Case Study

Certifying energy assessment competency and management systems in built environments

Summary

United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accreditation against ISO/IEC 17021-1 management systems and ISO/IEC 17024 personnel competency standards provides assurance to both clients and scheme operators that CIBSE Certification is a credible certification body. It has enabled the SME to access previously closed marketplaces and increase both its client base and the amount of work it does with each individual client. In turn, this has helped CIBSE Certification support a global community of 20,000 building services engineers, as well as further its parent organisation’s charitable aims.

Background

Formed in 1976, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) aims to advance and promote the art, science and practice of building services engineering. In addition to investing in education and research, part of CIBSE’s Royal Charter is to support its global community of 20,000 built environment professionals in the pursuit of excellence. To help CIBSE achieve these goals, its wholly owned subsidiary CIBSE Certification (a London-based SME) provides building environment certification services to the built environment, counting many industry-leading organisations among its customers. CIBSE Certification uses any surplus funds to both expand its certification services and support CIBSE’s charitable aims.

Strategy

CIBSE Certification’s accreditation journey began in 2007 with it seeking accreditation against ISO/IEC 17024, the international personnel certification standard. Today the organisation has over 1,100 registered competent personnel and is the only UKAS accredited provider of both EPC (Energy Performance Certificates) and DEC (Display Energy Certificates) energy assessor competency schemes.

CIBSE Certification’s expansion into accredited management systems certification was inspired by its work around ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme) regulations. Driven by customer demand, the company gained UKAS accreditation against ISO/IEC 17021-1 for certification of ISO 50001 Energy Management systems in 2017. Over the next few years, the scope of this ISO/IEC 17021-1 accreditation was extended to cover other management systems certifications, including ISO 9001 (quality) in 2018, ISO 14001 (Environmental) in 2021 and, culminating in ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety) in 2024.

Results and impact

As a small business, UKAS accreditation has been crucial to CIBSE Certification both growing its potential marketplace and meeting customer expectations. Although holding UKAS accreditation is technically voluntary for the services it provides, it is highly valued across the built environment, making it a practical requirement of operating in certain sectors. In many cases, accreditation is something clients assume a reputable and professional certification body who delivers a reliable and impartial service would have, so is often specified as a minimum requirement of their tendering process.

Accreditation has also helped CIBSE Certification win the race to convert potential tenders into actual business. Whilst its industry knowledge and being part of CIBSE are certainly attractive to customers, ultimately it’s CIBSE Certification’s competency and sector expertise that drives their purchasing decisions. Holding UKAS accreditation enables the SME to demonstrate that its technical competence and impartiality have been robustly assessed by an internationally recognised and respected body. In addition to levelling the playing field and raising overall standards within the industry, accreditation allows CIBSE Certification to provide independently verifiable evidence of claims and helps to differentiate it from the competition.

Most of CIBSE Certification’s clients have integrated systems and require a combination of ISOs 9001, 14001, 45001 and 50001 management systems certifications. Developing this comprehensive portfolio of UKAS accredited services has helped CIBSE Certification increase the spectrum of certification work it does with each individual client, usually from an initial one or two management systems to encompass three or in some cases all four management systems.

Achieving UKAS accreditation has been instrumental in enhancing the company’s overall reputation beyond the scope of its accreditation, and in turn contributed to it being appointed as the UK administrator of the Australian National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) building efficiency rating system. It has also enabled CIBSE Certification to refine and improve its own procedures and services with the minimum of disruption to the normal business cycle, benefitting both the SME and its customers.

Contact

communications@ukas.com