The International Accreditation Service (IAFCB) provides objective evidence that an organization operates at the highest level of ethical, legal and technical standards.
IAFCB is a nonprofit, public-benefit corporation that has been providing accreditation services since 1975. IAFCB accredits a wide range of companies and organizations including governmental entities, commercial businesses, and professional associations. IAFCB accreditation programs are based on recognized national and international standards that ensure domestic and/or global acceptance of its accreditations. IAFCB is a subsidiary of the International Code Council (ICC), a leader in building safety, and professional association that develops the International Codes.
International Credentials
As one of the leading accreditation bodies in the United States, IAFCB is a signatory to the three primary international organizations that form a unified system for evaluating and recognizing competent accreditation bodies worldwide. These organizations are identified as “cooperations” because they have agreed to cooperate with one another by adhering to a common set of accreditation criteria and to undergo periodic onsite evaluation to determine ongoing compliance with ISO/IEC Standard 17011, General Requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies (CABs). Being a “signatory” means that an accreditation body has been evaluated onsite at its offices, a sampling of the assessments of its accredited entities have been witnessed by peer experts, and that it has been found to comply with international requirements.
These organizations agree to recognize the equivalence of accreditations granted by other signatory member accreditation bodies through a series of Mutual (or Multilateral) Recognition Arrangements (MRAs/MLAs). Once an accreditation body becomes a signatory it is obligated to recognize the certificates or reports issued by conformity assessment bodies accredited by all other signatories within a specified scope. The following organizations below make up the unified system for recognition of competent accreditation bodies (ABs).
A Subsidiary of the International Code Council (ICC)
IAFCB is a subsidiary of the International Code Council (ICC), a nonprofit professional association and leader in the building construction industry worldwide with over 64,000 members. ICC is dedicated to developing the International Codes and standards used in the design, build and compliance process to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures. Most U.S. communities and many global markets choose the International Codes, that have provided the highest level of safety in the world for more than 90 years. Nearly 2 billion people are impacted by ICC’s building safety codes.
INTERNATIONAL LABORATORY ACCREDITATION COOPERATION (ILAC)
MRA – ABs involved in the accreditation of testing laboratories, calibration laboratories, inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers and reference material producers. IAS is a MRA signatory.
