Corporate Social Responsibility — doing good things well

August Schaefer

The history began at the dawn of the Age of Electricity. The public’s thirst for electrical power led to large numbers of inexperienced electricians stringing wire to thousands of untested electrical devices. As a result, electrical fires were breaking out all over the America. At that time, William Henry Merrill was devoted to analyze the situation and make suggestions. He wrote, “Know by Test and State the Facts” and “Testing for Safety”. Five years later, after performing a thousand product tests, his laboratory published the first list of approved fittings and electrical devices. The laboratory was later incorporated as Underwriters Laboratories (UL).

Embodying William Henry Merrill’s belief and UL’s century-long contribution to safety, today’s UL is a world leader in the safety compliance industry. What is more, we are doing more than safety and are taking responsibility for the impact of our activities on seven aspects:

1. Employees: Ensuring that our staff feel respected, valued, and trusted

2. Environmental Health and Safety: Ensuring that our facilities are safe, and meet or exceed all environmental regulations. We shall make efficient use of the world’s natural resources (see next page for more details)

3. Community Involvement: Supporting the communities where we live and work via charitable giving and volunteerism

4. Suppliers and Partners: Working with ethical suppliers who share our values

5. Governance and Ethics: Providing staff with business ethics training and introducing Standards of Business Conduct

6. Stakeholder Engagement: Understanding and meeting the needs of our many constituencies (customers, retailers, inspection authorities, etc.) without ever compromising our integrity

7. Economic Responsibility: No margin, no mission

	Ladies in blue polo shirt from left): Nathalie Hawkins and Barbara Guthrie hold three Safety Smart assemblies for more than 750 Korean children.

With unique expertise in safety, we have been contributing to our society in different ways. “CSR is a reflection of how we manage and operate our business,” said August Schaefer, Senior Vice President and Public Safety Officer, UL. “At UL we do good things while CSR is doing good things well.”

UL and Disney Safety Smart Education Program

Accidents and injuries are the leading cause of death especially in children, adolescents and young adults. Engagement, empowerment and education are key to reducing accidents and injuries.

Sharing the same vision in keeping children safe, UL and The Walt Disney Company join hands to launch a program to keep children safe by empowering them with Safety Smart! The co-operation leverages on UL’s century of expertise in safety knowledge and Disney characters and storytelling capabilities.

The Disney Educational Productions (DEP) produced the first two in a series of UL sponsored DVDs. The first DVD, targeting children aged 3-8, features Timon and Pumbaa from Disney’s “The Lion King” titled Wild About Safety with Timon and Pumbaa: Safety Smart at Home!. While the second DVD, Safety Smart Science with Bill Nye the Science Guy: Electricity, is for children aged 8-12.

Wild About Safety is available in 15 languages to ensure no language barrier on learning safety sciences.

While in Seoul, UL and The Walt Disney Company organized three assemblies for more than 750 kindergartens to elementary level Korean students. The students learnt simple but essential safety rules at home through watching the 12-minute Wild About Safety and participating in interactive games.

“Nowadays, though most nations are safety conscious, there is still a lack of a formal safety in-classroom curriculum. We had interviewed 1,000 kids in a research. It is interesting to find that most young children aged 5-7 say they ‘always’ regard to safety rules. While for older ones like aged 10-12, they say ‘never’ consider safety rules,” said Barbara Guthrie, UL’s Director of Consumer Affairs.

“We shall develop more global products that all children can receive safety messages,” said Nathalie Hawkins, Global Communications Manager at Worldwide Safety & Accessibility of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “Learning safety knowledge through creative entertainment would always be a perfect match.”

Anti-counterfeiting of UL Marks

Product counterfeiting and piracy has become a global epidemic with far-reaching consequences. Counterfeiting impacts each one of us, it stifles creativity and development, causes economic losses, and most important, threatens health and safety.

In 2007, it was estimated that 21 billions products entering the global marketplace carried the UL Mark.

The UL Mark means that UL has tested samples of the products to safety requirements and conducts periodic checks of manufacturers’ facilities. Unfortunately, counterfeiters will copy and sell anything that turns a profit, without regard to consumer safety and without regard for the law. They manufacture goods as cheaply as possible with the single goal of maximizing their return. The costs of counterfeiting are shared by all of us — consumers, manufacturers, retailers, communities and entire economies.

UL Anti-Counterfeiting Operations has taken an aggressive stance against counterfeiting through a comprehensive program, including “Enforcement”, “Education” and “Partnerships”.

Enforcement: UL Vice President of Anti-Counterfeiting Operations Brian Monks led a team that works to assist law enforcement to combat the threat of counterfeit certification marks. When products bearing counterfeit UL Mark are discovered, they are confiscated and disposed of in compliance with appropriate laws and regulations protecting intellectual property. Counterfeiters will be charged and convicted.

Education: UL has a robust global training and outreach program to raise awareness of counterfeiting issues and to assist law enforcement personnel in the identification of products carrying with counterfeit UL Marks.

UL maintains an Anti-Counterfeiting Web site (www.ul.com/ace). Consumers and retailers can access the site for information about counterfeiting issues and tips for identification of fake UL Marks.

UL also announces details of counterfeit products inspected in the marketplace so that consumers and retailers can avoid buying or selling those products that pose potential hazards.

Partnerships: UL works with enforcement agencies, rights holders and industry associations around the world to combat intellectual property crime.

The most recent collaborative effort was the “2008 International Law Enforcement IP Crime Conference” co-hosted by INTERPOL and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in partnership with UL. Held in end June, the 2008 Halifax conference focused on copyright and trademark issues of interest and value to law enforcement, including police, customs and prosecutors. UL introduced a new holographic UL Mark that is incredibly difficult to replicate. (See details on New Holographic Label to Combat Counterfeiters)

Global Environmental Health and Safety Program (EHS)

	Michael Brown, Global EHS Manager, develops a Site Safety Officer network to strengthen local EHS implementation.

At UL, we are setting standards not only in product safety but also in other dimensions including Workplace Safety.

As one of the pillars under UL’s Corporate Social Responsibility plan, UL established its global environmental, health and safety (EHS) program through the following three basic steps:

Step 1: EHS Policy — Conforming to ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, UL’s EHS policy is signed and supported by UL’s senior leadership and shared to all employees.

Step 2: Written Program — ISO 9000 controlled documents are developed, along with a global safety manual and eleven core EHS Standard Operation Procedures. Employees are always able to refer to these documents on the Intranet whenever they are needed.

Step 3: Workplace Safety Culture — Two key tactics are applied in the cultivation of a workplace safety tradition at UL. A 90-minute instructor-led workshop was developed for all UL employees. Employees were invited to discuss or define a company safety culture, review the UL EHS Policy and make a commitment statement on five things “I WILL” do to support workplace safety and environment. Online EHS courses, integrated with other operational and management courses, are also available.

To strengthen local implementation, a Site Safety Officer (SSO) network is created. SSOs are appointed at every UL locations with laboratory operations and are responsible for all EHS-related programs roll-out. Those SSOs need not an EHS professional but they play a significant role in local implementation and bring EHS culture into the workplace.

Back to: XVIII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work