UL (Underwriters Laboratories) Addresses Gap Between Demand and Consumption of Green Products

BANGALORE, February 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Leading Environment Experts Present "Sustainable Approaches to Sustainability" at National Conference

With the rapid growth in the global "Green Marketplace", UL (Underwriters Laboratories) hosted a national conference to analyze and discuss elements of sustainability at The Trident Oberoi, Mumbai on February 19. The conference was held in the context of "Greenwashing", the increasingly prevalent practice of making unsubstantiated or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product. Greenwashing is leading to a lack of trust in green product claims by manufacturers.

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Designed around the theme of "Sustainable Approaches to Sustainability", the conference highlighted issues, best practices and methods to reduce environmental footprint, analyzed goals for organizations and individuals to develop a sustainable methodology that is environmentally, fiscally and economically sound, within and outside the built environment.

The global Green Marketplace for sustainable products and services has seen rapid and sustained growth over the last decade. Two recent studies in North America and Europe have shown that: 36% of US consumers claim to regularly buy green products. 43% EU consumers strongly agree that companies should be mindful of the environmental impact of their products and processes. There is a significant gap between the projected demand and current sales of green products. The conference discussed approaches to bridge the gap and instil trust in consumers on the environmental benefits of a product. It brought out aspects of sustainability for products and organizations, and methods to attain market leadership.

The conference chief guest Dr. Prem C Jain, Chairman, IGBC, highlighted Indian approach to Sustainable Growth and the keynote speaker Dr. Prasad Modak, Executive President, Environmental Management Center, pointed the strategic approach for Greening of Procurement (GP) as well as lined up speaker representatives from Infosys who highlighted sustainability in the services sector and representatives from Godrej who covered sustainability in the manufacturing sector. Spokespeople from UL included R A Venkitachalam, VP and MD, UL Emerging Markets, and Scot Case, Director, Market Development, UL Environment.

About UL Environment  

UL Environment (ULE) is one of the business units of UL that builds on UL's 117-year history of expertise with product testing and standards creation and its ongoing legacy of consumer trust in the marketplace, thus fulfilling the criteria needed for market transformation to occur. ULE offers services to help manufacturers in credible environmental claims and transparency helping consumers to choose the right product. As the environmental standards are evolving, ULE helps producers with services right from building sustainable product to sustainable organization and in turn the safe and sustainable world.

About UL

UL is a premier global independent safety science company with more than 118-years of history. Employing more than 10,000 professionals with customers in over 100 countries, UL has five distinct business units - product safety, environment, life & health, knowledge services, and verification services - to meet the expanding needs of our customers and to deliver on our public safety mission. For more information on UL's family of companies and network of 95 laboratory, testing, and certification facilities, visit http://www.UL.com.

Primary Media Contact: Lavanya Chandra Bose, Lavanya.c@ul.com, 91-80-41384470

SOURCE UL India Pvt Ltd