Sustainability Quotient Program
More companies are realizing the benefits of incorporating
sustainable practices, noting that it can improve the bottom
line, mitigate potential risks and build customer loyalty.
However, measuring the progress of corporate sustainability goals and
communicating related achievements has been difficult. As sustainability
becomes integrated into the normal course of business, communication of
these targets and goals has a greater importance. Verification of the data
used to do so become essential.
To help businesses bridge this gap and build a foundation for sustainability
performance measurement, UL Environment developed a comprehensive
UL ISR 880 Domains
1
Environment
2
Workforce
3
Sustainability Governance
4
Community Engagement
and Human Rights
5
Customers & Suppliers
sustainability standard. The organization-wide sustainability standard
sets the requirements for third-party verification of an organization’s
sustainability practices.
According to a 2010 study of CEO perceptions of sustainability issues,
93% of those surveyed believe that sustainability issues will be critical
to the future success of their business.
The Sustainability Quotient (SQ) Program is a comprehensive enterprise-level
sustainability program from the global leader in independent third party
certification, UL (Underwriters Laboratories). The program enables the
assessment of an enterprise’s sustainability efforts, as defined in the
program’s standards, to measure results and identify opportunities to drive
improvement and lasting sustainability practices.
The SQ Program integrates corporate sustainability best practices through
a range of services based on the SQ sustainability standards. The standard
includes five domain areas that address the governance for sustainability,
environment, work force, customers and suppliers, and community
engagement and human rights.
UL, the UL logo and the UL certification mark are trademarks of Underwriters Laboratories Inc. © 2011 9/11 BDI 110818v2
SQ Program Overview:
Enterprises can engage in the program through certification and the service areas
described below. A typical path toward certification includes the following steps.
Kickoff:
The applicant will work with UL Environment to identify the
organizational boundary and type of certification: full or focused.
Verification:
The applicant company provides requested data and other evidence
to the auditors for review. Applicant personnel will be available
to support the on-site assessment interviews as needed. Auditors
will complete a procedure report and submit that jointly to UL
Environment and to the Applicant;
Certification:
UL Environment will review the agreed-upon procedures report;
certify the results, delivering a certification report and certificate
that authorizes the company to use the certification badge on its
corporate level materials per the terms of use guidelines.
SQ Readiness Assessment:
Allows companies to gauge their degree of readiness to progress towards
certification through prerequisite and core sustainability indicators. Once the
assessment is completed, the company receives a detailed report indicating
gaps between the enterprise’s existing program and the requirements of the
SQ program standard for purposes of certification.
SQ Focus Area Certification:
Focus area certification offers companies the option to concentrate
sustainability efforts on a particular domain area. In the first year the
manufacturer may opt to focus on the environment domain while adding the
governance and workforce domain areas the next year. There is the option
to complete focus area certifications and build upon that to achieve full
certification.
SQ Full Certification:
Companies can achieve full SQ certification by meeting the requirements
in all five domain areas for a single or multiple business units. Both the
full certification and focused certification paths require a third party audit.
Companies that achieve full certification receive the SQ mark for marketing
and promotional purposes.
ULE 880 Scoring Structure:
About UL Environment
UL Environment supports the growth
and development of sustainable
Leadership Indicators
products, services and organizations
in the global marketplace through
Core Indicators
standards development, educational
Prerequisites
To receive a Certified
Score, companies
must meet all
prerequisites and
achieve points in each
of the core indicators
services and independent third-party
assessment and certification. Specific
environmental solutions services
UL Environment provides include
environmental claims validation,
sustainable products certification,
organizational sustainability
Inventories
and Baselines
>
Policies and
Procedures
>
Performance
>
Reporting
guidance, environmental product
declarations and advisory services.
Additional information about
UL Environment can be found at
SQ Analytics
ulenvironment.com. Or follow UL
SQ Analytics provides companies with a detailed benchmark and gap analysis
Environment news and education
of their sustainability initiatives against the program standards. This service
tips on Twitter @ulenvironment.
is best suited for companies that have specific objectives in mind above and
beyond eventual certification such as merger and acquisition assessment or
targeted risk mitigation.
About UL
UL is a premier global safety science
Supply Chain Support Services
This 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.
Training
company with more than 100 years
of proven history. Employing more
than 7,000 professionals in over 100
countries, UL is evolving the future
of safety with five distinct business
units — Product Safety, Environment,
Life & Health, Verification and
Specialized training programs are offered to employees in companies
University — to meet the expanding
seeking to become SQ certified as well to sustainability consultants and
needs of customers and the global
auditors interested in working with manufacturing companies pursuing SQ
public. For more information on UL
certification. Once an auditor or consultant goes through the required UL
services, visit UL.com.
training program, they become SQ qualified and can work directly with the
companies engaged in the SQ Program.
For more information contact Craig Coulter at 717.860.6044
or e-mail craig.coulter@ulenvironment.com
UL, the UL logo and the UL certification mark are trademarks of Underwriters Laboratories Inc. © 2011 9/11 BDI 110818v2
UL and the UL logo are trademarks of Underwriters Laboratories Inc. © 2011. All rights reserved. 8/11 BDI 110818