Inside 3M’s Innovation Machine with Amanda Yates

Episode notes

Welcome to the Sustainable Design Lab podcast by Veritiv. Hosted by Chris Bradley and Brodie Vander Dussen, this show is your go-to resource for cutting-edge insights into the world of sustainable packaging. Join us as we reimagine packaging innovation and turn every decision into a powerful act of sustainability. In this episode, Amanda Yates of 3M takes us behind the scenes of one of the world’s most iconic innovation engines to explore how sustainability is embedded across every stage of product development, from materials science and R&D to commercialization and customer collaboration. What You’ll Learn: How to implement a Sustainability Value Commitment framework Why collaborative systems unlock innovation faster The critical importance of mapping trade-offs before commercialization How to align sustainability messaging with different stakeholder motivations Why customer-centric sustainability strategies outperform design-for-sustainability approaches Amanda Yates is the Senior Director of Global Sustainability at 3M, where she leads the integration of sustainability principles into the company's research, development, and innovation pipeline.