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EnviroCert International, Inc. (ECI) presents this fifth article in its continuing series addressing professional standards, competency, certification, and the future of the stormwater and environmental professions.
Article 4 addressed the broader professional principles of competency, ethics, specialization, continuing education, professional judgment, and collaboration. Its central premise was that as professions mature and their bodies of knowledge expand, specialization naturally develops.
Article 5 addresses the next question:
If stormwater practice has become increasingly specialized, why has ECI developed separate professional certifications to address those areas?
ECI did not expand its certification programs simply to create additional credentials. The programs evolved because stormwater practice itself evolved.
Over the past several decades, federal, state, and local regulatory programs have expanded substantially. EPA permit programs have become increasingly specialized, technical knowledge has advanced, and professional responsibilities have extended well beyond traditional erosion and sediment control.
Construction stormwater, industrial stormwater, municipal stormwater, water quality, inspections, post-construction management, green infrastructure, monitoring, pollutant control, and other areas now require different combinations of education, knowledge, experience, and professional judgment.
The certifications did not create these specialized areas of practice. The evolution of the profession created the need to evaluate different areas of competence.
POINT 1: THE CPESC REMAINS A FOUNDATIONAL PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION
The Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control remains one of ECI's foundational professional certifications. The CPESC addresses the science and practice of surface erosion and sediment control, including the development of site-specific plans and practices intended to address erosion and sedimentation concerns.
That field alone represents a substantial body of professional knowledge involving soils, erosion processes, sediment transport, rainfall and runoff, vegetation, stabilization, hydraulics, construction sequencing, BMP selection and performance, inspection, maintenance, and regulatory requirements.
The CPESC should therefore continue to maintain meaningful technical depth within erosion and sediment control.
Expanding the CPESC to encompass every area of modern stormwater practice would not necessarily strengthen the certification. At some point, increasing breadth can come at the expense of technical depth. Protecting the defined scope of the CPESC protects the meaning and value of the certification itself.
POINT 2: STORMWATER PRACTICE NOW REQUIRES DIFFERENT AREAS OF COMPETENCE
Modern stormwater practice extends substantially beyond erosion and sediment control.
The Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), and subsequent federal, state, and local programs have created increasingly distinct areas of professional responsibility.
Construction stormwater emphasizes land disturbance, erosion, sediment transport, construction sequencing, stabilization, and BMP implementation.
Industrial stormwater involves industrial activities, pollutant exposure, sector-specific requirements, inspections, monitoring and sampling, corrective actions, and pollution prevention.
Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) programs involve municipal administration, illicit discharge detection and elimination, public education, construction and post-construction oversight, municipal operations, enforcement, program effectiveness, and long-term permit implementation.
Stormwater-quality practice may extend across these areas and involve pollutant sources and transport, treatment, receiving waters, planning, design, implementation, monitoring, inspection, and maintenance. These areas overlap and share important scientific and regulatory foundations, but they are not interchangeable.
A professional may possess significant expertise in erosion and sediment control without possessing equivalent expertise in industrial stormwater compliance. Likewise, an experienced industrial stormwater professional may not possess the knowledge necessary to administer a complex MS4 program.
That does not make either professional less qualified. It means they are qualified in different areas of professional practice.
POINT 3: ECI'S CERTIFICATIONS REFLECT DISTINCT AREAS OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
ECI's professional certifications are intended to align demonstrated competency with identifiable areas of practice. The following address four initial design certifications established by ECI for this discussion.
Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC): The CPESC focuses on erosion and sediment control, including erosion prevention, sediment management, soil conservation, land disturbance, stabilization, and related technical practices based on the Federal CGP permit.
Certified Professional in StormWater Quality (CPSWQ): The CPSWQ addresses broader stormwater-quality responsibilities, including planning, design, implementation, observation, maintenance, inspection, pollutant management, mitigations, and regulatory compliance.
Certified Professional in Industrial Stormwater Management (CPISM): The CPISM focuses on industrial stormwater management, including industrial activities and pollutant exposure, BMPs, inspections, monitoring and sampling, corrective actions, documentation, and pollution prevention based on the Federal Multi-Sector permit.
