Underwriters Laboratories expanding reach into ‘green’ products

Reporting from Chicago — It’s not a regulatory arm of the government, but try to find a gadget in your home that Underwriters Laboratories hasn’t touched.

Check under the computer mouse or the smoke alarm, beneath the light switch or on the TV cable, and the telltale “UL” stamp will be there. The marking means the device is unlikely to catch fire.

And if you accidentally drive away from the gas station with the nozzle still in the tank, UL is the reason you don’t haul away the entire pump and set the neighborhood ablaze.

“Fire hazards, electrical shock hazards, radiation” are UL’s specialty, said John Drengenberg, its consumer affairs manager.

Now the testing giant is extending its reach into a maturing industry of “green” products — testing environmental product claims, solar panels, plugs for electric vehicles and wind turbines. And as nations, including the U.S., try to find ways to make sustainability more economically feasible, UL is expanding testing into that area globally as well.

“Our mission is to promote safe working environments for people. For the last century, we’ve been primarily focused on electrical and fire safety. But the world’s safety needs are always changing and evolving,” said Keith Williams, president, chief executive and trustee of the nonprofit.

Electrical engineer William Henry Merrill founded UL in 1894 after he was hired to examine the electrical safety of the Palace of Electricity at the World’s Fair in Chicago. It was the first large-scale use of electricity for lighting and some people questioned whether it could ever be safe. At the time there were no standards. So Merrill set to work as an independent testing and certification facility for electrical devices. By 1899 the company had published 1,000 test reports.

Since then it has become one of the world’s most recognized safety organizations, with more than 21 billion UL labels on 19,000 products. The company estimates the average home contains 125 UL markings.

Over the years, critics have complained that UL has stepped into areas historically left to government, such as food and water testing. The company is hired by food suppliers and processors for food safety auditing at things as varied as poultry plants and vending machines, and municipalities hire UL to test water supplies for contaminants.

Moreover, UL has few competitors, which enables UL to write the rules. And it has become an integral part of the marketplace. Retailers often will refuse to sell products that do not have the UL label affixed.

With its global testing offices, UL works on a 24-hour cycle. Its sprawling Northbrook, Ill., campus employs 1,700, and its reach extends to 98 countries. Companywide, UL rakes in $1 billion in sales annually.

It’s trying to set standards for so-called green products.

“What’s missing is a clear definition of what’s a green product. What we’re trying to do is to try to help facilitate the development of a set of standards that can create a consensus over what the heck is green,” Williams said.

In just three years UL has seen tremendous growth in solar technology testing. It operates a massive solar testing facility in San Jose, as well as another such lab in Suzhou, China. In 2010 it opened other solar testing labs in Germany and Japan.

UL says it’s matching the pace of an industry that from 2002 to 2007 saw demand increase by a compound annual rate of 44%, according to Renewable Energy World magazine.

As some coal-fired power plants close amid international debate about the effect of pollution and climate change, the solar industry is expected to grow. At the same time, the cost of the technology is declining rapidly.

“We decided a few years ago to invest in renewables — that they would be big,” said Clyde Kofman, UL senior vice president and chief commercial officer.

A few years ago, Kofman said, the solar industry saw a slowdown because of concerns from fire inspectors who feared that solar panels were being installed incorrectly and could lead to roof damage, fire or other safety problems.

Now, in addition to testing solar panels for durability — “We have an apparatus that will shoot out hail balls at a certain velocity,” Kofman said — UL runs a certified program that sets the standard for proper installation.

About 50% of UL’s resources are overseas. “Our mission, it isn’t only for Americans, it’s for Japan and China,” Williams said. “There’s a huge business opportunity there for American companies.”

UL is also investing in wind energy by testing large and small wind turbine generating systems, wind turbine assemblies, inverters and converters and generating-system components.

For more than 10 years the company has been testing smart meters with customers that distribute those products globally. The company sees smart-grid systems not only as a new way to manage the world’s electricity usage but also as a growth opportunity.

“There is a need for dedicated research to mitigate new risks in the home and consumer education to orient consumer behaviors and bring consumers a comfort level with the new technologies,” said Kevin Metz, a spokesman for UL.

The company is also testing and creating standards for the emerging electric vehicle market, and it recently published requirements for large batteries and plug-in cords to help prevent electrical hazards. Some automobile manufacturers have said they are awaiting word from UL about a standard connector for quick-charging technology, which is being installed in Chicago and can charge an electric vehicle in a matter of minutes.

In 2020, about 14 million electric vehicles are expected to be sold in China, Japan, the U.S. and Western Europe, according to a 2010 study by Boston Consulting Group.

Those standards, like most things at UL, are established by a consensus of manufacturers and safety experts, said Drengenberg, UL’s consumer affairs manager.

“The industry comes to us and asks us to put some order to it all,” he said.

jwernau@tribune.com