Soil Association Certification Ltd. – Withdrawal of CB Accreditation
Soil Association Certification Ltd. (Soil Association) advised Textile Exchange and IOAS (Soil Association’s accreditation body) that they have chosen to voluntarily withdraw from accreditation to Textile Exchange standards. Soil Association’s certified clients must now seek certification services from and transfer their certification services to another accredited certification body no later than September 12, 2023, to maintain certification as all scope certificates issued by Soil Association will be considered withdrawn after that date. Transaction certificates previously issued by Soil Association are still considered valid – unless otherwise notified by Soil Association or Textile Exchange. To authenticate a transaction certificate issued by Soil Association, please see the Textile Exchange transaction certificate portal.
The Withdrawal of Certification Body Licensing procedure (ASR-112-v2.0), section D details the requirements for certification bodies to communicate to their certification clients directly regarding how this withdrawal will impact their certification services.
If you are a certified client of Soil Association, you should have received their notification already, but below are some potential next steps and resources to assist you with the process:
1. Review this page of certification bodies licensed to certify against the relevant Textile Exchange standard(s) in your region and immediately contact them for quotes to become newly certified by them. In some cases, a simplified transfer audit may be possible.
2. Inform the chosen succeeding certification body of the circumstance and provide them a copy of this communication.
3. When an organization transfers between certification bodies (from the “preceding certification body” to the “succeeding certification body”, including when the transfer occurs at recertification), the succeeding certification body may issue transaction certificates for shipments from the time when the organization was certified with the preceding certification body, provided that all of the conditions of calibration# 229 are met. Please contact your certification body for more information.
Textile Exchange thanks Soil Association for their support of our standards over the past several years and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
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