commentUL Environment Opening New Doors to Sustainability
Underwriters Laboratories (UL), one of the most trusted brands in product safety testing, shook up the crowded and confusing green product labeling industry last year when it announced its UL Environment division. The group started out by simply validating manufacturers’ claims and certifying products against industry standards. Now, responding to gaps in the marketplace for product standards, UL Environment is poised to develop its own sustainability standards, starting with doors and wallboard.
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Hoping to eventually expand to a broad array of green building materials, UL Environment will initially focus on mineral board, fiberboard, doorframes, hinges, locks, and handles—products that currently lack sustainability standards. The new system will be based on life-cycle analysis and associated environmental impacts, and will work in conjunction with UL’s Environmental Claims Validation program launched last year.
Relying on input from manufacturers, government agencies, consumer groups, and other related organizations, UL Environment’s initiative will be drafted in accordance with the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) procedures, setting minimum sustainability benchmarks and creating a multi-level framework in which industry leaders can participate. Once the system is in place, UL Environment maintains that manufacturers, architects, and building owners will be better equipped to respectively manufacture, specify, and trust in this new class of products.
“UL is fully transparent. This is one of the few ways that the market will see credibility in the process,” said Chris Nelson, director of global development for UL Environment, whose aim for the market is to set leadership standards by setting up lower tiers to provide easy-entry points for manufacturers. It will be up to technical panels to define product thresholds, said Nelson.
After the standards for doors and wallboard are complete, UL Environment will target a number of other building materials and products, explained Nelson. “The two existing standards and the others that will be announced are really just the first wave. This is the first step in a long-term strategy for UL,” he said.
Copyright 2009 by BuildingGreen, LLC
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