IREC’s SDO Status Brings Credibility to the Clean Energy Industry
Last month, we shared the news that IREC was recognized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as an accredited Standards Developing Organization (SDO). We related the importance of this third-party mark of quality and integrity to IREC’s standards development process, and the strong signal this sends to the public that IREC ‘does it right.’ But what does this milestone mean for credential holders and the clean energy community?
Simply put: IREC can now bring standards for energy efficiency and renewable energy workforce training through the American National Standards (ANS) process. This puts IREC’s work on an international stage, and demonstrates our industry’s commitment to excellence.
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), there are more than 700 organizations in the U.S. that develop standards. Among those, just over 200 have demonstrated that their process for voluntary standard development is guided by ANSI’s cardinal principles of consensus, due process and openness.
Bearing the ANSI mark is a significant indicator that a standard is among the elite in our country, and paves the way to market acceptance through inclusivity of interested and affected parties.
In her August 5th blog, IREC President and CEO Jane Weissman shared that very soon IREC will bring IREC’s standard for certificate programs (used by the ANSI-IREC Accreditation Program) through the ANS process, to be followed by IREC’s other workforce training standards.
Together, IREC’s SDO accreditation and efforts to bring forth American National Standards bring credibility to the industry and increase the value of our workforce training credentials. We view it as a part of the quality framework that answers the challenge of growing a high quality energy efficiency and renewable energy workforce.
