Demystifying Third Party Certification in the Built Environment Value Chain

The Building Safety Act places new responsibilities on the construction industry to help raise the standard on accountability and improve building safety standards, prompting change across the industry. Third party certification has a vital role, enabling specifiers to understand if a product is fit for purpose for a specific application. The British Board of Agrément (BBA) will launch a new CPD at Futurebuild, titled ‘Navigating 3rd Party Certification: Using BBA Agrément to build with confidence’, which is designed to help specifiers interpret the information within a BBA Agrément Certificate and have confidence in a product’s suitability for a particular project.

Hardy Giesler, BBA CEO, explains, “The Grenfell tragedy has highlighted how vital it is that specifiers are able to make better informed decisions about the products they are choosing. Our research has shown that there is often uncertainty in how certification is interpreted, so following a consultation to understand how we can support the market in this transition, the BBA is rolling out a new CPD designed to help the industry interpret and understand 3rd party certification better, to help them make better decisions.”

The new CPD will also provide greater clarity on often misunderstood differences between product conformity and certification.

Julie Bregulla, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) explains, “The BBA’s new CPD is vital to help deliver our goal to support the construction industry, because it is essential that everyone in the value chain understands how to interpret product safety certification correctly. The CPD will enable specifiers to make informed and confident decisions about the products they choose. By launching at Futurebuild,

we are looking forward to connecting with the industry directly and will be sharing valuable in-person advice on navigating 3rd party certification.”

Learn more at Futurebuild

The BBA is exhibiting at Futurebuild on stand F34, located in the Buildings Zone, and will be delivering guidance on how companies can gain certification for their building products and management systems, and to share detail of their new CPD.

The Importance of 3rd Party Certification

Throughout the three-day event, the BBA will ask, “How does 3rd party certification enable change in the industry?” A live scribe will interact with visitors by capturing responses with illustrations and essential information on the stand wall, to create a vibrant and interactive talking-point. You can also contribute your view by using the button at the end of this article.

Visiting the BBA stand at Futurebuild will be an ideal opportunity to learn more about the benefits of BBA Agrément Certification, and how it can create can assure and communicate key performance features of products and systems. For manufacturers creating a new product, certification can help to establish assess, validate and assure your innovation and create a testing standard where it does not currently exist. The BBA has developed a reputation for quality, high standards and rigorous product assessment, offering peace of mind to specifiers.

Why Futurebuild?

A leading exhibition and conference for the built environment, Futurebuild allows visitors to connect with leading suppliers and industry professionals whilst gaining knowledge of sustainable construction across the industry. Visitors can look forward to discovering innovative solutions and services with its wide range of exhibitors that are helping to transform the built environment, and listen to inspiring ideas with the 2024 programme, which includes over 300 carefully curated speakers across ten stages.