Dozens of Organizations and Individuals Declare Support of ISSP Sustainability Professionals Certification Program
HARTFORD, CT (PRWEB) January 27, 2015 -- Since the beginning of 2015, more than 50 organizations and individuals have declared their support of efforts by The International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) to launch the ISSP Sustainability Professionals Certification Program. Additionally, ISSP Executive Director Maureen Hart has been invited by the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (CEDD) to present details of the certification program to CEDD members later this month in Washington, DC.
Hart will provide an overview of the ISSP Sustainability Professionals Certification Program to CEDD members at the CEDD Winter Conference on January 30. CEDD is a program of the National Council for Science and the Environment, and is comprised of environmental leaders from 200 institutions of higher education in the United States.
“The reception we've received to our announcement that we plan to launch a certification program for sustainability professionals by the end of this year has been tremendous,” says ISSP's Hart. “We've secured declarations of support from dozens of organizations and individuals in just the last few weeks, and the list of supporters continues to grow daily.”
Supporters of ISSP's efforts have signed a Declaration of Support that states there is a need to :
- provide cohesion and definition to the emerging profession of sustainability
- provide credibility for employers and assurance of a standard level of competency of the sustainability professional
- provide practitioners in the field evidence of competency, furthering their credibility, influence and career advancement opportunities
Further, each supporting organization and individual has declared their support of ISSP to lead the creation of a global sustainability professional certification.
Leading organizations in industry, academia and government that have already pledged their Declarations of Support for ISSP to lead these certification development efforts include:
- Alliance for Sustainable Colorado
- Assa Abloy
- Fair Trade USA
- Farmer Brothers
- Green Circle Certified
- Northwest Earth Institute
- Pinchot Institute
- Presidio Graduate School
- Virginia Mason Medical Center
On January 30, ISSP Executive Director Maureen Hart will be outlining ways that organizations and individuals in the academic community can get involved with the ISSP Sustainability Professional Certification development effort, when she presents as part of a panel at the Winter Conference of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors. The discussion will be led by Christopher Boone, Dean of Arizona State University School of Sustainability, which offers undergraduate and graduate programs and minors, as well as doctoral and professional leadership programs.
Progress To Date and What's Next
At its November 2014 meeting, the ISSP Board of Directors unanimously voted to move quickly forward in creating a Sustainability Professional Certification Program with the intent to have a Beta version launched in March 2015 and a version 1.0 launched in November 2015. The process dates back to 2010, when ISSP published the results of its research on the core competencies of a sustainability professional. Then in 2013, ISSP published the job task analysis that will be the basis for the certification scheme. The group is now leading the third step — the creation of a professional certification scheme.
Development of the ISSP Sustainability Professional Certification Program has been designed as an open, inclusive, transparent process. There are a variety of ways to become involved, including:
- Declare your organization's support for a Sustainability Professional Certification
- Declare your individual support for a Sustainability Professional Certification
- Partner with ISSP to make the Sustainability Professional Certification a reality. Partnering opportunities include both financial and in-kind support
- Submit test questions for use in the Sustainability Professional Certification assessment. This option is open only to ISSP members and specially recruited professionals who are invited to participate.
- Participate in the Beta test. ISSP will be recruiting a limited number of people to participate in the Beta run of the certification scheme sometime this spring. Announcements about the date and location of the beta test will be made in February.
To discuss how you or your organization can get involved, please contact Maureen Hart, ISSP Executive Director, 99 Pratt St, Suite 200, Hartford, CT 06103 USA or email certification(at)sustainabilityprofessionals(dot)org
About ISSP
The International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) is the world's leading professional association for sustainability professionals. ISSP is a member-driven association committed to moving the profession of sustainability forward through building strong networks and communities of practice. Webinars, online courses, a sustainability certificate, sustainability professional’s body of knowledge, special reports, resource directories, and salary surveys are just a sampling of the rich content offered to members. Formed in 2007, ISSP boasts almost 1000 members from every region of the world. Members share resources and best practices, and develop themselves professionally. For more information about ISSP and its offerings, please visit http://www.sustainabilityprofessionals.org.
Ray Berardinelli, International Society of Sustainability Professionals, http://www.sustainabilityprofessionals.org, 503-425-9095, [email protected]
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