Voluntary certification of products

Courtesy: Voluntary certification of products

European Economic Area

Within the European Economic Area (EEA), the majority of products are required to be ‘CE Marked’ and will have the letter CE on them. It shows that the manufacturer or importer has checked that these products meet EU safety, health or environmental requirements; is an indicator of a product’s compliance with EU legislation and allows the free movement of products within the European market.

By placing the CE marking on a product, a manufacturer or importer is declaring, on his sole responsibility, conformity with all of the legal requirements to achieve CE marking. The manufacturer is thus ensuring validity for that product to be sold throughout the EEA. This also applies to products made in third countries which are sold in the EEA and Turkey.

If you are a manufacturer it is your responsibility to:

• carry out the conformity assessment (including any testing, if required)
• set up the technical file
• issue the EC Declaration of Conformity (DoC)
• place CE marking on a product

If you are a distributor you must check the presence of both the CE marking and the necessary supporting documentation.

If you are importing a product that is from a third country you have to check that the manufacturer outside the EU has undertaken the necessary steps. You must check that the documentation is available. The Europa website gives details various product categories and the relevant EU directives to which products must conform.

North America’s nuclear industry is exempt from mandatory certification. This has allowed situations leading to remedial work such as for fireproofing of electrical circuits (circuit integrity) between nuclear reactor and control rooms in the U.S. In this case, submitors were permitted to dictate not only their test procedures, but also to construct test specimens in their own facilities, prior to fire tests on the part of laboratories. The primary example of this situation is the Thermo-Lag scandal, which came about as a result of disclosures by whistleblower Gerald W. Brown to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as watchdog groups, members of US Congress, and the press.

In Germany, the accredited testing organizations routinely audit manufacturing locations and submit quality control test results to DIBt. While the German laboratories do not possess process standards, their methodology can uncover changes in the nature and quality of ingredients, as DIBt establishes very clear tolerances for performance.

Voluntary Emission Reductions or Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) are a type of carbon offset exchanged in the voluntary or over-the-counter market for carbon credits. Verified Emission Reductions are usually certified through a voluntary certification process.

Verified Emission Reductions are usually created by projects which have been verified outside of the Kyoto Protocol. One VER is equivalent to 1 tonne of CO₂ emissions. through these schemes, industries and individuals voluntarily compensate for their emissions or provide an additional contribution to mitigating climate change.

VERs may be developed and calculated in compliance with one of several VER standards. These set out rules defining how emission reductions are measured. Standards provide assurance for buyers of VERs. At a minimum, all VERs should be verified by an independent third party.