UL Announces First Certification to UL 880 Standard for Sustainability for Manufacturing Organizations

MARIETTA, Ga., June 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- UL Environment, a division of UL, announced today that Hexion Inc., a global leader in thermoset resins, is the first organization to certify to UL 880: Standard for Sustainability for Manufacturing Organizations. UL 880 is a comprehensive enterprise-level sustainability standard and certification program and helps companies measure their sustainability activities and assess how much their sustainability objectives and performance have become part of their overall enterprise goals, business, and functions.

UL developed and published the standard after a rigorous stakeholder engagement process and in collaboration with GreenBiz Group, a media network and research firm that seeks to advance opportunities at the intersection of business, technology and innovation. The standard consists of five domains of sustainability including Sustainability Governance, Environment, Work Force, Customers and Suppliers, and Community Engagement and Human Rights. Hexion achieved the pre-requisites and required number of points to obtain certification in the following domains: Governance; Work Force; Customer and Suppliers; Community Engagement and Human Rights. Hexion was recognized for leadership in their Chemical Feedstocks and Chemical Alternatives Program indicators. 

"UL developed UL 880 as a leadership standard for companies aspiring to shift from siloed sustainability initiatives to integrated sustainability programs that are infused in a company's enterprise goals and drive the way they do business," said Alberto Uggetti, vice president and general manager, UL Environment. "UL congratulates Hexion on being the first company to achieve certification to this standard and looks forward to seeing their continued commitment to company sustainability initiatives."

Hexion convened a cross-functional leadership team to compile and present evidence of the company's sustainability efforts. During this process they discovered that the company's governance infrastructure is a good indicator of how well its sustainability efforts are managed throughout the organization.  The UL 880 certification affirmed Hexion's governance processes in defining and reviewing detailed action items across issues ranging from occupational safety and health to ethics and product stewardship. In these areas, Hexion's leadership is actively engaged, with periodic progress updates throughout the year.

"Hexion is proud to be the first company to be certified to UL 880, which is a validation of our efforts to approach sustainability holistically as an organization," said Karen Koster, executive vice president, Environmental Health & Safety, Hexion. "We have been through ISO 14001, OSHAS 18001, and ACC Responsible Care audits, and I can say that the UL 880 certification process was one of the most comprehensive we've experienced. It is our goal to continuously improve our sustainability programs and being part of this rigorous certification process will enable us to do that."

Developing requirements that address an organization's impacts across multiple sustainability-related concepts is inherently complex. Building upon the century of rigor at UL in establishing standards for product safety, the UL and GreenBiz Group teams set out to create a standard that is comprehensive, capable of being consistently applied, credible, measurable and relevant to companies and their stakeholders. View Hexion's achievement at ul.com/spot.  

About UL Environment
UL Environment 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.

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SOURCE UL