The Memorandum of Understanding will streamline evaluation processes for U.S. and Italian manufacturers, save time and money, and reduce barriers to trade.
CORAL GABLES, FLA. — Today, ICC Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) and the Construction Technologies Institute of the Italian National Research Council (ITC-CNR) signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the University of Miami’s (UM) Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center, (NAC) in Coral Gables, Florida. The MoU will help streamline the evaluation processes for manufacturers in America and Europe, save time and money, and reduce barriers to trade.
ICC-ES and ITC-CNR have collaborated in the past as peer companies providing product evaluation reports for construction products to relevant codes and standards, sharing information about their conformity assessment work in America and Europe, respectively. The MoU formalizes this collaboration and enables the companies to create harmonized pre-standards that will help industry clients to show proof of compliance to such standards in America and Europe.
“The International Code Council is honored to be a part of this historic agreement,” said Code Council Chief Executive Officer Dominic Sims, CBO. “Our family of companies are global leaders in the building safety industry, and our mission transcends borders. We look forward to continuing to deepen our relationship with our Italian partners as we work to increase building safety around the world.”
“Through this effort, manufacturers exporting building products to the U.S. and Italy can use the MoU as a tool to conduct a ‘one-stop-shop’ product evaluation,” said President of ICC-ES Shahin Moinian. “This agreement will reduce efforts and costs for manufacturers, and it builds confidence that the evaluated products meet the requirements of both countries.”
Attendance at the event included officials from the two organizations and from the University of Miami, including President Julio Frenk, College of Engineering Dean Jean-Pierre Bardet and the Consul General from the Italian Consulate in Miami, the Honorable Cristiano Musilo.
The signing event took place at the NAC as the cooperation between the two companies was initiated between ICC-ES and Dr. Antonio Nanni, professor and chair of the UM College of Engineering’s Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, which tests some of ICC-ES products for building code compliance.
About ICC-ES
A nonprofit, limited liability company, ICC-ES is the United States’ leading evaluation service for innovative building materials, components, and systems. ICC-ES Evaluation Reports, Building Product Listings PMG Listings provide evidence that products and systems meet requirements of codes and technical standards. The ICC-ES Environmental Programs issue VAR environmental reports that verify a product meets specific sustainability targets defined by today’s codes, standards, green rating systems, and ICC-ES environmental criteria directory. The Environmental Programs now offer Environmental Product Declarations (to meet global market demand for science-based, transparent, quality-assured information about a product’s environmental performance. ICC-ES is a member of the ICC Family of Companies.
About the International Code Council
The International Code Council is a member-focused association dedicated to developing model codes and standards used in the design, build and compliance process to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures. Most U.S. communities and many global markets choose the International Codes.