Bureau Veritas, a global leader in Testing, Inspection, and Certification services (TIC), has signed the first global verifier agreement to expand the reach and impact of the Building Resilience Index (BRI).
Under this agreement, Bureau Veritas will serve as a verification partner for BRI across key emerging markets in Latin America, Africa, and East Asia and the Pacific.
An innovation of IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, BRI is a web-based framework designed to help developers, investors, and policymakers identify risks to buildings posed by natural hazards and assess, improve, and disclose their resilience.
Through this partnership with Bureau Veritas, BRI users will gain greater access to high-quality, third-party verification of climate-resilient construction practices, expanding trust and adoption of the tool in vulnerable regions where business continuity is increasingly threatened by extreme weather and related hazards.
BRI is funded by the Australian Government and was developed and piloted with seed funding from the Government of the Netherlands and the Rockefeller Foundation, in cooperation with leading organisations such as the ARISE Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies.
Executive vice president for Urbanization and Assurance at Bureau Veritas, Marc Roussel, said that as climate phenomena intensify, it has become essential to integrate climate change adaptation into assets strategy.
“The signing of our global agreement with the International Finance Corporation marks a crucial step,” he said.
“Bureau Veritas has a long history as an independent third party mitigating natural and climate risks. “Our network of experts will add a layer of trust so that stakeholders can rely on Building Resilience Index to evaluate vulnerability and effectiveness of adaptation strategies, worldwide.”
In recent years, physical risks such as floods, cyclones, heatwaves, fires, earthquakes and landslides have posed major threats to business operations, disrupting supply chains, displacing workers and jobs, hurting productivity, and impacting insurance and financing terms.
The BRI-Bureau Veritas partnership responds to a growing demand from businesses and governments for reliable tools that support risk mitigation, asset protection, and long-term economic stability.
IFC senior manager of climate business, Diep Nguyen-van Houtte, said the ability to assess and verify resilience is becoming a crucial element of operational and investment strategy as businesses face increased risks to assets and infrastructure from natural disasters.
“This partnership with Bureau Veritas strengthens the Building Resilience Index by ensuring that more clients—particularly in high-risk geographies—can benefit from credible, independently-verified insights into the resilience of their properties, adding a new tool to their climate adaptation arsenal,” he said.
Created in 1828, Bureau Veritas’ 84,000 employees deliver services in 140 countries.