About the CPEA Recertification Program

In 2020, The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the Board for Global EHS Credentialing (BGC) jointly announced that their governing bodies had agreed to transition the Certified Professional Environmental Auditor (CPEA) and Certified Process Safety Auditor (CPSA) certifications from The IIA to BGC. In May of the same year, the BGC board voted on a resolution to maintain and promote the CPEA and CPSA credentials and practitioners globally to fulfill their role within BGC’s definition of EHS.  CPEAs and CPSAs were given the title of “BGC Diplomate” along with all accompanying rights, privileges, and responsibilities of that status.  Since then, efforts have been underway to align the CPEA and CPSA credentialing programs with BGC’s existing application, examination, and recertification practices.  This document reflects several steps taken in those alignments:

• Transitioned CPEAs and CPSAs to a 5-year recertification cycles
• Applied requirements for BGC’s Code of Ethics to all BGC programs
• Aligned point values and activity categories across credentialing programs
• Aligned fee schedules and discounts
• Aligned the timelines for submission of recertification documents

Overview

The purpose of the BGC Certification Maintenance (CM) program, which began in 1979, is to ensure that Diplomates develop and enhance their professional-level knowledge and skills during the time period that they are certified by BGC. The CM program primarily emphasizes technical advancement but does make allowances for some professional development activities when there is an environmental, health, or safety aspect. Generic career skills development or career advancement may occur as a result of being a Diplomate, but it is not a focus area for the BGC CM program.

This includes the yearly fee to maintain your credential after it is awarded. Normally, your annual fee is paid by the beginning of each year. Your first annual fee may be prorated depending on the month or window in which you sit for the exam.

Diplomates are required to recertify every five years in order to maintain their BGC certification. BGC believes that the five-year cycle allows ample time for the Diplomate to develop new knowledge/skills as well as enhance or refresh on previously acquired knowledge/skills. This can encompass maintaining technical knowledge and skills in regulations and standards and updating their knowledge and skills related to improvements and current developments in practice, procedures, and techniques.

The CM cycle length of five years is also consistent with the BGC exam updates which start with a job analysis which is done every five to seven years and used to identify the current knowledge and skills possessed by practitioners with three to four years of broad scope professional-level practice. If the job analysis indicates a fundamental change in the work domains or tasks, the CM program would be evaluated for both the recertification frequency and methodologies (i.e., CM Categories and approved activities).