Aligning Standards with the UN SDGs: A Conversation with David Wroth and Grace Callahan, UL Standards & Engagement

Word to the W.I.S.E. #whystandardsmatter

You can read the transcript of that interview with David Wroth and Grace Callahan here:

Host: David and Grace, thank you so much for joining us on this critical episode of the Word to the W.I.S.E. podcast.

[00:01:13] David Wroth: You're welcome. It's a pleasure to be here.

[00:01:15] Grace Callahan: Yes. Thank you for having us.

[00:01:17] Host: So, to begin with, what was the idea behind working on this report to link UL standards, catalogues, and standards development processes with the UN sustainable development goals?

[00:01:28] Grace Callahan: So, the UN Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action for both developing and developed countries to work together to improve human lives and protect the environment. So, with this initiative at UL Standards and Engagement, we wanted to look at how UL standards can help achieve the 17 sustainable development goals in order to determine the impact and benefits of our standards globally. So, our goal with this initiative is to use this information to inform future standards development activities, develop standards to address gaps in the SDGs and to better align existing UL standards to the goals.

[00:02:08] David Wroth: Yeah, and I'd like to add on something that I think is sometimes a bit of a misconception about the sustainable development goals. As Grace mentioned, there are a wide range of goals and they're much more than just sustainability. The keyword is development and that means that we're advancing people, planet, and the prosperity together. So, the goals are about education, equity, but also innovation, meaningful and safe employment, and sustainability. And so, we believe that the SDGs represent a set of noble goals for the world, and we want to be a bigger part of it.

[00:02:52] Host: And can you tell us more on how you went about the entire exercise? Because one can see it's a rather exhaustive report that uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to determine that alignment.

[00:03:03] David Wroth: Right. Our approach you know, combined the best of subject matter expert, our colleagues throughout UL Standards and Engagement really get deep into the content that are part of our standards. And we know that they have this great body of knowledge that we want to tap into. But we also knew that assessing, you know, 1500 standards against 17 goals could be a very, very time-consuming effort. And so, we used some data science techniques. We used several algorithms to predict the association of a standard to an SDG by using a similarity score that takes a look at the text of each of the scope statements of our standards, and then compares that against the description of the SDG and its targets and using this natural language processing algorithm, it essentially takes a look, not just at- are there common words between those two pieces of content, but it's now sophisticated enough to look at - are there similar concepts between the scope statement and the SDG and its targets? And so, by using this similarity score, we gave that score and those results as an input to the subject matter expert, so that they could quickly and easily identify those standards that are most aligned with the SDG. And then they made the final call because again that natural language processing algorithm is just an algorithm and we wanted to make sure that our people, you know, we're able to stand behind the results that we have in this report. And so that's why we combined those two pieces, you know, the subject matter expert piece of our colleagues and the data approach as well.

[00:05:15] Host: And so, what are the key areas where standards can make a massive difference in meeting those 17 UN SDGs?

[00:05:24] David Wroth: Well to start, it's a great outcome, we think, that we have identified that there are more than 950 cases where a UL standard supports one or more of the SDGs. And in fact, each unique standard in that list supports an average of at least two of the SDGs. And then the other thing that we can say, kind of looking more broadly across the SDGs is for each one of the 17, there's at least one UL standard that can be used as a guide to help support the efforts that achieve those identified targets of the SDGs. But back to the more pointed part of your question, the SDGs with the largest number of associations that we saw. Our first, SDG 7, which is about affordable and clean energy, has more than 130 UL standards that have an association with that particular, SDG - SDG 9, which is about industry, innovation and infrastructure, has more than a hundred associations. SDG 11, which is all about sustainable cities and communities, has 154 individual standards that are linked to that particular SDG. And then finally another one where we have a lot of standards supporting the goal is number 12, which is about responsible consumption and production, which has 120 associations. So, you can see that our portfolio of standards really supports a variety of the SDGs. and in some cases, goes very deep into the goal and the targets that are associated with it.

[00:07:24] Grace Callahan: Yes. And we want to highlight SDG 7, which focuses on ensuring access to affordable and sustainable energy for everyone. So, through standardization, we, UL Standards and Engagement help ensure that energy storage designs are performance driven, but they also prioritize safety and reliability as well as sustainability. So, while we found 130 associations between SDG 7 and our standards, two examples of specific UL standards that support this goal include UL 95 40, which is the standard for energy storage systems and equipment, as well as UL 95 40 A, which is test method for evaluating thermal runaway, fire propagation, and battery energy storage systems.

[00:08:15] Host: Hmm.

[00:08:15] David Wroth: That's a mouthful Grace.

[00:08:17] Host: I know it's clearly a lot of standards and the SDGs do actually in fact provide strategies, like you said, David, at the outset, to reduce inequality and promote gender equity. How is UL Standards and Engagement promoting those efforts?

[00:08:35] David Wroth: Well, we have a number of different things that we're doing along those lines. But probably the most significant thing that we've done is that we've recently signed the UNECE Declaration for Gender Responsive Standards and Standards Development. And that signature really highlights our commitment to work together towards gender balance and representation in the standards development process in an inclusive way. We also commit to create gender responsive standards and to achieve gender equality through the empowerment of women and girls, which aligns with SDG 5. And so, it's really, a broad set of activities that are going to go across, you know, both who participates in the process of developing standards and making sure that the standards that we develop fully account for the, the way that women work, women and girls work and live and so forth. So, it's across multiple activities there.

[00:09:45] Grace Callahan: Yes, and we want to make sure that our standards are really developed for everybody. So, we are currently working on putting together our gender action plan, which part of which includes collecting data on the gender representation on our technical committees, as well as developing guidance information for our standards authors, to make sure that we're developing gender responsive standards.

