accreditation

accreditation

Third-party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks. (ISO 17000:2004, 5.6) The ANSI National Accreditation Board accredits greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies in the United States.

Note: the terms “accreditation” and “certification” are sometimes used as synonyms, although such usage is discouraged by conformity assessment specialists.