ANSI and IREC Announce Pilot Accreditation Program for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Applications accepted through January 17, 2012 NEW YORK, Jan. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), coordinator of the U.S. voluntary standardization system, and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) invite certificate-awarding entities that develop and administer energy efficiency and renewable energy programs to apply for participation in a pilot accreditation program. Successful participants will be awarded accreditation under a program designed to provide quality assurance to the programs. Assessment to this new standard will also provide third-party verification to students, funders, policymakers, and others that certificate programs have demonstrated meeting the requirements for issuing a market-valued certificate. Certificate programs will be evaluated against the draft IREC Standard 14732: 2012, General Requirements for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Certificate Programs. The standard describes curriculum, administrative, personnel, facilities, and equipment requirements for certificate programs involved in the training of the energy efficiency/weatherization and renewable energy workforce. ANSI and IREC will follow the evaluation process outlined in the international standard ISO/IEC 17011, General Requirements for Accreditation Bodies Accrediting Conformity Assessment Bodies. This process includes using specially trained assessors to review documents submitted by applicants against defined requirements, conduct on-site assessments of all applicants, and make recommendations to the body responsible for making the accreditation decision. Organizations interested in pursuing accreditation during the pilot should complete the pilot program application, now available on the ANSI-IREC program page on the ANSI website. Applications will be accepted until January 17, 2012. Pilot participants will be selected based on a review of documentation demonstrating conformance with the published pilot criteria, at the sole discretion of ANSI and IREC. For more information, contact ANSI's Diana Singhavong (DSinghavong@ansi.org) or IREC's Pat Fox (patfox@irecusa.org). About ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide. The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and is a U.S. representative to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). About IREC IREC has worked aggressively to break down barriers to renewable energy use since 1982. Throughout its history, the organization has been instrumental in rulemaking for connecting distributed power to the utility grid, quality assessment, workforce development, consumer protection and stakeholder coordination. Since 2005, IREC has been the North American Licensee for the ISPQ International Training Standard. Today, there are over 115 credentials awarded to training programs and instructors. For more information, visit WWW.IRECUSA.ORG. SOURCE American National Standards Institute