Sustainability declarations stand out among the potential applications of validation and verification activities, as set out in the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17029 standard. Currently, a vast majority of products, services or activities need to declare themselves sustainable or have plans to do so, as they are required to make sustainability commitments or results. The market, consumers and regulators are moving in parallel, raising the behaviour standard required in this complex area.

In order for sustainability information verifier activity to be accredited, the programs they decide to work on must comply with the existing requirements in the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17029 reference standard.

Thereby, ENAC has developed document RDE-34, establishing a framework for developing sustainability reporting verification programs and which verifiers wishing to obtain ENAC accreditation must comply with. The requirements established in this document should be considered as complementary to those established in the PAC-ENAC ("Accreditation Procedure") and in the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17029 standard, which establishes the requirements for verification and validation bodies.

It should be noted that, in line with the environment - one of the classic sustainability pillars, it will be necessary to take the requirements of the UNE-EN ISO 14065 standard into account, which sets out the requirements for environmental information verification and validation bodies. For further information, please contact Juan Peláez, ENAC's Certification and Verification Department.