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Lexie Castor
Ms. Hamby
UWRT 1101
October 15, 2014
Underwriters Laboratories
Over 120 years ago, a company named Underwriters Laboratories (UL) was founded
after the Worlds Fair in Chicago had displayed the palace of electricity. It was because of the
multiple fires due to lack of a consistent requirement, it was then that UL was born and founded
by a person named William Henry Merrill who wrote the first standard for electricity.
Since that time the mission and the UL brand have stood for product safety and quality
performance. To stay relevant in this century UL has expanded the definition of safety to
include, security, health, sustainability, supply chain, environment and much more. Within this
evolution the mission has stayed constant.Working to deliver safe products for people
worldwide. UL is 11,000 people strong, and has facilities in over 60 countries spanning the
globe.
The company is structured such that there are six key business units to include:
Commercial & Industrial, Environment, Information & Insights, Life & Health, Consumer and
Workplace Health and Safety. It is because of my interest in the topic, and my connections, I
chose to explore ULs Environment Business Unit as the focus of my discourse community
topic.

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First, a little about the UL Environment business unit. The diversity and passion for the
mission is very prominent. They work to communicate their sustainability strategies and
initiatives with advisory services and expertise that supports the decision-making process every
step of the way, including market research and strategy development.
As you might guess, sitting in on a meeting and interviewing employees is quite
challenging because UL Environment has their discourse communities scattered all around the
globe. However, I happen to know Lisa Meier, Vice President (VP) and General Manager (GM)
of UL Environment located in Atlanta, Georgia. She is my mother. When I asked her to answer
a few questions regarding her position in the business and about the tight discourse community
she was a part of, she was able to spare some time to be interviewed. When speaking with her
about the environmental side of UL, she showed confidence and pride in what she was speaking
about. Meier has not been at UL for any real length of time, two years at most, so listening to her
speak was intriguing.
When asked why Meier joined this particular discourse community, she responded, I
changed careers to try something new. The area of sustainability seemed interesting and seemed
to be on an accelerated growth path. Quite honestly it has been a longer learning curve than I
anticipated. I believe this is due to the unique language spoken in this space. My goal, to make
the language more main stream. I then followed up with a question regarding what kinds of
unique language is spoken in the discourse community, she responded, Terms to describe
services like Environmental product declarations (EPD), life cycle assessments (LCA), and a
reference to certain standards that we develop from which our customers achieve certifications.
A few such examples are UL 110 which is a mobile phone standard and Greenguard which is a
certification mark highlighting safer indoor air quality. There are also companies or

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governments we work with that people in our community know, but those outside the
community may not recognize (USGBC, EPA, CEC, GreenSeal, C2C, Earthwards, etc).
I then asked a series of questions to dig a little more in depth about the discourse community
she was apart of like, what kinds of writing do you do on the job? Meier responded,
Communications with customers (either via email, formal letters, or newsletters),
communications with the team (either broadly or w/in a function and typically via email or
presentation format), communications with what we refer to as our core team (most senior
management who seek to understand the strategy. This is usually done via a power point
deck.and finally w/ media (this is usually done w/ an email response to questions but
sometimes done through a one-on-one interview or discussion). What kinds of things are
important for communicating in this profession? A knowledge of sustainability, a vision for
where you believe it is headed and why, credibility among the network (those who have been in
it for years and continue to help define the space), and most importantly the passion to make a
difference, explained Meier.
Learning the language of a discourse community is not always easy, especially if you were
not a member before and just recently joined. UL is an industry leader that is continuously
redefining itself; while growing at an accelerated pace, it is still new and seeks consistency in the
internal language.
Motivating employees can also be a difficult task to pick up just like learning a discourse
communities language. As expressed in an article I briefly reviewed, there are several
opportunities to motivate a team of individuals. UL has something generated by corporate which
will take into consideration the individual BU performance. This is known as AEIP (All
Employee Incentive Program). The calculation will reward overall business units performance

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as well as reward all UL employees and is generated based on a percent of base salary. There are
also sales incentive programs (SIP) for the sales teams and individual contributor rewards which
start at $25 and go up. UL also holds quarterly town hall meetings where they discuss the
business and highlight those performers that have gone beyond the scope of his or her role(s).
The most interesting and exciting motivator comes from the passion the team has for the overall
mission of the company as well as the mission of their business unit. When asked if some
employees in her discourse community were more involved than others Meier went on to say,
Yes, however most believe in the mission so they participate where time allows. There is also
quite a bit of involvement outside of work. We have had employees at a few of our sites
participate in initiatives like the ALS Bucket Challenge, and recently had 100% employee
participation to raise money for a selected charity. My takeaway on the topic of people
motivation is that it too seems to be unique to this community.
During my research on this discourse community, I faced quite a few limitations.
Unfortunately, I did not have the time to physically attend a meeting in person, however I was
able to attend a meeting via conference call. During the call, I felt very disconnected from the
conversation because there were so many acronyms and unique special terms that it made the
conversation hard to follow. It confused me as they jumped from one topic to the next and the
flow of the conversation, to me, seemed very choppy and disorganized. However, as I was
listening and trying to follow along with what the group was discussing, I could easily pick out
who was the leader of the group conversation. The woman I could hear on the other side of the
phone seemed very confident in what she had to say about certain subjects and showed slight
emotion here and there when it came to giving people a chance once provided with a general
direction. She wanted them to do their job and to do it well.

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The nature of UL is so unique. UL Environment employs many toxicologists and

chemists which also have a unique language, almost as if a discourse community inside of my
community of focus. All this adds up to my lack of understanding about what actually happens
in and around the UL Environment business. Even with some pre-preparation and research on
topics of environment and sustainability, I would be considered an outsider in this discourse
community.
When I first walked into where my mother worked, I was surprised to see and observe
what was taking place. When one thinks of the typical office space, you might think of
cubicles and tons of employees running everywhere just waiting for 6pm to roll around to
complete their long day at work. At UL Environment, this is not the case. When you first walk
into the office building, you are greeted by many quotes and pictures about articles and ads
referencing what they strive to achieve. What stood out the most among all was their mission
statement, Protecting public health and quality of life through programs that improve indoor
air.
Besides the mission statement, there were many different key facts that jumped out to me
and had me surprised as I examined the wall. Did you know, Asthma is the fastest growing
incurable disease in the world? Did you know, Formaldehyde is the most common volatile
organic compound emitting from indoor materials (VOCs)? Believe it! Indoor air 2-5 times more
polluted than outdoor air and the average reduction in VOCs achieved by Greenguard certified
products was 80%. Not only did the office I observed have important quotes and key facts on the
walls, but it had laboratories in the building to test various things. The larger laboratory
chambers were specific to large items like mattresses, furniture, and appliances. The smaller
laboratory chambers were specific to small items like electronics. They even have a room

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specific to testing air by gathering air in small vials, which are then analyzed by an array of
different scientists with different backgrounds that are involved with UL. Indoor air contains
thousands of different chemical and biological pollutants, which goes to show why adding the
UL Environment business unit was important to keep UL relevant and a very valuable service for
our society.
While I felt very disconnected from this discourse community, the topic still very much
of interest to me. As I strive to graduate college with an MBA, I hope over time, to accumulate
many connections and become a strong independent business woman just like my mother.
Someday, I hope to partake in another conference call and come to understand the language and
value of UL and its uniqueness. The uniqueness associated with UL comes from the variously
distinct discourse communities inside of the industry itself. The language, motivations, and
values are all examples of what a discourse community is all about and how UL environment
forms to be one of many.