Kiwa news: the year 2022 at a glance

In January, Kiwa joined forces with IVAC-Instituto de Certificacion, a leading Spanish conformity assessment company specialized in management systems and persons certification, and UK based company RN Electronics Ltd, a laboratory specialising in Advanced Technology, EMC and Radio Testing. With IVAC and its expert employees, Kiwa has further strengthened its leading position in the Spanish certification market. RN Electronics strengthens Kiwa's global market access and EMC compliance service offerings.

In February, our colleagues at BCC in China became a full part of the global Kiwa Family. Kiwa and BCC already reached a collaboration agreement in 2020, but this year Kiwa became BCC’s full shareholder. Kiwa has been delivering product certification and agro-food inspections in China since 2005. By allying with BCC Inc., active in management system certification in China with over 600 employees, Kiwa has strengthened its TIC portfolio and platform in China.

T-Mobile, one of the largest providers of telecom solutions for consumers and entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, achieved recertification for the internationally recognised standards ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment) and ISO 27001 (information security) in three months. The company worked together with Kiwa in a compact and efficient process in which recertification against the three standards was combined.

Kiwa certified the Holcim ready-mixed concrete plant in Germany as the first company in the world according to the CSC CO2 module. The module, that can be issued since January 2022, is a supplementary certificate for concrete plants to their main CSC certificate. The three stars of the additional module mean that the manufactured concrete is produced with a certified 50% CO2 reduction compared to the reference value.

PI Berlin, leading trusted technical advisor, risk manager and quality assurance provider for photovoltaic power plants and equipment, joined the Kiwa Group in May. With offices in Germany, USA, Spain and China, the now Kiwa partner ensures that we can help even more customers worldwide with Solar-related services.

Vinçotte, Belgium’s largest inspection, audit and certification company, also present in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, finally became officially part of Kiwa in May. The agreement between Kiwa and Vinçotte was pending Belgian competition authority approval since December 2021, when the decision to merge was first announced. Eventually, the authority approved in May 2022.

One of the ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to capture and store or use released CO₂. However, the knowledge regarding the impact of liquid and supercritical CO₂ on materials still has white spots. To help our customers to get more knowledge on this subject and to better understand if their products are suitable for use with CO₂, Kiwa invested in new test facilities in the Netherlands to investigate and test with high pressure CO₂.

MPA Dresden GmbH, a recognised test laboratory and certification and inspection body in the field of fire protection based in Germany, became part of Kiwa in July. In the same month, Colombia-based company Certification Quality Resources (CQR) and Kiwa reached an agreement to integrate CQR's certification and inspection services in Latin America. CQR's affiliation complements our certification services for agri-food products in this region.

In September, Kiwa UK officially opened their brand new local hydrogen production plant in Cheltenham. The plant and technology demonstration site is linked to Kiwa UK’s new test labs by the UK’s first low pressure hydrogen distribution pipeline, operated under the Gas Act 1986. The ability to connect to a continuous flow of odourised hydrogen is already proving invaluable to manufacturers seeking to understand the performance and longevity of their appliances.

In October, we were again able to further expand our global presence by partnering with CMW Geosciences, a market leading Geotechnical consultancy firm with 200 staff in 10 locations across Australia and New Zealand. The partnership will create many exciting new opportunities for our business teams to partner on major projects.

Kiwa Italy is accredited for the UNI/PdR 125:2022, an Italian national standard that aims to provide guidelines on a gender equality management system. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2022 published by the World Economic Forum, Italy ranks 63rd out of 146 countries in the global index based on four factors: economy, education, health and politics. With UNI/PdR 125:2022 Kiwa Italy would like to help organizations with their gender equality policy and creating a more inclusive and less discriminatory working environment.

ASI LLC, a leading food safety solutions company, joined Kiwa in December. The company, based in St. Louis Missouri, America’s epicenter for consumer packaged goods, offers a full suite of safety and quality services to the food and beverage, dietary supplements and, most recently, cannabis industries. With this merger, we significantly strengthen our presence in the United States in providing food, feed and agriculture certifications.

Kiwa is an independent, impartial global leader in Testing, Inspection and Certification. We offer laboratory, (statutory) inspection, auditing and assurance activities, supported and strengthened by (strictly separated) training, consultancy and data services. In the coming year, our steadily growing group of colleagues will once again be ready to help you in these areas. Would you like to know what we can do for you? Check out more on our website and contact us.

Interested in a quick overview of our company, developments and achievements over the past years and Kiwa tomorrow? Have a look at our “We create trust – Kiwa in 2022” brochure.