[00:10:09] David Wroth: And there's, there's another angle that, that I'd like to, to highlight here as well. There's also an effort to look at the idea of inclusive language, and part of that highlights the idea that if we use language in our standards or even in our technical committee meetings, that offends people that has the, you know, the chilling effect of not really allowing them to bring everything that they know and the people that they are to the table. And what we've found in some of our analysis of the content of our standards is we have certain language that is very male oriented and sometimes has a, a bit of a, an odd connotation to it. And in talking with a number of standards professionals who are women, they've highlighted the idea that, you know, some of the language that's used in, in our standards and in our meetings, you know, tends to be off-putting. And so, we're addressing that inclusive language as a way to allow everyone who participates in those committee meetings to feel that they can really speak through their voice and bring forward their expertise into the process.

[00:11:25] Host: And that inclusivity is really important. So, the next question really is, what is the role of other international companies, institutions, and entities in achieving the goal set forth in the UN agenda, and how can they use the findings of your report to further support the SDGs?

[00:11:44] David Wroth: Well, I really believe that in order for us to achieve the sustainable development goals, because they are so broad and so far, reaching that essentially every organization, every company, every institution, and in fact each one of us individually, has a part to play in achieving these goals. You know, part of what we're trying to bring forward here is that standards are uniquely positioned to provide a framework to transition from the goals into specific actions. And by following industry accepted technical standards developed by UL Standards and Engagement and other standards bodies, it provides a blueprint for those products, those systems, and even services, to bolster the efforts that come about naturally. And by following standards you're both allowing people to know that the, the product or the system or the services are built and maintained and designed specifically to be of high quality and to meet this standard that other people have agreed to. But now it's also demonstrating that by doing that, you're taking steps towards achieving the SDGs. So, it, it essentially lays out a pattern that can be followed that makes achieving the goals associated or the, the metrics and the targets associated with the SDGs a little bit easier, and you get the other benefits of following a consensus-based standard. That is also very much something that is valued in the marketplace.

[00:13:40] Grace Callahan: Definitely. And so, you know, using the findings of our report, we're really working to identify the gaps in standardization in very key SDG areas. Using this data to really evaluate opportunities where we can develop standards to further support the achievement of the SDGs. So as more standards development organizations conduct similar initiatives to document their own contributions of standards to the SDGs, the standards development community as a whole can align and collectively address the gaps and continue to really support the achievement of the SDGs and contribute to, you know, improving sustainability in society.

[00:14:22] Host: So, coming together and addressing the gaps and action also seem to be quite an important. From what we understand there are also other resources that are being created by SDOs and research bodies that provide similar sort of data. How can UL Standards and Engagement then act as a central repository for all the information that is out there?

[00:14:44] David Wroth: Yeah, well, we're trying, both to, you know, collaborate with other SDOs and, we're keeping track of the similar efforts that Grace mentioned of other SDOs to, to do this. And what we see is this growing ecosystem of organizations that are tracking towards the SDGs. And we're going to continue to map what we're doing and be aware of what others are doing to support the SDGs and we're working to evaluate the impact of UL standards on the environment and on society. So, while we can't do it all alone, what we see is that we have a common understanding and a common interest in advancing the SDGs with a large number of other SDOs. And we see that we play a facilitation role, much more than a centralization role in, in doing this. But as we've identified these resources, we're certainly going to be looking to make them accessible through the UL Standards and Engagement website, ulse.org and through reports and other deliverables, if you will, or, or other content that we can make available to colleagues around the world.

[00:16:10] Host: So, what lies ahead? How can listeners of this podcast do something next with regards to doing more to contribute to furthering those SDGs when it comes to standards development?

[00:16:22] David Wroth: Well, I think the first thing is to go to the UN website on the SDGs and to really take a bit more of a deep dive into the SDGs and their targets. And it's a wonderful resource because it also provides a number of examples on how organizations, how companies, how people you know, are helping to achieve the SDGs. Because I think when people look across the breadth of the SDGs, it's likely that you're going to find something that you personally are passionate about. Or something that your organization can get behind because there is a commonality between the mission of your organization and one of the SDGs. So, I think the more we become aware of what the SDGs are and what their targets are, the more able we are to find our place in, uh, understanding how we can contribute to the goals. So that, I think is, is the most important action that each of us can take in terms of understanding how that goes. But then the other part of it is to, you know, again, find what you are doing as an organization or as an individual. And then look to understand what the standards are that support this area. Because again, what we see is that the standards that are developed provide a blueprint that allow you to take what you would normally do or what your organization would normally develop and produce and produce that in a way that is a contribution to the achievement of those goals. So, you don't have to reinvent the wheel, you can use this standard as a way to accelerate the achievement of your goals and the SDGs.

[00:18:28] Grace Callahan: And I would add that for the listeners of the podcast, you know, you can help us work towards achieving the SDGs by engaging in our standards development process. And so, there are many ways to participate. You can submit a proposal to create a new standard or revise an existing one. You can submit comments on proposals, and you can also attend a technical committee meeting. And so, our process is open to all interested parties and there are no membership dues. So, you know, as Dave mentioned, achieving the SDGs is really a group effort. So we're really excited, you know, to work with other SDOs and stakeholders to make sure that we are working towards SDGs and achieving, you know, sustainability.

[00:19:16] Host: And hopefully through the Word to the W.I.S.E., we will also put the word out there. David and Grace, thank you so much for speaking to the Word to the W.I.S.E. podcast.

[00:19:24] David Wroth: You're quite welcome. It's been our pleasure.

[00:19:26] Grace Callahan: Thank you.