Certified Professional in Municipal Stormwater Management (CPMSM): The CPMSM focuses on the development, implementation, management, and coordination of municipal stormwater programs under MS4 permit requirements, including program administration, illicit discharge programs, construction and post-construction oversight, municipal operations, public education, enforcement, and program evaluation based on the Federal MS4 permit.
These certifications share important foundational principles, but they do not certify the same competencies. That distinction is fundamental to ECI's certification structure.
POINT 4: WHY NOT SIMPLY EXPAND THE CPESC?
A frequent question is why ECI does not simply expand the CPESC examination to encompass all areas of stormwater practice. At first glance, that approach may appear simpler. In practice, however, a credible professional certification must have a defined scope of practice. Its examination should evaluate the knowledge, skills, and abilities required within that scope and be supported by an appropriate Job Task Analysis and examination blueprint.
If one examination attempted to comprehensively evaluate erosion and sediment control, stormwater quality, industrial compliance, monitoring and sampling, municipal program administration, inspections, green infrastructure, pollutant treatment, and other specialties, the examination would either become excessively broad or evaluate individual subjects only superficially.
Neither outcome strengthens professional certification.
A broader certification is not automatically a better certification. The value of a credential depends in significant part upon employers, regulators, clients, and the public being able to understand what professional competency that credential represents. Specialization can provide that clarity.
POINT 5: SPECIALIZATION DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY JUSTIFY ANOTHER CERTIFICATION
ECI also recognizes an important counterpoint: the existence of a specialized area of practice does not, by itself, justify creating another professional certification.
Professionals develop expertise through many pathways, including education, practical experience, mentoring, professional licensure, continuing education, specialized training, and professional certification.
Certification is one mechanism for independently evaluating and recognizing competence. It is not the only means by which competence can exist. Accordingly, ECI should not develop a certification simply because a subject can be identified as a specialty or because a potential market exists.
A separate professional certification should be developed only when an area of practice has:
- A sufficiently identifiable body of knowledge;
- Meaningful and distinguishable professional responsibilities;
- Competency requirements capable of objective evaluation;
- Sufficient professional, public, regulatory, or environmental significance to warrant independent certification; and
- A defensible basis for establishing a scope of practice and examination framework.
Specialization alone does not justify credential proliferation. Defined and independently assessable professional competency does.
POINT 6: OVERLAP DOES NOT MEAN THE COMPETENCIES ARE THE SAME
Some overlap among professional certifications is unavoidable. Stormwater disciplines share common principles involving hydrology, pollutants, BMPs, inspection, regulatory compliance, water-quality protection, and professional judgment.
The existence of common knowledge does not mean the professional responsibilities are identical. Industrial stormwater and municipal stormwater both address water quality, for example, but the day-to-day responsibilities, regulatory frameworks, monitoring requirements, program-management functions, and technical decisions can be substantially different. Similarly, erosion and sediment control is an important component of construction stormwater practice, but that does not mean every competency associated with stormwater quality, industrial compliance, or municipal program management should be incorporated into the CPESC.
The appropriate question is not whether two specialties share some knowledge. The appropriate question is whether each contains a sufficiently distinct body of professional responsibility and competence to justify independent evaluation.
Common foundations can coexist with specialized competencies.
POINT 7: THE PROFESSION SHOULD DEFINE THE CERTIFICATION, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND
A professional certification should begin with the work being performed in the profession.
The appropriate sequence is:
Professional Practice → Scope of Practice → Job Task Analysis → Defined Competencies → Examination Blueprint → Certification
A certification organization should not create a credential and then attempt to identify a market or body of knowledge to support it. Unfortunately, we have seen this created by many other “businesses” in the stormwater sector. ECI rejects this approach. The proper approach is the organization should evaluate the profession, identify the tasks and responsibilities actually being performed, determine whether those responsibilities constitute a sufficiently distinct area of professional competence, and only then determine whether independent certification is warranted.
The profession should define the competency, and the competency should define the certification, not the other way around.
POINT 8: NOT EVERY PROFESSIONAL NEEDS EVERY CERTIFICATION
Multiple certifications do not mean every stormwater professional should obtain every credential. ECI's position is that certifications should correspond to an individual's actual practice, responsibilities, education, experience, and professional objectives.
