ISCC and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have signed an agreement to cooperate in an independent third-party program to accredit domestic certification bodies that will be conducting ISCC certification. The accreditation verifies that the certification bodies comply with international standards as well as with the ISCC system. The accreditation program fosters the continuous improvement of ISCC and furthermore creates a valuable attribute for certification bodies.

The accreditation verifies that the competence of certification bodies is in conformance with ISO/IEC 17065, Conformity Assessment – Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services; ISCC. And because ANSI is a signatory to the International Accreditation Forum Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) for the accreditation of product certification bodies, an ANSI accredited program is recognized the world over, reducing the need for duplicative credentials for different markets.

ANSI’s accreditation program successfully meets the requirements of ISO/IEC 17011, Conformity assessment – General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies, which represents the highest internationally accepted practices for accreditation bodies. The Institute’s portfolio of accreditation services includes programs for all types of certification and verification bodies, including those for products, personnel, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as standards developers.

During the process of establishing partnership between ANSI and ISCC, ANSI thoroughly reviewed and evaluated ISCC normative documents. The ANSI Accreditation Committee judged the ISCC standards as being in accordance with ISO/IEC 17011. For ISCC, ANSI will provide ongoing control of the compliance of ISCC’s certification bodies and assures their competence via regular surveillance and witness assessments by experienced assessors.