Safety is where we began in 1894, and protecting people and places is ultimately what drives the services we offer today.
As the global safety science leader, our view of safety continues to expand, driven by our own curiosity and our customers’ drive to build a sustainable, healthy and prosperous future. We’ve learned that protection is inseparable from innovation because trust drives the success of new products and services. Our work encourages the confident adoption of the technologies that shape our future.
The credibility of third-party backed certifications and validations resonates with the consumer and with our corporate partners
and stakeholders. We know that the UL brand has opened doors
for LG and will continue to allow us to innovate and lead the technology marketplace.
- John I. Taylor
- Vice President, Public Affairs, LG Electronics USA
Making the world safer
In 2019, we helped our customers make the world safer through:

Advancing autonomous vehicle safety
Functional safety services
Our new functional safety offerings help our customers ensure that the critical automatic safety features in their vehicles will operate as expected in response to their inputs. Those same safety features – as empowered by functional safety – must be capable of managing or mitigating the results of operator errors, hardware and software failures, and environmental changes.

Enhancing automotive digital security
A global standard for cybersecurity
We contributed to the development of UNECE WP.29’s regulatory requirements for vehicle cybersecurity, as well as ISO/SAE 21434 standardization efforts, which provide a framework for implementing processes required by the UNECE regulations. This standard and UNECE regulations provide a global baseline for automotive digital security, help to ensure best practices are incorporated into vehicle design and call for ongoing support to keep vehicles’ technological systems secure post-production.

Advancing fire safety
New generation smoke alarms
Smoke alarms, and the testing processes we use to evaluate these devices, have evolved to better align with the behavior of fires in today’s homes – and in response to people’s understandable desire to silence nuisance alarms by disabling the devices. The next generation of smoke alarms and smoke detector systems use advanced or multiple sensors and software algorithms to distinguish between different types of fires and reduce the incidences of nuisance alarms related to cooking smoke. The revised requirements for these products reflect recent research into residential fires and the effectiveness of current smoke detection technologies. Kidde alarms with TruSense sensors were the first to receive certification to the revised UL 217, the Standard for Safety of Smoke Alarms, 8th Edition.
Working with UL on cybersecurity provides us with a competitive advantage because of that independent third-party Verification. We think that carries a lot of weight, it carries a lot of value and provides trust to our customers going forward.
- Michael Regelski
- Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Electrical Sector, Eaton
Making the world safer

Reducing risks for emerging industries
Comprehensive services for the legal cannabis and cannabidiol (CBD) industries
Optimizing growth and increasing production efficiency brings new safety challenges for the legal cannabis and CBD industries. Our aim is to help the companies operate in a safer, more secure and more sustainable manner. We provide comprehensive services to help companies operate safe and secure buildings, facilities and equipment in growing, producing, distributing and retailing legal cannabis.

Keeping it cool
Thermal barrier safety certification
Foamed plastic insulation is commonly found in cold food storage facilities, food processing plants, ice skating arenas and other climate-controlled facilities. The International Building Code requires the use of a thermal barrier to separate foam plastics from a building’s interior space. Our new certification program helps the built environment industry verify the integrity of thermal barriers in alignment with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 275, Standard Method of Fire Test for the Evaluation of Thermal Barriers.

Innovating safely
3D printed building construction
To help safety keep pace with innovation, UL developed UL 3401, Outline of Investigation for 3D Printed Building Construction, to help determine whether a 3D printed construction complies with applicable government regulations and building construction code requirements such as mechanical (structural) strength, fire performance, air and water barrier compliance, thermal insulation, indoor air quality, durability and integrity.

Making safer payments possible
Self-test tool for payment products
Our SecureHorizon™ payment compliance digital platform provides a streamlined test environment for testing payment products. Merchants and terminal vendors have 24/7 access to the Software as a Service (SaaS)-based platform, which enables them to emulate real-world markets and ecosystems throughout their development process. Modules now in development will extend coverage to Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices.

Raising consumer confidence
Smart device security rating system
How can consumers trust that the smart products they purchase are secured against cyberattacks? Our new Marketing Claim Verification program evaluates devices to UL’s IoT Security Rating framework; tested products are assigned to one of five security levels, ranging from bronze to diamond.