EIC welcomes Quidos as a member

The Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) has welcomed Quidos as a new member organisation and looks forward to benefiting from their expertise around the energy efficiency compliance of buildings.

Quidos offers a range of accreditation and certification schemes, including energy assessor accreditation as well as training courses and software, which enable a wide range of buildings reports to be carried out. 

The company was formed in 2004, when it was working in the photography of buildings which led on to building assessment purposes in 2006.

It then developed into accreditation and auditing works carried out on assessments or installs, due to government demand. 

The firm now has more than 1,000 members and this is growing by the day.

Members are covered by the firm’s insurance and are also able to use the firm’s software to carry out their work, such as EPC reports.

The members are also put on a government approved list of accredited buildings compliance professionals, that can then be accessed by landlords, homeowners or mortgage lenders.

Catherine Garrido, operations director of Quidos, which has offices in Bath and Cardiff and contractors throughout the UK, said: “we are in a great position as an accreditation scheme to work with our members as well as find ways to educate people in what is required to make the needed property improvements regarding energy efficiency”. 

“Quality is our focus. Any assessment that comes through us needs to be as accurate as possible.

“We got in contact with EIC in January because I think it’s brilliant what the EIC do. I like their links in industry and love the manifesto that’s been created.”

She added she would like to see buildings to be involved in the conversations EIC are having. 

“That’s our main focus in terms of our part in the drive towards achieving net zero,” she said. 

“The UK has one of the oldest housing stocks and this needs to be addressed, so we want to bring our experience from a buildings perspective to EIC.”

Quidos is audited twice a year and requirements for members include making sure they get a DBS if they are entering properties and making sure that they’re doing continuous professional development. 

“Our market share is growing and we’re doing quite a lot of work with lenders who we envisage are going to lead the way in getting people to retrofit their properties. The only way we are going to reach the goal we require is to work together and run with the wind”. 

“We are improving our relationship with lenders and will hopefully be working more closely with them going forward.

Speaking of the work Quidos hopes to undertake with the EIC, Catherine adds the firm wants to have their say with regards to buildings specifically. 

“We want to be part of the climate change working group and we believe we could introduce a whole new membership arm if there was a working group specific to buildings,” she said. 

“We would like to kick start that if possible, this is one of the main focus areas for decreasing our carbon use”.

“We think EIC do great work and we want to be vocal about what we do as part of that membership.

“We would like to start those conversations around buildings and how we improve the energy efficiencies around them and I think EIC would be well-placed to be involved in that and this in turn would attract more members to EIC.”