The INIES verification programme
The actors of the INIES programme
The INIES programme is the property of Alliance HQE-GBC.
The steering committee also called “COPIL” present in order to ensure proper functioning of the programme and which is composed of several stakeholders including Alliance HQE-GBC, AFNOR, representatives of declarants and representatives of data users. The State is a permanent guest.
Declarants are the issuers of environmental and health declarations of construction products (FDES, FDES Configurators or LCI). They can be industrials, unions, federations. To ensure the correct consistency of the FDES, there are also verifiers. The latter are accredited according to various criteria by the Programme.
Verification of the INIES programme
The verification by an independent third party is a mandatory procedure since 1 July 2017, which means that it must be carried out by an INIES-accredited verifier.
The role of accredited verifiers consists in verifying, in accordance with the procedures provided for by the Programme, the compliance of the FDES/LCI with:
- EN 15804 standards and their national supplement
- Decrees and orders in force in France
- INIES programme rules
The verifier will ensure that various compliance points are respected. He will also check the technical and scientific validity of the FDES/LCI. Finally, he will also check the communication aspects.
Operationally, the points examined by the verifiers are, among others:
- Objectives of the study
- Functional unit
- Description of the product
- System boundary
- Energy mix
- Cut-off rule
- Data collection and quality
- Scenarios
- Plausibility and completeness of data
- Verification of communication aspects
- Health characteristics for FDES
The accreditation of verifiers relies on the requirements of the ISO 14025 standard and takes best professional practices into account.
This procedure aims to qualify and endorse the skills required to ensure the quality and independence of the verifications of the FDES and LCI subject to the compliance process of the INIES Programme.
The verified data include the logos “FDES vérifiée INIES” for the FDES and “ICV vérifié INIES” for the LCI.
The verification results in publication of two documents proving the conformity of the FDES/LCI :
- The verification certificate signed by the accredited verifier
- The verification report
Like the FDES, the configurators are verified as part of a critical review carried out by a verifier accredited by the INIES Programme. He first checks a “mother” FDES, and then the results following the tests of different possibilities. All collective FDES published by a configurator offered by a collective entity (union, federation, etc.) are considered verified. If the configurator also produces individual FDES, these must be checked like any other FDES.
Become an INIES-accredited verifier
The role of the accredited verifiers consists of verifying, in accordance with the procedures provided for by the Programme, the compliance of the FDES with the “INIES Verification Programme” as well as with NF EN 15804 and NF EN 15804/CN (FDES) standards.
The accreditation of the verifiers relies on the requirements of ISO 14025 standard and takes best professional practices into account. This procedure aims to qualify and endorse the skills required to ensure the quality and independence of the verifications of the FDES subject to the compliance process of the INIES Programme.
Do you want to be accredited by the INIES programme?
Anyone wishing to become a verifier of the INIES programme must pass an exam to obtain an accreditation which will be issued, if successful, by the Steering Committee (COPIL) of the INIES Programme. An exam session is organised, at least once a year.
The programme offers an exam comprising a practical case study (with a preliminary preparation phase) and a phase of free discussion with a jury.
In the event of failure, the candidate may retake the exam as many times as he wishes at subsequent sessions, provided that he can demonstrate :
- Compliance with the requirements for eligibility;
- Control of the critical points identified during the previous exam.
To pass this exam, you must be able to demonstrate following skills, knowledge and experience :
| Language | Mastery of French | |
| Professional experience | Experience including a practice of life cycle assessment in the field of construction products, and having carried out at least 2 FDES for different product families in the last 2 years Years of experience required:
| |
| Environment field | 2 professional experiences related to environment | |
| Building sector | 2 years of experience in the field of building and construction products | |
| Specific knowledge |
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If in view of this information you wish to submit your application, just send the registration form with your CV and cover letter to inies@hqegbc.org.
