by Shane Henson — December 14, 2011—A new avenue for businesses to better assess their sustainability performance has been created through the launch of UL Environment’s (UL) Sustainability Quotient (SQ) Program, a comprehensive system of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability initiatives of corporations at an enterprise level.
According to Stephen Wenc, president of UL Environment, which offers environmental claims validation, multi-attribute product certification, environmental product declarations, and other services geared toward promoting sustainability, the SQ Program was established to foster adoption of a standardized language and rating platform for corporate sustainability that may also be used in risk mitigation, streamlining operations, and early action in anticipation of future regulation.
The SQ Program is based on a series of auditable standards, including UL 880: Sustainability for Manufacturing Organizations and UL 881: Sustainability for Service Sector Organizations, which is in development. Both standards were developed through a partnership with UL and GreenBiz Group, a leader in corporate sustainability media, leadership and reporting.
The SQ Program includes four service offerings:
- By completing an SQ Readiness Assessment, a company will be able to gauge its readiness for certification against one of UL’s enterprise level standards. Once the assessment is completed, the company will receive a detailed report indicating gaps between the enterprise’s existing program and the requirements of the specific UL Standard for purposes of certification.
- Through UL’s SQ Analytics, companies will be able to get detailed benchmark and gap analysis of their sustainability initiatives as measured against a selected UL Standard for the purpose of preparing for integration of sustainability efforts related to a merger or acquisition, or for targeted risk mitigation.
- The SQ Supply Chain Service provides support to enterprises that seek to use the SQ Program and Standards as a foundation for how they interact with their supply chain. Supply Chain Support Services can be highly customized to meet specific needs in assessing supply chains from a sustainability perspective.
- Finally, SQ Certification is available to companies that are ready to seek third-party verification of their sustainability practices. Recognizing that sustainability is a journey and many companies are in different stages on that voyage, UL offers “Focus Area” and “Full” certification that reflects the application of components or the entirety of a given UL Standard against the applicant’s operations.
- Through UL’s SQ Analytics, companies will be able to get detailed benchmark and gap analysis of their sustainability initiatives as measured against a selected UL Standard for the purpose of preparing for integration of sustainability efforts related to a merger or acquisition, or for targeted risk mitigation.
Early adopters of the SQ Program are Korean technology giant LG Electronics; U.S. software developer Intuit; and igefa, a Germany-based European service provider for janitorial supplies and equipment, food service disposables, and personal protective equipment.
LG Electronics used UL 880 as a benchmark for its sustainability initiatives at a major facility based in South Korea. Intuit, developer of popular software applications TurboTax and QuickBooks, is using UL 880 as a guide in developing its supplier responsibility policy. igefa sought out the expertise of UL Environment to assess its sustainability practices and synthesize its environmental, social and governance activities across its more than 30 member branches across Germany.
In the coming months, UL Environment expects to announce the results of its work with additional organizations, as well as the first SQ-qualified sustainability practitioners and business applications that will be available to support companies as they engage with the SQ Program.
