UL Environment

http://www.ulenvironment.com/

Electrical products are, by their very nature, dangerous. Whenever you plug in a power tool, and curling iron, an area heater, or a cell phone, you are taking your life into your own hands. The 110v AC outlet you are about to use could kill you in a matter of seconds. Scared? Why not? Because you know that our electrical systems and the products they supply are quite safe to use. But what makes you so sure?

Surprisingly, there is very little in the way of government regulation on electrical product safety. The simple reason is this: Underwriters Laboratories–a private company–does the vast majority of the regulating, and has done for well over a century. Government regulation wasn’t necessary because consumers, frightened of dangerous electrical products, demanded that their retailers sell only UL-certified products. The result is that now you virtually can’t buy an electrical device that’s not UL certified. Our products are safe to use not because of the heroic efforts of an ambitious federal administration, but because of a mandate from the markets.

The safety issues of today are on a much grander scale. After years of speaking with friends on both sides of the aisle, reading various points of view, and talking to friends in climate science, I have come to the conclusion that our environment is under serious threat, and our lifestyles will be significantly altered for the worse if we do nothing to protect it. Protecting the environment may require changes in behavior, but none nearly so significant as those that will be required if we do nothing.

There are many who believe that the solution to this problem lies in legislation, regulation, and taxation on the part of the federal government. I do not.

I believe that private sector initiatives could have a much greater impact overall than government regulation ever could, but only if it’s profitable. And herein lies what I believe to be the solution to our environmental problems: make environmental responsability profitable, and environmental abuses will stop so fast your head will spin. UL made it unprofitable for companies to sell irresponsible products, and provided a way for them to reclaim the weary consumer through safety certification.

For this reason, I support a different model than the regulate-and-tax method, and I call it “the UL method.” It worked for consumer protection, why shouldn’t it work for environmental protection? Not only could a private, independent body do a better job in a dynamic market than a government beauro, but it would have a better chance of becoming a global player, as opposed to a merely continental one.

Enter “UL Environment.” I was thrilled to see this website pop up recently, as it is exactly what I’ve been hoping to see for years. Not only will UL define standards that will help to clean up products and processes domestically, but it may well become a powerful resource for global improvement. I sincerely hope that the UL Environment endevour and others like it succeed in the near future, making messy climate legislation unnecessary.