What does American Standards do?

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit organization established in 1918. It administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment system. ANSI accredits standards developing organizations (SDOs) and facilitates the creation of American National Standards (ANS) without directly developing standards itself. Headquartered in Washington, DC, ANSI serves over 270,000 organizations and 30 million professionals, promoting U.S. competitiveness by aligning standards with international bodies like ISO and IEC. ANSI's core activities include accrediting SDOs, approving voluntary national consensus standards, and developing solutions for verifying compliance with these standards. The organization enhances business efficiency, consumer confidence, and market access while reducing costs. ANSI also represents the U.S. in international standardization efforts and oversees processes in various fields, including nuclear energy and information technology. Its primary outputs are the American National Standards, which are voluntary documents that often carry the "ANSI" designation.