UL and Business Continuity David Stowe, CBCP Business Continuity Manager APEC EPWG Workshop: Private Sector Emergency Preparedness Hotel Monterey Sendai 3 rd August 2011 2011 Underwriters Laboratories Inc.
UL: A brief Introduction UL is a global safety science leader with more than 100 years of proven history. UL is evolving the future of safety through: Certification Regulatory Compliance Sustainability Testing Knowledge Services 23 billion UL Marks issued Performed over 88,000 product evaluations Over 19,000 types of products evaluated Customers located in over 100 countries worldwide 73 laboratory, testing and certification facilities globally All figures correct as of December 31 st, 2010 2
UL Objectives for the BCM Program To provide for the safety and wellbeing of our employees, their families and their communities To allow for ongoing service to our customers To ensure the survival of our mission 3
Why does UL invest in BC planning? 1. Our customers are beginning to ask if we have appropriate plans in place 2. Legislation at both the national and regional level is beginning to require the private sector to have comprehensive BC plans 3. Statistics show that a large number of companies without some element of BC planning fail following a catastrophic incident: Two out of five companies that experience a disaster will go out of business in five years. (Gartner, 2004) 80% of businesses without a well structured recovery plan are forced to shut down within the12 months following a flood or fire. (London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 2003) 4
The UL Story BCM program activities began in 2009 The program is now established in over 90% of our locations worldwide The program is sponsored at the executive level by the CFO and conducted under the management of a certified BCM professional Continued development of the program over the next 12 to 18 months will ensure compliance with current BCM industry standards specifically BS 25999, NFPA 1600, ASIS/BSI BCM.01:2010 and ISO/PAS 22399:2007 5
UL Crisis Management Structure Tactical Response Recovery Incident Reporting Oversight Strategic Response Resource Support 6
Program Elements Business Continuity Planning - Staff Education and Awareness Pandemic Planning Crisis Management and the handling of specialised crises Emergency Preparedness (together with EHS and CSR colleagues)* Human Impact Strategy (together with EHS, CSR and HR colleagues)* Traveller and Expatriate Security Program - Continuous location risk analysis - Provision of personal security advice Liaising with IT on Disaster Recovery Plan priorities * Environmental Health & Safety (EHS); Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) 7
BC Planning Scenarios & Assumptions We look at incidents resulting in a severe (but not worst case) situation. Event neutral scenarios not meant to address specific disaster events (i.e. tornadoes, floods, terrorist attacks or major fires). Instead they address the following three incident effects: Limited staff availability 50% reduction in staff compliment for 30+ days UL office or laboratory location unavailable for 3+ months Global UL technology outage greater than 1 week 8
BC Planning Process Ongoing Activities Every Six Months Plan Refresh and Maintenance Re-approval by Regional Function Lead Every Year Location-based Tabletop Exercise Every Three Years Regional and Global Scenario Exercises Program Audit 9
Major UL operations in the APEC Region Australia Canada China Hong Kong Japan South Korea Malaysia Mexico New Zealand Singapore Chinese Taipei Thailand USA Vietnam Those in blue are locations where we have already conducted BCM training sessions. As well as the major locations mentioned above we also have over 50 smaller inspection centers and branch offices which are either staffed by UL employees or UL contractors. 10
BC Planning in Action Japan Miyagi Prefecture March 11 th 2011 Earthquake/Tsunami Event Local staff at UL offices in Tokyo, Ise and Yokohama utilised the established crisis communication protocols to spread information through the organisation BC plans were activated in order to allow tracking of the response and recovery at local, regional and corporate level BCM training ensured that accounting for all affected UL personnel was the first priority and all were accounted for within three days Key adaptations in response to lessons learned: Ensuring information is fact checked with the local operations before distributing widely Changes to our travel policy and contracts to ensure visiting staff are able to revise travel plans and be provided with options quicker 11
BC Planning in Action New Zealand Christchurch - September 4 th 2010 & February 22 nd 2011 Earthquakes Identified weaknesses regarding communication and access to information BC plans were not activated but their contents were used in part BCM training provided staff with greater confidence in responding Key adaptations in response to lessons learned: Ensuring staff can access live television news and radio broadcasts through the corporate IT network to montior the unfolding events Providing guidance to assist staff in knowing who to contact, when and what information they should provide Ensuring regular outreach from the corporate entity to the affected local operations to confirm new information received from other sources 12
QUESTIONS?