Since 1 July 2017, manufacturers must have the conformity of their environmental declarations verified by an independent third party (accredited verifiers) in accordance with the reference standards as part of a verification programme: INIES programme for construction products and PEP Ecopassport programme for equipment. These programmes are in particular framed by the order of 31 August 2015, relating to the verification of environmental declarations by an independent third party, which sets the method to be followed to assess the environmental impacts of building construction and decoration products and equipment as far as they are intended to be sold to the consumer, as well as the content of the verification, the skills expected from the verifier and the conditions for recognition of the latter’s aptitude. Each verifier passes an exam to obtain an accreditation which is based on the requirements of the ISO 14025 standard aimed at qualifying the skills required to ensure the quality and independence of the verifications. The prerequisites for the verifier exam are the practice of life cycle assessment in the field of construction products or equipment, and a completion of at least 2 FDES / PEP ecopassport® for different product families in the last two years. All data recorded in the INIES Programme and PEP ecopassport are valid for 5 years. The points examined by the verifier are multiple:
- Objective of the study
- Functional unit
- Description of the product
- System boundaries
- Energy mix
- Cut-off rules
- Data collection and quality
- Scenarios used
- Plausibility and completeness of data
- Verification of communication aspects
- Health characteristics for FDES
Beyond the FDES, the INIES programme also offers a verification of Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) and configurators.
Learn more about the INIES verification program and the PEP ecopassport® verification program.
