The UK arm of one of the world’s largest certification bodies is ready to meet the main challenges to the power, energy, and renewables sectors head on as it plans for another three decades in business.
West Midlands-headquartered AFNOR UK, which is celebrating its 30th birthday, works with clients across the UK to help ensure they comply with legislation as well as support them in their shift to net zero.
Philip Daubeney, chairman of AFNOR UK, says that challenges for AFNOR UK come in the shape of the transition from fossil fuels to net zero carbon, the energy mix to include more renewables, and the security concern over energy sourcing from unstable political regimes.
However, Philip is confident that AFNOR UK, a subsidiary of the French standardisation operator AFNOR Group, is ideally placed to ensure UK businesses thrive in the face of existing and emerging threats.
He said: “I believe we need to seriously consider the amount of power made available by energy producers to meet fundamental demands by customers.
“France is leading the way on this, in renovating its entire nuclear stock, and the UK is in a position where following suit will help ease the level of demand on supply.
“We are ready in AFNOR UK to play our part in tackling these challenges, which won’t be easy, but we believe we will succeed.”
To assist the UK’s goal of achieving net zero by 2050, AFNOR UK is working closely with the UK energy sector to reduce emissions, generate power for low carbon sources and build a net zero energy workforce.
In addition, AFNOR UK, which seeks to improve the performance of companies by gaining confidence through new markets, is not resting on its laurels as it turns 30.
The company, renamed AFNOR UK in 2010, was formed in 1992 after the Electricity Association Quality Association (EAQA) and the Electricity Training Association (ETA) were acquired by AFNOR.
AFNOR UK, part of AFNOR Group, has been providing independent, accredited, third-party certification to internationally recognised standards, issuing over 25,000 certificates in more than 90 countries.
This certification enables clients to improve performance and ensure consistency with their performances, as well as providing international recognition and the reassurance that they are operating competitively and to the benchmark standards.
Fabienne Bonin-Bree, AFNOR UK managing director, is relishing the future as the company – a long standing member of the Association of British Certification Bodies (ABCB) – continues to “contribute to something bigger”.
She said: “Being accredited allows us to provide confidence to those we work with that we are competent and can be trusted to deliver promised levels of performance and protection for products and services.
“Accreditation determines the technical competence, reliability, and integrity of a company and we are thrilled to have it for management systems, quality, environment, health and safety, information security, tickITplus, and asset management.
“As an approved body for the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), we have earned UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking, Global Wind Organisation (GWO) certification, and Military Packager Approval Scheme (MPAS) certification.”
Fabienne continued: “That would not be possible without our long-standing customers. We are very thankful for their confidence in our services.
“We are also very grateful to our auditors who are highly qualified, experienced, and carry out value-added audits for our clients.
“AFNOR UK is part of an evolving ecosystem, which addresses both today’s and tomorrow’s challenges to allow our clients to perform better and ensure their sustainable growth.”
