UL Launches UL 3600, Starting the Development Process For the First Standard to Help Companies Evaluate Circular Economy Efforts
MARIETTA, Ga., Sept. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- UL today introduced UL 3600, the certification document for Measuring and Reporting Circular Economy Aspects of Products, Sites and Organizations. Following a standards development process with stakeholders, UL 3600 will be the first standard that evaluates the circularity of companies' material flows. Circular Economy is widely seen as an important aspect of company sustainability efforts because these initiatives can help companies continue to grow, while managing resource scarcity, supply chain volatility and changing global regulations. Companies can begin certifying to UL 3600 now.
UL 3600 helps address an urgent need for methods to measure circularity progress in light of global megatrends - including climate change, resource constraints, and bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals - that are already having significant impacts on human and ecosystem health. The certification document provides the foundation of UL's Circularity Facts(TM) Program, through which UL evaluates a company's efforts to move from a linear economy mindset to a more sustainable, circular approach that eliminates waste and keeps materials in productive use longer. Through the program, UL is able to report on several aspects of sustainability, including the use of recycled content (such as closed-loop recycled content), bio-based content, recyclability, waste minimization and zero waste to landfill.
Companies that pursue certification to UL 3600 will have their material flows evaluated across three dimensions-- product, facility, and enterprise-- and the results will be reported in a Circularity Facts(TM) Report. The report serves as a transparency tool that shows a visual representation of a company's circularity efforts, and it can grow with a company as it expands the scope of its own circularity thinking and program.
"UL is pleased to introduce the world's first certification to measure a company's Circular Economy initiatives," said Alberto Uggetti, vice president and general manager for UL's Environment division. "Global issues such as supply chain constraints, recent restrictions on recycling imports and resource scarcity are pushing Circular Economy thinking to the forefront for many companies, and UL offers a way to track and measure progress on these initiatives, and communicate them to the marketplace in a transparent way."
The development of UL 3600 is an important mark of progress in Circular Economy and a signal that the concepts are starting to be applied more widely. UL anticipates that UL 3600 and the Circularity Facts Program will continue to evolve, potentially incorporating substances of concern, supply chain and social issues, and even more robust analytics in time. In the meantime, UL's certification document can be used to improve a company's understanding of the material flows and the impact of those flows. With wider adoption and the resulting consistency in the data collected, there is the potential for greater understanding of the circularity of whole supply chains, which in turn will enable stakeholders to prioritize the systems, processes, materials, and products that help mitigate some of the substantial environmental threats economies face today.
UL's William F. Hoffman III, Ph.D., UL Corporate Fellow and senior scientist, and primary author of the UL 3600 Standard, will speak on the topic of Circular Economy at the upcoming VERGE 18 conference in Oakland Ca. on a panel entitled "Meaningful Metrics for New Models" on Wednesday, October 17(th).
Visit our website to learn more about the Circularity Facts(TM) program and download UL 3600.
About UL's Environment Division
UL's Environment division works to advance global sustainability, environmental health and safety by supporting the growth and development of environmentally preferable products, services and organizations. We help companies achieve their sustainability goals--and help purchasers, specifiers, retailers, governments and consumers find products they can trust. UL Environment offers environmental claim validations, multi-attribute product certifications, environmental product declarations, indoor air quality certification, product emissions testing, chemical transparency organizational sustainability certification and consulting. For more information, visit http://www.ul.com/environment and connect with us via Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
About UL
UL fosters safe living and working conditions for people everywhere through the application of science to solve safety, security and sustainability challenges. The UL Mark engenders trust enabling the safe adoption of innovative new products and technologies. Everyone at UL shares a passion to make the world a safer place. We test, inspect, audit, certify, validate, verify, advise and train and we support these efforts with software solutions for safety and sustainability. To learn more about us, visit UL.com.
CONTACT: Sarah Partridge
UL
T: (404)-277-9118
sarah.partridge@ul.com
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