Publicizing your ISO 9001:2008 or ISO 14001:2004 certification
Table of contents
- Introduction
- In brief
- ISO's logo
- Be precise !
- Certification, registration and accreditation
- The little difference that means a lot
- Process, not product standards
- Scope of certification
Certification,
registration and accreditation
Your organization’s management system has been independently audited and confirmed as being in conformity with ISO 9001:2008 or ISO 14001:2004, for which you have been issued a certificate. In announcing this, which is the correct term to use : “certification”, “registration” or “accreditation” ?
Let’s take the first two. According to the standardized definitions, they are not quite the same thing.In the context of ISO 9001:2008 or ISO 14001:2004, “certification” refers to the issuing of written assurance (the certificate) by an independent external body that has audited your management system and verified that it conforms to the requirements specified in the standard. “Registration” means that the auditing body then records your certification in its client register.
So, your organization’s management system has been both certified and registered. For practical purposes then, in the ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004 contexts, the difference between the two terms is not significant and both are acceptable for general use. “Certification” seems to be the term most widely used worldwide, although registration (from which “ registrar ” as an alternative to registration/certification body) is often preferred in North America, and the two are used interchangeably.
On the contrary, using “accreditation" as an interchangeable alternative for certification or registration is a mistake, because it means something different. In the ISO 9001:2008 or ISO 14001:2004 contexts, accreditation refers to the formal recognition by a specialized body – an accreditation body – that a certification body is competent to carry out ISO 9001:2008 or ISO 14001:2004 certification in specified business sectors. In simple terms, accreditation is like certification of the certification body. Certificates issued by accredited certification bodies may be perceived on the market as having increased credibility.
Remember !
It is okay to state either that your organization has been “ certified ” or “ registered ” because their meanings are equivalent for practical purposes, but inaccurate to state that it has been “ accredited ” (unless your organization is a certification/registration body).
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