Building Science Institute, Ltd. Co. Policies

In 1995, the US Department of Energy worked with the HERS Council, Inc. They created the Voluntary Home Energy Rating System Guidelines. This document stated “Home Energy Rating System or HERS means the materials and procedures needed to operate a home energy rating program including but not limited to: marketing materials, training, publications, rating tool, quality control, data base collection and maintenance, agreements, data collection sheets, home owner reports, and other related materials and services.”

With that as our guide, Building Science Institute, Ltd. Co. (BSI) developed our home energy rating system. It has a unique Quality Management System (QMS) based on national and international standards.

We use the American National Standards for calculation of the Energy Rating Index, inspections, and testing. Then we layer International Standards for quality on top of those.

We built our QMS from a set of cohesive policies, processes, and procedures. These govern and guide quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, and quality improvements.

A QMS documents the structure, processes, roles, responsibilities, and procedures needed for effective quality management.

Quality planning requires us to develop services and processes that meet customer needs.

Quality assurance are the activities we perform to provide confidence our certification oversight services will fulfill the quality requirements of the US EPA and US DOE programs and the needs of our clients who perform verifications.

Quality control are the techniques and activities we perform to meet those quality requirements.

Quality improvement are those activities we perform to achieve unprecedented levels of performance.

Our home energy rating system policies include:

• Policy 01 Quality Council: The purpose of the Quality Council is to provide oversight of our certification programs. They ensure BSI does not act with fear or favor when certification decisions are made.
• Policy 02 Code of Ethics: This code of ethics applies equally to BSI and our clients.
• Policy 03 Scope of Services: We help clients improve through training and quality management.
• Policy 04 Non-Discrimination & Anti-Harassment: All conformity assessment policies and operations are non-discriminatory.
• Policy 05 Secondary Interests: A secondary interest is a risk that may influence professional judgment or actions.
• Policy 06 Impartiality & Objectivity: All verifiers must be independent of the work they verify. All verification findings and conclusions are based on the verification evidence.
• Policy 07 Publicly Available Information: Information on the Building Science Institute, Ltd. Co. Quality Management and Home Certification programs is publicly available.
• Policy 08 Terminology: Professional terminology for proper quality management.
• Policy 09 General Requirements for Verification Organizations: conflicts of interest, impartiality & independence, and confidentiality.
• Policy 10 Structural Requirements for Verification Organizations: Covers administrative requirements, and organization & management.
• Policy 11 Resource Requirements for Verification Organizations: personnel, facilities & equipment, and sub-contracting.
• Policy 12 Process Requirements for Verification Organizations: verification methods & procedures; handling dwelling units; verification records, reports, labels & certificates; and complaints & appeals.
• Policy 13 Data Governance: This policy provides guidance to all who use BSI data to reduce inadvertent operator errors, increase confidence that homes earn certification, create transparency through entire system, increase consistency in ERI outputs, and increase collaboration on quality management with stakeholders.
• Policy 14 Referenced Standards, Codes, and Programs: lists the standards, codes, and programs referenced in our Home Energy Rating System.

These policies, created and approved by our independent Quality Council, inform our quality management processes.