For facility executives who want to anticipate trends in facility technology, a new initiative by electrical products manufacturers is worth noting. It’s important not just for itself, but for a larger issue it points to.

The immediate news is that the National Electrical Products Manufacturers Association has announced its support for limits on the use of hazardous materials in electrical products. The reason for the move: Many of the organization’s 430 member companies are already subject to restrictions imposed by the European Union on lead, mercury and other substances. Some have voluntarily met or gone beyond those requirements outside the EU. NEMA is now calling on all of its members subject to those EU rules to meet the standards worldwide by July 1, 2010.

That’s phase one. For phase two, NEMA product committees will set similar restrictions for “virtually all other NEMA products” — where that is technically possible without harming safety or performance — by July 1, 2014.

The big-picture issue in this announcement is the influence of EU standards on products sold outside Europe. One argument against regulation in the United States is that it imposes requirements that raise prices or reduce performance. If some companies are already meeting those standards elsewhere in the world, that argument against domestic regulation falls. Indeed, in some cases, the strictest standards found in any of the world’s large markets could be on their way to becoming global requirements. And the history of regulations shows that limits on new products can sometimes have an impact on products in place – for example, in the restrictions placed on disposal of old products. So it may well pay for facility executives to be aware of the direction regulations could be taking – and not to wait for U.S. regulations to look for products that meet worldwide environmental or other standards.