A professional practicing primarily in erosion and sediment control may appropriately maintain the CPESC. An industrial stormwater professional may pursue the CPISM. A municipal stormwater manager may pursue the CPMSM. Professionals whose responsibilities extend across several areas may appropriately pursue multiple certifications.
The appropriate combination depends upon the work actually being performed.
The purpose is not to collect initials after one's name. The purpose is to demonstrate competence in the areas in which the professional actually practices.
POINT 9: CERTIFICATION RECOGNIZES COMPETENCE, IT DOES NOT CREATE IT
Professional certification does not, by itself, create competence. Professionals develop knowledge and judgment through education, mentoring, practical experience, continuing education, professional practice, and other forms of professional development.
ECI does not contend that holding a certification is the only means by which professional competence can exist. Rather, professional certification provides an independent and structured means of evaluating and recognizing competence against defined standards.
Professional licensure, certification, education, experience, mentoring, and continuing education serve different but complementary purposes.
Professional certification does not replace licensure where licensure is required. Likewise, professional licensure does not automatically establish specialized expertise in every technical field.
As discussed in Article 4:
Professional licensure and professional certification should complement one another, not compete with one another.
POINT 10: SPECIALIZATION SHOULD SUPPORT COLLABORATION
Specialized certifications should not create professional silos. This is an issue that many of ECI professionals have, and need to come to the realization that professionals from different backgrounds each can contribute and advance the profession. Modern stormwater problems frequently require professionals with different areas of expertise to work together. Engineers, geologists, erosion and sediment control professionals, stormwater-quality specialists, industrial practitioners, MS4 managers, inspectors, scientists, contractors, and regulators may each contribute different knowledge to the same problem.
Professional maturity includes recognizing both the value and the limits of one's own expertise. ECI's specialized certifications should therefore identify complementary areas of professional competence, not competing professional identities.
POINT 11: SPECIALIZATION SHOULD STRENGTHEN THE MEANING OF PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION
There is sometimes concern that creating specialized certifications weakens an established credential such as the CPESC. ECI believes the opposite can be true when certifications are appropriately developed and properly scoped. Attempting to make one certification represent every aspect of stormwater practice eventually makes the meaning of that certification less clear.
A CPESC, CPSWQ, CPISM, or CPMSM should each represent an identifiable area of competence that employers, regulators, clients, and the public can reasonably understand.
Specialization should protect the technical identity and professional value of each certification, not dilute it.
POINT 12: ECI IS A NONPROFIT CERTIFICATION ORGANIZATION—NOT A CREDENTIAL SALES ORGANIZATION
Somewhere along the evolution of professional certification, a perception developed among some individuals that expanding certification programs must represent a financial or "money grab" motivation.
That perception does not accurately reflect ECI's organizational structure, history, or purpose.
EnviroCert International, Inc. is organized as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization. ECI is self-supporting. The organization does not have shareholders or private owners receiving distributions from its certification activities. ECI's Board of Directors serves on a volunteer basis, and ECI's President and CEO likewise serves without salary or compensation for that position.
This distinction is important, but ECI does not suggest that nonprofit status means finances are irrelevant. ECI must operate responsibly as a business.
Professional examinations must be developed, statistically evaluated, administered, maintained, secured, and periodically revised. Job Task Analyses and examination blueprints must be developed and updated. Accreditation requires substantial administrative, technical, documentation, audit, and quality-control resources. Technology must be maintained. Staff must be employed. Candidate services must be provided. Professional programs must continue to develop, and the organization must maintain the financial stability necessary to fulfill these responsibilities over the long term.
Nonprofit does not mean that an organization does not need revenue. It means that generating revenue is not the ultimate purpose of the organization.
ECI must remain financially sustainable if it is to continue serving Certified Professionals, developing examinations, maintaining accreditation, expanding internationally, improving technology, developing new professional programs, and responding to changes in science and regulation.
There is an important distinction, however, between operating sustainably and allowing financial considerations to determine professional standards. ECI has worked feverishly hard to assess and maintain a divide between these two principles.
ECI believes a professional certification organization has responsibilities that extend beyond selling educational products or responding to market demand. Certification affects professional qualifications, regulatory programs, employers, Certified Professionals, and ultimately the public and environmental resources those professionals are entrusted to protect. That responsibility requires ECI to sometimes make decisions that may not be the easiest, most popular, or most financially advantageous.
