economic status. International cooperation and fair policies are critical to narrowing gaps between and within nations.

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

Rapid urbanization has created cities that can serve as centers for commerce, culture, innovation, productivity, and more. At the same time, urbanization has brought its own challenges, including difficulties providing basic services, increased congestion and pollution, and inadequate housing and infrastructure. Sustainably designed cities can allow continued development and advancement for residents.

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

As economic growth has increased, so has resource use. To promote continued and sustainable growth, we will need to use fewer resources to do more. Elements of sustainable consumption and production include reducing food waste, safely managing chemicals, responsibly using natural resources, and educating companies and individuals about sustainable practices.

Goal 13: Climate Action

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Climate change is now impacting every continent, which can be seen in changing weather patterns, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events. The most vulnerable populations are being affected the most. This global challenge requires urgent, coordinated action from individuals, companies, and governments around the world.

Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Global partnerships are essential to achieve global goals. Together, civil society, the private sector, and the public sector can come together around a shared vision and make the required investments to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. 

At H.B. Fuller, sustainability is a priority, and we know that we each have a responsibility to protect our planet. We actively manage the environmental impact of our operations, people, and products and we are continuously optimizing our processes. The committee is chaired by a member of our executive committee and reports out to the board of directors on a regular basis.

ESG Governance

Our sustainability committee has the responsibility for overseeing focus on programs and initiatives within the ESG framework. This including defining our sustainability strategy and setting goals. There are six action-sub-committees that tackle projects within the following focus areas: customer enablement, eco-efficient operations, responsible supply chain, community engagement, great place to work, and corporate governance. These teams work across the global and across businesses to deliver continuous progress.

Our sustainability leadership has long been rooted in our enterprise-wide commitment to operational efficiency and environmental stewardship. Here are just a few examples of the actions we took across some of our manufacturing facilities in 2022 to reduce our environmental footprint.

Vancouver, US

We reduced solid waste at our Vancouver, Wash., site with a return and reuse program for fibrous material used in the manufacture of our adhesive coated tapes and strings. This project eliminated approximately 13 tons of still valuable material from going to landfill, with significant cost savings.

H.B. Fuller headquarters, US

We opened our first fully dedicated sustainability laboratory at our world headquarters in Saint Paul, Minn., to work across our global business units. The new R&D lab, which also serves as a customer showcase, is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to test solutions for a variety of applications, such as flexible packaging, paper cups and barrier coatings.

Tamworth, UK

In 2022, H.B. Fuller welcomed the UK-based Apollo Chemicals, a company with strong sustainability management and a focus on operational efficiency. The team washes its manufacturing vessels with solvent previously used for cleaning similar product batches. Solvents can be reused multiple times until no longer viable, reducing overall solvent use and waste disposal. The team also installed high-level fill protection with sensors on the vessels, which prevents more solvent being pumped to the point of overfill and significantly reducing the chance of spillage.

Pirmasens and Langelsheim, Germany

Our sites in Pirmasens and Langelsheim used smart metering and energy savings opportunities to significantly reduce natural gas and electric use in our production processes. Projects included process redesign, lighting upgrades, baseload reduction, and compressed air optimization. Combined, these projects contributed to more than 2,000 MWh of total energy savings across both facilities.

Pune, India

We implemented a large clean energy installation at our site in Pune, comprising 1,550 solar panels produced with our TONSAN® products on a 4,000-square-meter roof that generates 650 kW AC of renewable energy for the plant. This installation will reduce the facility’s overall electricity consumption by 30% and CO2 emissions by 850 tons per year.

Guangzhou, China

This facility made concerted energy savings efforts that resulted in a 12% reduction in electric energy consumption. These efforts included adjustments to its extensive compressed air system that reduced operating pressure as well as a dedicated program for identifying and fixing leaks. The site also made improvements to its chiller/cooling system using higher efficiency temperatures and installed a new PLC controller for the chillers. In 2022, H.B. Fuller officially opened a new Technical Center in this facility to accelerate our R&D capabilities in Asia Pacific.

The environmental challenges facing the world today - as well as growing demand for low ecological impact products - require a multifaceted, collaborative approach throughout the value chain. And our partnerships help us extend our impact in the world. Below are some examples of steps our company has taken together with leading organizations to advance the circular economy across industries.

Fostering industry collaboration

Hygiene, Health, and Consumable Adhesives

In 2022, H.B. Fuller joined the 4evergreen alliance, a cross-industry alliance hosted by the Confederation of European Paper Industries (Cepi) to improve the circularity of fiber-based packaging. The initiative brings together a diverse network of approximately 100 organizations and stakeholders throughout the packaging value chain. The goal is to push for innovation throughout the sector and develop robust, fact-based guidelines for the future of fiber-based packaging.

H.B. Fuller is also a member of the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC). These organizations work collaboratively with their membership to understand shifting legislation and needs that impact the packaging industry, specifically in the United States. Efforts include continued educational outreach; creating clear guidelines such as APR’s Design® Guide, which ensures products are truly recycling compatible; and preferred labeling schemes such as How2Compost, a standardized on-package label indicating whether a package is a BPI-certified compostable product.

