12/19/2022

Featured Council of Centers Member

Official Name of Organization/Center: UL Standards & Engagement

 Director:  Dr. David Steel, Executive Director

 Organization’s Twitter Handle: @ul_standards

About Underwriters Laboratories: 

Underwriters Laboratories was originally founded in 1894, and our work in standards development dates to 1903 when our first standard was published.

Our headquarters is in Northbrook, Illinois. We have offices in Washington D.C., Research Triangle, North Carolina, and Ottawa, Ontario. We also have remote staff located throughout the U.S. as well as China, Denmark, India, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

1. What is something that the city in which your organization/center is located is known for?

Northbrook is the hometown of director John Hughes, known for 1980’s movies such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club and Home Alone. It is widely believed that the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois, where some of his films are set, is based on Northbrook and surrounding communities. Several films were shot in and around Northbrook.

2. What is/are the primary injury topics your organization/center addresses?

UL Standards & Engagement works across a variety of injury prevention topics, but our key focus areas include electric shock, fire and mechanical injuries.

3. Please tell us a bit about the injury work that is being done at your organization/center. This work does not have to solely be work related to traditional grants or publications, it can include unique projects, community partnerships, and/or outreach programs.

Our injury prevention work focuses on developing standards for the safe design, production and use of industrial and consumer products. We convene stakeholders from multiple interested groups to analyze product safety incidents, understand root causes and then develop hazard elimination or mitigation strategies to be incorporated into standards.

Using a variety of data sources, statistical and data science methods, we evaluate safety incident trends, precursor events, failure modes and injury outcomes to better understand the factors that can be addressed through product design. We bring these issues and factors to the Technical Committees who are responsible for the standard and facilitate the process of developing solutions to these problems. We are then responsible for the finalization, publication and distribution of the standard.

We partner with our colleagues in the UL Research Institutes who conduct research to understand critical issues that underpin safety in these fields. For example, our Fire Safety Research Institute has been studying fire dynamics and the properties of smoke for more than a decade. This research, conducted in partnership with the fire service, has shown the effectiveness of closed doors to protect people from fire and smoke, and shows how little time people have to react to home fires. We have developed awareness campaigns to transfer the research insights into practical strategies to prevent injuries. An example of this strategy is “Close before you Doze”, an entire suite of ready-to-use tools and resources available via first responders to enable educators to spread the word that a closed door helps stop the spread of fire.

4. Are there opportunities in which students or faculty can connect with your organization/center (i.e. training or outreach opportunities)?

This is an area that we are exploring as part of a recently expanded scope of work to include safety advocacy. With that said, we have two current programs which showcase the role of standards in the safety ecosystem.

Standards Matter provides an essay on our standards for everyday products and how the requirements drive safety, security and sustainability.

The ULSE Virtual Community is an interactive platform demonstrating visually how our standards for various parts or items work together in settings like electric vehicles and healthcare settings. We are close to launching an expansion of the Virtual Community that includes the systems, products and components found throughout our homes.

5. How is your organization/center involved with SAVIR (i.e. past/future conference site, board/committee members)?

Our organization has principally been involved in SAVIR through conference presentations and workshops. Our goals in working with SAVIR are to educate injury prevention professionals on the standards development process and the key role they can plan in it, and to share our research to advance the field.

6. What is your favorite part about SAVIR?

Our favorite part of SAVIR is the ability to collaborate and learn from such a diverse group of researchers in the injury prevention field. While we think about safety every day, the approach to safety through the lens of injury prevention research has resulted in advances in our methods.

7. Tell us about a fun tradition or activity you do as an organization/center.  

As a team which maintains a strong, tight-knit culture despite being spread throughout North America and the world, we really enjoy opportunities to meet in person. Our last in-person, all-staff meeting occurred at the beginning of 2020 prior to COVID-19 lockdowns, and unfortunately, team members from Asia were not able to make the trip because the virus was already preventing travel to or from that part of the world.

Although some business travel has resumed (with precautions), we are hopeful for opportunities to connect in-person again in the future.

8. Anything else you would like to share with SAVIR members about your organization/center?  

UL Standards & Engagement is one of three organizations within the UL enterprise, and one of two nonprofits. The other nonprofit is the UL Research Institutes, which is focused on safety science research in multiple focus areas. The third organization, UL Solutions, provides testing, inspection, certification and other services.

A corporate restructuring at the end of 2021 created UL Standards & Engagement, spinning off the standards development organization from the existing nonprofit and growing the scope of work to include safety advocacy.

All three organizations underwent a rebranding in June 2022.

If your center would like to be featured in an upcoming newsletter, please email Kristi Roberts at Kristin.Roberts@NationwideChildrens.Org