Dear Funder,

I am writing to invite you to provide audit grants for ISFA’s feasibility study of the Verified Compliance Pathway, an independent audit program for fabrication shops. The study starts in California and is open to fabrication shops across the country.

You know the stakes. Public health authorities and others have labeled silicosis among engineered stone fabrication workers in California a public health emergency. ISFA cites that label as it has been described, neither adopting nor disputing it. Whatever it is called, workers are getting sick, and the Cal/OSHA Standards Board is weighing whether fabrication of engineered stone should continue in the state at all. California’s situation has already shaped a national conversation, and fabricators, regulators and suppliers across the United States are asking many of the same questions. ISFA believes workers can be protected, and fabrication can continue, when existing law is followed. The problem is that no one can currently verify which shops are following it.

ISFA’s draft regulatory language, now open for public comment, proposes the Verified Compliance Pathway as an alternative to a ban. The feasibility study tests whether that pathway works in practice.

Audits are conducted by independent, third-party ISO 45001 Lead Auditors. The auditors do not work for ISFA. They are assigned to a shop only after the shop requests an audit, and they partner with ISFA solely to follow a documented process that keeps the audit free of influence, and that can prove it. Auditors assess each shop against the silica standard that applies where it operates. In California, that is Title 8, Section 5204. In other states, it is the federal OSHA silica standard or the applicable state plan standard. Every audit includes a requirement that each shop designate two competent persons to monitor dust control and housekeeping throughout the day. Each shop receives a pass/fail attestation, which is an attestation of compliance, not a license. Shops that do not pass receive a written corrective action plan and a follow-up audit.

This is about trust. Building trust with government and regulators through independent, verifiable compliance is a solution our industry has never tried. Now we have a way to do it.

The California pilot runs for six months, with a goal of up to 300 registered shops. Shops in other states may register and be audited on the same terms. An independent evaluator analyzes the results. The findings are published and reported to funders, and the California findings are also delivered to the Cal/OSHA Emergency Silica Advisory Committee.

Our ask: Audit grants are offered at $5,000 per audit. You may fund as few as one audit or as many as 100 or more. For example, $50,000 funds 10 audits and $100,000 funds 20 audits.

We hope the study will be funded by audit grants from manufacturers, importers, distributors and fabricators of countertop and surface materials. All grants are administered through ISFA’s Fabricator Safety and Compliance Fund. These are grants, not sponsorships. They fund audits directly and do not purchase advertising, recognition or access.

We built the study so that your grant protects workers without creating a conflict for you, for the shops, or for regulators:

• Every funder will be reported publicly unless they request not to. However, disclosures are required to the government.
• Funders have no role in the study. They do not choose, recommend or veto which shops receive grant-funded audits. They do not select auditors, design the analysis, or review results before publication.
• Shop results stay confidential. Shop-level results are shared only with the shop, ISFA program staff and the independent evaluator. Funders receive only de-identified, combined data.
• Grants carry no conditions. A grant may not be conditioned on any shop’s purchases or on ISFA’s policy positions. Your funding does not depend on the study’s findings or on the outcome of the draft regulatory language.
• Grants are kept separate. Audit grants are kept separate from any contributions that support ISFA’s  activities, which are accounted for and reported separately.
• You will receive regular reports. These include monthly progress updates, a three-month interim report, and the published six-month feasibility report.

Your grant funds verified worker protection, builds trust with regulators, and produces real-world compliance data that regulators in California and across the country do not have today. To commit, please complete the Commitment to Fund registration at countertoplicensing.org and indicate the number of audits you wish to fund.

Thank you for considering this investment in the people who make our industry work.

Sincerely,

Laurie Weber
Chief Executive Officer
International Surface Fabricator Association