The world evolves rapidly, and the economy equally, facing the challenges presented to it: economic, social, technological, environmental, and so on. On World Accreditation Day 2024, under the slogan Accreditation: Empowering Tomorrow and Shaping the Future, the international accreditation organizations, International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF), wanted to highlight accreditation's role in addressing these challenges in different future development areas ranging from digitalization and new technologies to sustainability.

For decades, accreditation has been a key pillar for the market serving both society and public administrations in almost all aspects of daily life. From its origins in metrology and calibration, it generates confidence in accurate and traceable measurements, to testing, certification, inspection and validation services.

 

More cybersecurity

The accreditation system advances hand in hand with progress to promote achieving its objectives. Therefore, Industry 4.0 entails developing new digital technologies, changing the way companies operate, and generating new opportunities as well as new challenges, especially with regard to systems and data security.

In this sense, the Spanish market already has more than 50 ENAC-accredited bodies which have demonstrated their technical competence to assess products and services related to information security such as consumer devices that connect to the internet, known as consumer devices with the Internet of Things (IoT), industrial automation and control systems (IACS), technological components (chips, smart cards) or hardware and software systems, as well as adequately protecting information and electronic administration systems in accordance with the Spanish National Security Scheme (Esquema Nacional de Seguridad, ENS), of electronic identification service providers or cryptographic modules among others.

In the regulatory field, Regulation (EU) 2019/881, better known as the "Cybersecurity Act", which aims to create a single digital market for ICT products, services, and processes, includes accreditation as a tool enabling certificates issued in Member States to be valid throughout the European Union. So, in January 2024, the European certification scheme based on Common Criteria (EUCC), prepared by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), was published, becoming the first cybersecurity certification scheme adopted in the EU within the aforementioned Cybersecurity Act framework.

Likewise, the new Regulation on Artificial Intelligence, which is expected to be published in 2024, integrates the use of accreditation to provide greater security in controlling medium and high-risk product processes.

 

Towards a sustainable future

In order to ensure sustainable economic development, the key is to carry out resource management and the environmental impact controls. In our country, more than 400 ENAC-accredited bodies have demonstrated that they have the necessary technical capacity to carry out more than 500 activities in environmental assessment and control, energy efficiency and renewable generation, urban sustainability, waste management, etc. These are key to ensuring adequate environmental protection and guaranteeing the balance between economic growth and environmental care and preservation.

The ENAC-accredited bodies have demonstrated that they have the necessary technical capacity to carry out environmental assessment and control activities such as water quality and impact controls, assessing environmental management within companies, control over waste characterization and stabilization in landfills or activities related to recovery, and so on.

In addition, in the context of energy supply security, there is an increasing need for access to reliable and modern energy services, together with the considerable increase in renewable energy in all energy sources, where accredited services play a prominent role. Examples of these activities can be found in accredited product certification and testing which contribute to generating trust in compliance with equipment and component quality requirements, ensuring these renewable energy sources are adequately connected in distribution networks. Moreover, accredited certification guarantees that organizations have a management system enabling them to develop their energy policy, establishing objectives, goals and action plans that improve their energy performance, among other examples.

Creating sustainable cities and communities is another great current challenge: saving energy and natural resources, reducing CO2 emissions and other pollutants, and thereby improving people's health and well-being. Accredited services promote this transformation through activities such as energy efficiency assessment of building installations, necessary testing to reduce and control noise pollution in cities, professional profiles certification of sustainable building project assessors, planning control, air quality assessment or greenhouse gas emission verification and so on.

Moreover, in a context where the vast majority of products, services or activities need to demonstrate their sustainability or have plans to do so in response to increasing market, consumer, and regulatory commitment to sustainability, accreditation also establishes trust in the declarations made by companies related to environmental, social and governmental, and personnel aspects, as well as respect for human rights, and the fight against corruption and bribery.

All these activities and many more are examples of how accreditation adapts to the current and future needs of our country. In the following document, prepared by ILAC and IAF, you can find more information and accredited activities that support economies around the world as they move into the future.

See ILAC and IAF document >