CE: Many products require CE Marking before they can be sold in the EEA ( EU + Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway). CE Marking proves that your product has been assessed and meets EU Safety, Health and Environmental protection requirements. It is valid for products manufactured both inside and outside the EEA, that are then marketed inside the EEA.
To affix the CE Marking to your product, you must put together a technical dossier proving that your product fulfils all the EU-wide requirements. As the product’s manufacturer, you bear sole responsibility for declaring conformity with all requirements. Once your product bears the CE Marking, you might have to provide your distributors and/or importers with all the supporting documentation concerning CE marking.
How to obtain CE marking?
- Identify the EU requirements for your product
- Check whether your product meets the specific requirements
- Check whether your product must be tested by a Notified Body
- Test your product
- Compile the technical dossier
- Affix the CE marking and draft a declaration of conformity
The directives often use a series of questions about the nature of your product to classify the level of risk and refer to a chart called “Conformity Assessment Procedures”. The chart includes all of the acceptable options available to a manufacturer to certify their product and affix the CE Marking.
Minimal Risk
Options for products with minimal risk include self-certification where the manufacturer prepares a Declaration of Conformity and affixes the CE Marking to their own product.
Greater Risks
BEE: A BEE-rating Certificate is a document that indicates a company’s level of BEE compliance. A Level One contributor is the highest achievable status and the lowest level of BEE compliance is Level Eight. The higher the BEE status level, the stronger a company is in relation to its competition. Companies should aim to achieve a higher status level annually.
Why does a company need a BEE-rating Certificate?
A company needs a BEE-rating Certificate to prove their level of BEE status. The certificate includes indicators such as the company’s turnover, the level of black ownership and the overall BEE status.
The certificate is valid for a year and renewed annually based on evidence submitted for BEE implementation during the period under measurement. The Minister of Finance, ruled that from the 7 December 2011 a company cannot conduct business with municipalities, government departments and any state-owned entities without a valid BEE-rating certificate. Failure to submit a valid BEE-rating certificate shall lead to disqualification. Companies can use their BEE-rating certificate to claim procurement spent with BEE compliant suppliers. In order to claim, companies have to buy from BEE compliant suppliers to score points for BEE procurement spent. If you don’t have a BEE-rating certificate, your customers will look for a BEE compliant supplier. It is important for companies to aim to achieve and maintain a level one status to remain competitive.
Major Activities of BEE
BEE does both regulatory and promotional activities. As part of regulatory activities, it does the following:
- It sets performance standards for appliances and designs labeling scheme for the same. The star rating of various appliances like AC, Refrigerators, Fans, Pumps, Water Heaters, etc. is part of this mandate that they have.
- They develop energy efficiency code for buildings and Industries.
- They certify Energy Managers and Energy Auditors who can perform energy audits.
- They develop norms for energy consumption.
As part of their promotional activities, they do:
- Create promotional programs for energy efficiency, star-rating and other awareness programs.
- Arrange and organize trainings for people who can do energy efficiency projects.
- Develop testing and certification procedures and promote testing facilities.
- Promote innovative financing of energy efficiency projects
- Give financial assistance to institutions for promoting efficient use of energy and its conservation
- Prepare educational curriculum on efficient use of energy and its conservation
About the BEE Star Rating Program
As mentioned above, BEE sets the standards and label for marking star-rating of various appliances. They also define the testing and certification procedures for all kinds of appliances. When manufacturers make a new model and they want to get their product certified, they do the tests for their appliance as per the procedures designed by BEE and apply for star certification with the data from the tests. Based on the test data BEE provides a star rating for appliances. BEE keeps on refining the standards and certification procedures periodically.
