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About us
The Association QUALITEL
Set up in 1974, the QUALITEL Association is an independent, non for profit body, that exists for and promotes the quality of dwelling and the implementation of sustainability in residential buildings, through certification.
QUALITEL has the dual aim of meeting the technical and environmental challenges and to come into action on users (inhabitants) needs, on community’s expectations and on the continuous assessment and improvement of professionals’ dwellings production. In order to develop and improve its certification offer, QUALITEL relies on its staff, boasting a wide range of skills, predominantly technical.
Integrity and objectivity, independence and impartiality, confidentiality and loyalty, these are the QUALITEL Association’s values. This rigour and these values have led to its accreditation (EN 45011) by the COFRAC (entity that gives accreditation to laboratories and certification bodies), demonstrating the relevance of its certification process and its actions.
The subsidiary companies:
While the Association QUALITEL, owner of the certification brands, devotes itself to approving reference systems, informing the general public and developing good practices observatories, the certification activity is carried out by three subsidiary companies:
CERQUAL – for New dwellings certification
CERQUAL PATRIMOINE – for Residential existing buildings certification
CEQUAMI – for Detached houses certification
The Certification Marks:
QUALITEL and its subsidiaries companies issue the following certificates:
- Qualitel: technical quality and “running costs” control for new dwellings and student residences.
- Habitat & Environnement (H&E): certifies the environmental quality of new dwellings elderly and dependant persons care homes, and is inspired in the HQE principles.
- NF Logement*, and its environmental option, “HQE method”: it is a quality and services certification of all the new dwellings production of a promoter, integrating environmental requirements.
- NF Maison individuelle* (NF MI) and its environmental option HQE method: quality and services certification of all the production of new houses (detached one family houses) of a constructor
- Patrimoine Habitat: (PH) (Existing dwellings) it is an assessment and certification of improvements made by contracting bodies, social lessors, promoters and joint owners relating to their rehabilitation of property over 10 years old.
- Patrimoine Habitat & Environnement (PH&E): (environment & existing dwellings) it is the certification of environmental improvements made by the contracting body, as part of rehabilitation, inspired by the HQE method
CERQUAL and CEQUAMI are authorised by AFNOR Certification to issue the certification NF Logement and the certification NF Maison Individuelle, as well as their environmental option HQE.
In its search for partners to ensure improvements in the technical and environmental quality of housing, the Association QUALITEL is a :
- Founding member of the SB Alliance (Sustainable Building Alliance) - an international alliance of certification bodies, building research centers and stakeholders following a common holistic approach of sustainability evaluation based on region-specific tools derived from the adaptation of a common core indicators "
- Member of the HQE Association (Haute Qualité Environnementale – High Environmental Quality), a collection of players in the building sector working to develop the environmental quality of buildings in a concerted manner,
- Member of the Effinergie Association, whose aim is to promote low energy consumption buildings, both new and renovated, and to develop a reference system in France relating to the energy performance of new or existing buildings, with the target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions fourfold.
International Action, Development and Certification
Certification in other countries
QUALITEL develops its activity worldwide in order to enlarge the extent of its general interest mission of quality promotion and buildings environmental certification. The international development and establishment of partnerships abroad also allows QUALITEL to develop a wider comprehension of the users’s expectations, communities’ needs, and global commitments to improve environmental features of buildings and to help fight climate change.
This international development is based on the strict respect of the values of the Association QUALITEL and it is made by one of following manners :
- Adaptation of one of QUALITEL’s certification technical framework to a certain country, jointly with a local partner.
- Development with a local partner of a whole new certification for dwellings, inspired on QUALITEL’s experience but tailored to answer to the particular specificities and needs of a certain country.
- Direct International Certification by QUALITEL in foreign countries, using the technical reference framework of the certification NF Logement & its HQE environmental option.
Participation in International networks:
In order to follow and to participate in the international efforts for the improvement of dwellings quality and sustainable building certification, QUALITEL is a proud member of the SB Alliance and the convenor of its WG on Houses and Residential Buildings.
The participation of QUALITEL in the international network SB Alliance meets the goal of sharing information and working together with other French and International organizations, in order to :
- To provide increased certainty for the development industry and community on the delivery of a sustainable built environment;
- To establish a common core of issues that should be covered by any building assessment system and therefore provide confidence to the users of systems across a number of countries that there is a degree of commonality in approach, and to give them the confidence to use the relevant national scheme without having to back a single system;
- To develop strategic performance benchmarks for the development/construction industry; and increase the sustainability performance of the development/construction industry;
- To make assessment tools increasingly more challenging as fast as the market will bear, and appreciate the difference in the several countries that form this alliance;
- To facilitate research and practical case study examples on the benefits of sustainability assessment methods.
- To cooperate in identifying suitable joint research and development projects with the aim of further developing and promoting the environmental assessment and certification of buildings.
For more information, please contact :
Ana Cunha – Responsible for the International Development of the Group QUALITEL
a.cunha@qualitel.org
+33 142 345 437