It may require maintaining eligibility requirements when lowering them would attract more candidates. It may require maintaining examination rigor when an easier examination would produce higher pass rates. It may require declining to recognize training or professional-development activities that do not satisfy established requirements and it may require deciding not to create a new certification when the underlying professional competencies do not justify one.
These are important distinctions between a professional certification organization and an organization whose principal objective is selling training, courses, certificates, or other commercial products.
This does not mean that commercial organizations cannot provide valuable education, training, or professional services. Many do. Nor does nonprofit status, standing alone, guarantee that every organizational decision is correct.
The relevant issue is the purpose and responsibility underlying the decision. For ECI, the question should not be:
Will another certification generate revenue?
The appropriate questions are:
1) Does the profession need it?
2) Is there a distinct and defensible body of professional knowledge? Can competency be objectively evaluated?
3) Does the certification provide meaningful value to professionals, employers, regulators, the public, and the environmental resources the profession is entrusted to protect?
If those questions cannot be answered satisfactorily, financial opportunity alone should never justify creating a professional certification.
ECI must operate like a responsible business so that it can continue to fulfill its mission. But ECI's professional standards should never be treated as a business commodity.
That distinction is fundamental to ECI's role as a nonprofit professional certification organization.
ECI'S RESPONSIBILITY AS A PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION ORGANIZATION
ECI's responsibility is neither to preserve a certification structure simply because it existed in the past nor to create certifications merely because a potential market exists.
A professional certification organization must evaluate how professional practice is changing and determine whether distinct areas have developed sufficiently defined bodies of knowledge, responsibilities, and competency requirements to warrant specialized certification. That evaluation should consider professional practice, regulatory requirements, technical developments, Job Task Analyses, examination standards, industry input, and the responsibilities entrusted to practitioners.
This responsibility also requires restraint. Not every new regulatory requirement, technology, BMP, or developing area of practice requires a separate credential. Certifications should be developed only where a meaningful and defensible professional need exists.
ECI's nonprofit structure reinforces this responsibility. Financial sustainability allows the organization to continue its work; it should not determine the professional standards that govern that work.
ECI's certification structure should therefore continue to evolve when the profession warrants it, but it should also remain disciplined enough to avoid unnecessary credential proliferation.
The objective is not more certifications. The objective is better-defined professional competency.
CONCLUSION
Article 4 established the broader professional principle: competence requires professionals to understand their areas of expertise, recognize their limitations, continue developing their knowledge, exercise professional judgment, and collaborate with others when additional expertise is required.
Article 5 explains how that principle relates to ECI's certification structure. Modern stormwater practice encompasses multiple areas requiring different combinations of technical knowledge, regulatory understanding, experience, and professional judgment. Where those areas develop sufficiently distinct and objectively assessable competencies, specialized professional certification can provide a meaningful mechanism for recognizing that expertise.
But specialization alone does not justify another credential. A certification should exist because the profession demonstrates a legitimate need for independent evaluation of a defined area of competence, not because an organization can create one and not because doing so may generate additional revenue. That distinction is central to ECI's responsibility.
ECI must remain financially sustainable, continue investing in its programs, and operate with the discipline necessary for long-term organizational stability. But financial sustainability is a means of continuing ECI's work; it is not the purpose of professional certification.
The objective is not to require every professional to possess every credential. It is not to diminish the CPESC, compete with professional licensure, or create certifications merely for the sake of creating certifications. The objective is to ensure that professional certifications accurately represent identifiable and meaningful areas of professional competence.
A strong profession is one in which qualifications have meaning, professionals understand the scope of their competence, employers and regulators understand what credentials represent, and specialists collaborate rather than compete. Specialization is not evidence that the stormwater profession has become fragmented. It is evidence that the profession has matured.
ECI's responsibility is to ensure that its certification programs evolve with that maturity while maintaining rigor, independence, technical relevance, financial sustainability, and appropriate restraint. The certifications should follow the profession. The profession should never be forced to follow the certifications.
ECI Series Article 6 will follow in the coming weeks and will address “What It Means to Be a Self-Supporting Nonprofit Certification Organization, Financial Sustainability, Accountability, Growth, and Investment in the Profession.”
We look forward to everyone’s thoughts and comments !
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