The commitment of ECO AUDIT SA to impartiality is the fundamental precept of the energy performance certification business. To this end, the relationships that could cause impartiality to be compromised are listed and the reference to the prevention measure is provided below:

• Clients may be placing ECO AUDIT SA staff and management under pressure to improve the reported results or energy performance of the client businesses, and these pressures are to be resisted and should be reported to the director responsible or any other director when appropriate.

• Relationships with organisations or clients whose businesses policies or practices are considered risky or less than legal or possibly placing the ECO AUDIT SA company, its directors, regional partners and/or staff in a position of compromise to impartiality shall not be entered into.

• An impartiality and independence monitoring role will be assigned to Adri Jones, a qualified and registered legal practitioner. Any risks identified by staff or management shall be reported to the board of directors on a routine basis by Ms. Jones with the measures undertaken to counter the risks.

• The words and actions of ECO AUDIT SA directors or regional partners shall always be to support this statement of commitment.

As per Annexure A of SANS17020 the principles of independence as per a Type A or third-party inspectorate require that:

• ECO AUDIT SA shall be independent of the parties involved: Staff responsible for carrying out energy performance certification shall not be the designer, manufacturer, supplier, installer, purchaser, owner, user or maintainer of any aspect of the area to be inspected, measured and assessed for energy usage, or the representative of such parties.

• ECO AUDIT SA and its staff shall not engage in activities that may conflict with the independence, judgment and integrity in relation to the energy performance certification activities.

• ECO AUDIT SA shall not become directly involved in the design, manufacture, supply, installation, use or maintenance of the facilities assessed, or competitive facilities.

• All interested parties shall have access to the services of ECO AUDIT SA, without undue financial or other conditions imposed. ECO AUDIT SA will be administered in a non-partisan and non-discriminatory fashion.