Climate Change Factoid - How Do We Fix It? - Part Three (# 15 of a series)

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Author: Rich Albertson

Part Two of this Factoid made the claim that the election to use fossil fuels for transport, power and agriculture has proved a very bad decision and that it was the private sector that made it, not the government. Then there was discussion of how government could assure the public that new products introduced in the future can be designed, made and used sustainably at any stage of their product life,e without degrading the environment. And then there was discussion about how that could all be accomplished without heavy government regulation interfering in the activities of entrepreneurs functioning in a free market economy.

These days there are a lot of companies hyping their products or services as green. Most of them I don't believe but, I know that many folks will. How can I, or anyone else, make sure that companies claiming greenness are being both accurate and truthful? If we are to achieve sustainability in the way we operate our society, something many believe will be essential to continued survival, we're going to need a method of encouraging the private sector to pursue this goal - only seriously for a change rather than the lip service we have become used to. One answer could be contained in the operations of a 100 year old business called Underwriters Laboratories.

If you are a manufacturer of electric appliances to be installed in buildings the device must, by law, have a UL label. The UL label means that Underwriters Laboratories, a huge engineering firm that evaluates such products for the Insurance companies, has determined the product complies with law and can be used safely. Without that label a manufacturer could not acquire Products Liability Insurance and the resulting exposure to risk would prevent the product from ever getting to market. Underwriters Labs has been doing this for over 100 years. Government accepts the label, the public accepts the label, the insurance companies accept the label and the manufacturer only has to deal with UL, not the government. Now we want something new from UL the Guaranteed Green label.
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When you see a UL GG (Guaranteed Green) label on a product, this is what it should mean. Use of the product (as designed); the entire process that brings the product into existence; the materials from which it is made; how it is distributed; how it is serviced and then, at the end of its usable life how all that is left of it will be recycled - all of those questions must be answered before the product can be determined to be both sustainable and environmentally benign. When products must unavoidably contain substances that could be harmful to the environment, should they escape management, the manufacturer would have to design a plan for recycling and pay UL to supervise and certify it's proper execution. If this system had existed a century ago we would all be driving electric cars today and we would have a landscape and atmosphere we would be proud to leave our children.

The final ingredient is government's announcement that the lowest priced, GG labeled product or service will be purchased first, even if unlabeled products are cheaper. It's a voluntary program. Companies are free to ignore the government as a customer, most do, so it will be up the public to decide what they want, cheap stuff or a place that will be as nice for our kids as it was for us.
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When I decided to tell UL about this idea, I was certain they would think it terribly clever. I discovered they had already been working on this program for several years and currently offer the service to their clients. If Underwriters Laboratories thinks its a good idea, maybe it actually is. (Peer reviewed research, supporting the claims made in this Factoid, can be found at the website shown below)About the Author:

Rich Albertson is a retired lawyer, author, builder, building designer, carpenter and long time amateur naturalist. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Albertson's most recent book (2009), The Sky is the Limit A Brief and Easy Explanation of Climate Change for Present and Future Voters (134pp), is an explanation of the science, economics, politics and a discussion of the future of climate change written for people of average experience. Climate Change Factoids are drawn from the book. His first book (1978), The Bio-Conversion of Waste to Resource (4 Vols, 2624pp), was a treatise on methods for the sustainable management of solid and liquid waste in urban society. More about the Sky is the Limit book can be found at http://www.thecircleworks.org

As a Naturalist, Albertson's primary interest is to understand and then explain the conflicts that result from modern human practices that interfere with the operation of the natural world on a planetary scale.

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