H.B. Fuller partners globally with CMC box-on-demand equipment manufacturer to create right-sized, sustainable e-commerce packaging using our Advantra® hot melts for case sealing. Through this partnership, H.B. Fuller helps large global e-tailers reduce excess packaging and waste, enabling a circular economy.

Engineering Adhesives

H.B. Fuller and Covestro partnered with office furniture manufacturer Sunon and other industrial chain partners in the “Green and Sustainable Office Furniture Strategic Collaboration,” which is aimed at accelerating commercial applications of innovative circular materials, reducing the carbon footprint of products, and supporting the low-carbon development of office furniture industry. The collaboration focuses on the application and commercialization of bio-based waterborne coatings, biomass foams, microfiber materials, and furniture adhesives as well as post-industrial recycled polycarbonate materials.

Our Engineering Adhesives business is also part of the Automated Hybrid Welding of Metal Fasteners to Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites (HyBe) project, in collaboration with other industry partners and academia. Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (reference KK5003706FF1), the project’s aim is to advance efficient lightweight engineering and develop an industry-ready hybrid joining process with suitable technology for automated, digitized and energy-efficient inductive joining of metallic fasteners to thermoplastic FRPC.

Construction Adhesives

Our Construction Adhesives teams actively participate in external associations and committees, continuously striving to improve processes, formulas, and standards to minimize our environmental impact. In 2022, H.B. Fuller led a volatile organic compounds (VOC) task force of manufacturers and industry association representatives through the Single Ply Roofing Industry (SPRI) organization. The task force addressed newly proposed environmental regulations and restrictions and engaged in co-creation of solutions beneficial to the industry and the planet.

With the same purpose, H.B. Fuller worked alongside several grout and mortar companies in partnership with the Tile Council of North America on two LCAs. These LCA generated the data needed to create an industry-wide Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), which objectively reports verified data on how a product impacts the environment across its entire lifecycle. EPDs are often required by project specifications.

Sustainability is integral to everything we do - from making environmentally conscious decisions within our own operations and product development to empowering business partners around the world to achieve sustainable outcomes.

H.B. Fuller has a rich history of designing and manufacturing environmentally responsible products. In fact, more than 50% of our new product portfolio focuses on sustainable solutions across our global businesses. Here some of our success stories.

H.B. Fuller’s Full-Care™ positioning adhesive contains 75% bio-content. The product reduces adhesive use by up to 20%, decreasing energy usage and handling for customers and reducing transportation-related emissions.

Plastic and paper labels on PET and glass bottles need to stay firmly in place when put in ice buckets or exposed to high humidity conditions. Labels should also be easily removable once the container enters the recycling or refill process. H.B. Fuller Earthic™ adhesives for PET and glass bottles achieve high performance during use and enable complete wash-off. For glass bottles, our H.B. Fuller Earthic technology permits customers to reduce water washing temperature and detergent concentration, driving savings and less impact on the environment.

Our R&D team also created a customized Swift®tak Earthic™ water-based adhesive to successfully bond to PFA-free (fluoro-free) substrates to help our customers comply with rapidly changing food safety regulations.

We developed a more sustainable reactive polyurethane hot melt (HMMC) adhesives range for textile lamination based on new polyester polyols’ types, made with recycled content from PET bottles and bio-based polyols. These new solutions contain bio-mass balanced isocyanate as replacement of the fossil MDI. By combining these renewable sources, we have tested and reached sustainability rates from 50% to 90%. Our Swift®lock product family is used to laminate fabrics to fabrics and fabrics to membranes for fashion clothing, sportswear, lingerie and workwear clothing. These products meet the requirements of the independent certification system ECO-PASSPORT by OEKOTEX®, ensuring that textile manufacturers are able to produce STANDARD 100 by OEKOTEX certified products.

For construction, we introduced our Millennium Sprayable PVC Single-Ply Bonding Adhesive, a product used for adhering PVC waterproofing membranes to roof surfaces. Technical teams across the organization developed this unique adhesive and modified the canister formulation to have approximately 2x the coverage rate and lower VOCs versus other sprayable PVC bonding adhesives, resulting in a nearly 70% reduction in VOC emissions. The adhesives enable higher energy efficiency of a building when compared to traditional membrane attachment methods. The product’s packaging is 100% recyclable once the adhesive is completely dispensed, and the cylinder is depressurized.

As demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and reduced carbon emissions grows, H.B. Fuller is playing a critical role in the advancement of innovative, sustainable technologies for the automotive industry. Our solutions support the development of safer, ultra-lightweight fire-retardant materials that increase mileage range, reduce charging frequency, and lower energy consumption and carbon emission. We also introduced a specialized one-of-a-kind thermal plastic recyclable sealant that allows repeatable serviceability to battery pack enclosures, creating a sustainable solution that can be reused, repurposed, or recycled at the end of a vehicle’s life.