American National Standards Institute
Mission
To enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the U.S. quality
of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary standards and conformity using assessment
systems, and safeguarding the standards integrity.
Membership
Comprised of Organizations, Government agencies, Companies, International bodies
Academics and, and individuals, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
represents the interests of more than 125,000 companies and 3.5 million professionals.
This includes companies involved in the manufacture and sales of Skylights and Exterior
Windows.
ANSI Overview
As the voice of the U.S. standards and assessment system conformity, the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) empowers its members and constituents to strengthen
the U.S. marketplace position in the global economy while helping to assure the
safety and health of consumers and the protection of the environment.
The Institute oversees the creation and use of thousands of norms and guidelines
that directly impact businesses in most every sector: from acoustical devices to
construction equipment, from dairy and livestock production to energy distribution,
and many more, including the Skylight and Window industries. ANSI is also actively
engaged in accrediting programs that assess conformance to standards – including
globally-recognized cross-sector programs such as the ISO 9000 (quality) and ISO
14000 (environmental) management systems.
The ANSI Federation’s primary goal is to enhance the global competitiveness of U.S.
business and the American quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary
consensus standards and ensuring their integrity. The Institute, which is active
in both national and international standardization, is a major proponent of the
United States Standards Strategy (USS). This document establishes a framework that
can be used by all interests including companies, government, nongovernmental organizations,
standards developers and consumers, to further improve U.S. competitiveness abroad
while continuing to provide strong support for domestic markets. Using the USS as
a guide, ANSI is successfully facing the standardization challenges of a global
economy while addressing key quality-of-life issues such as safety and the environment.
Although ANSI itself does not develop American National Standards (ANSs), it provides
all interested U.S. parties with a neutral venue to come together and work towards
common agreements. The process to create these voluntary standards is guided by
the Institute’s cardinal principles of consensus, due process and openness and depends
heavily upon data gathering and compromises among a diverse range of stakeholders.
The Institute ensures that access to the standards process, including an appeals
mechanism, is made available to anyone directly or materially affected by a standard
that is under development. Thousands of individuals, companies, government agencies
and other organizations such as labor, industrial and consumer groups voluntarily
contribute their knowledge, talents and efforts to standards development.
ANSI does offer a number of standards used in Exterior Window, Door, and Skylight
installation. In order to maintain ANSI accreditation, standards developers are
required to consistently adhere to a set of requirements or procedures known as
the “
ANSI Essential Requirements: Due process requirements for American National Standards,”
that govern the consensus development process. Due process is the key to ensuring
that ANSs are developed in an environment that is equitable, accessible and responsive
to the requirements of various stakeholders. The open and fair ANS process ensures
that all interested and affected parties have an opportunity to participate in a
standard’s development.
