What is the BSC?
The Biodiversity Standard Council is the scientific body behind the Effinature standards. It defines the content of the requirements, guarantees their scientific foundation and governs how they evolve. The standards on which IRICE bases its certifications are therefore neither fixed nor set unilaterally: they are established and revised under the responsibility of a panel of experts.
This is why the BSC is the cornerstone of the method: without a scientifically grounded, up-to-date and documented base of requirements, certification would be just another claim. The BSC is the guarantee that every criterion measured rests on the state of knowledge in ecology and soil science.
Composition: three colleges, balanced representation
The BSC brings together more than 30 members, split into three colleges that represent the main families of stakeholders in a real estate or development project. This balanced structure is at the heart of its impartiality: no single interest group can shape the standards on its own.
Project owners
Developers, landlords and urban developers.
Experts
Scientists, ecologists and environmental project advisers.
Designers
Architects and landscape architects.
The disciplines cover the full range of built-environment biodiversity issues: landscape ecology, botany, fauna, soil functionality and quality, urban ecological engineering. Each member's competence is verified on entry, on both training and experience, and formalised through the signing of a commitment charter.
What the BSC validates
- The Effinature standards: NCO (new construction), EVO (renovation), HOR (development) and HVE (high ecological value).
- The evolution of assessment criteria: adding, revising or removing requirements in line with advances in knowledge and regulatory frameworks.
- The scientific relevance of the scoring grids: weightings, thresholds and score calculation methods.
- Correspondences with other frameworks: validation of the equivalences analysis between Effinature and regulatory, normative and voluntary frameworks.
A traceable and impartial way of working
The BSC meets in documented working sessions. Each meeting produces an attendance sheet and minutes, ensuring the traceability of discussions and decisions.
The standards and scoring grids are subjected to critical review: members question, test and evolve the criteria in light of the state of knowledge. This rigour extends to ruling out any methodological choice that could distort how a project is read, so that the score reflects real ecological performance rather than a favourable presentation.
Competence
Each member's training and experience verified on entry; disciplines covering all built-environment biodiversity issues.
Transparency
Documented meetings (attendance, minutes); criteria and grids discussed, traced and dated.
Impartiality
Three balanced colleges and a commitment charter; the scientific foundation stays distinct from the certification decision.
Competence, transparency and impartiality are the requirements of the ISO/IEC 17065 standard on which IRICE's programmes are built.
BSC and certification: two distinct roles
The BSC defines and validates the scientific content of the standard: the criteria, the indicators and the scoring grids. IRICE, a body accredited by Cofrac (no. 5-0655) under ISO/IEC 17065, then assesses and certifies projects against that standard.
These two roles are deliberately separated: defining the scientific rule on one side, applying the accredited assessment on the other. This separation ensures that certification rests on a scientific foundation independent of the certification decision. The impartiality of decisions is guaranteed by a dedicated impartiality committee.
Go further
- → Effinature certification: the standard applied through accredited assessment.
- → Partnerships and scientific governance: the BSC within IRICE's bodies.
- → Independence, accreditation, evidence: why accredited certification is proof.