Credential Maintenance Program (CMP)

Renew your Certification without Testing*

If your certification has not lapsed, as an alternative to taking and passing the most current version of the GACA or GACP exam to maintain your certification, you can take approved courses. This is a user-friendly option for staying up-to-date with green building while maintaining your certification. 

How the CMP Works

To maintain your GACA or GACP certification without lapsing, you can renew within the 5 year term of the certification by earning and submitting to Green Advantage attestation of completing:

  • 20 approved continuing education (CE) hours for GACA certification renewal
  • 30 approved CE hours for GACP certification renewal

One unit of CE hours is granted for every 50-60 minutes of approved educational instruction. If assessments (quizzes or tests) are administered at the end of a given course or educational event, this time also qualifies. For example, a 30 minute quiz counts as .5 CE hours, regardless of the time the certificant needs to complete the quiz. 

All CE hours must relate to green building courses and have been approved by one or more of the organizations listed below. Note that green building is defined, as outlined in the Green Advantage GACA and GACP Study Guides, as pertinent to the planning, design, construction, and operations of buildings with several central, foremost green building considerations:

  • Context, e.g., financial impacts of green building, general knowledge about prominent green building rating systems, standards and codes
  • Sites, e.g., sustainable land use patterns, site selection, stormwater management, exterior lighting
  • Energy and Atmosphere, e.g. energy sourcing, building energy performance, managing and reducing energy consumption
  • Water, e.g., conservation sourcing and demand reduction, water treatment, ecological water discharge
  • Materials, e.g., long life building, green product supply, selection and use
  • Indoor Environmental Quality, e.g., health and productivity effects of the indoor environment
  • Process, e.g., understanding means and methods that impact a green building project, reducing business risks, optimizing construction personnel efficiencies, protecting the health and safety of workers, lightening environmental impacts of green building, sequencing of construction, ensuring proper material handling, utilizing green cleaning

Green Building Personnel Certifications for 15 CE Hours

In addition, 15 CE hours will be awarded for earning a qualified personnel certification offered by one of the organizations listed below. However, this personnel certification, must be:

  • Built to international standards
  • Provided by one of the organizations below as a green building-related personnel certification
  • Earned for the first time by the certificant rather than earned through renewal or reinstatement.

Organizations that can Approve Green Advantage CE hours for Educational Instruction

  1. American Institute of Architects (AIA)
  2. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
  3. American Society of Health Care Engineers of the American Hospital  Association (ASHE)
  4. ASHRAE
  5. Association for the Health Care Environment (AHE)
  6. Association of Energy Engineers (AEE)
  7. Building Performance Institute
  8. Canada’s Building Trade Unions (CBTU)
  9. Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA)
  10. Construction Manager Certification Institute (CMCI)
  11. Construction Specifications Institute (CSI)
  12. Construction Users Roundtable (CURT)
  13. CPWR
  14. Green Business Certification, Inc. (GBCI)
  15. International Code Council (ICC)
  16. International Facility Management Association (IFMA)
  17. International Living Future Institute (ILFI)
  18. International Well Building Institute (IWBI)
  19. Lean Construction Institute
  20. National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)
  21. National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI)
  22. National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER)
  23. North American Building Trades Union
  24. Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC)
  25. The Landscape Architecture Continuing Education System (LACES)
  26. United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Union of America (UBC)

A Green Advantage certification holder who wishes to see another organization added to the list above can request consideration and approval from Green Advantage by submitting a written request to ces@greenadvantage.org. Organizational approval will be granted based on the following criteria:

  1. Organized to service the U.S., Canada, the U.S. + other countries, or Canada + other countries
  2. Established for a minimum of 5 years
  3. Established track record of offering and/or approving continuing education courses in green building
  4. No known significant legal issues that would disrupt operations. 

Requests should provide publicly available evidence that the above criteria are met by the organization.

Steps Required to Gain CE Hour Approval

If your GACA or GACP certification has not lapsed and you wish to renew without taking and passing the current certification exam, you must complete your renewal online by logging into your dashboard, clicking on CMP in the toolbar, and taking the following steps:

  1. Earn and be prepared to show proof, if audited by Green Advantage, of completion of the renewal requirements. Educational courses require:
    1. proof of your attendance/completion in the form of a certificate from an approved education provider (see list above) and/or
    2. an email from the education provider confirming your attendance, or any similar document
  2. Complete and submit the CMP information using the online application form
  3. Electronically agree to an affirmation that attests to:
    1. the accuracy of the information in the completed renewal application
    2. your understanding and agreement that the renewal information presented is subject to audit by GA and that inaccurate or unsupportable information you provide may lead to suspension or revocation of the certification 
  4. Pay the Certification Renewal Fee for a certification that has not lapsed. Click here to see the Fee Schedule. 

You will be able to enter and keep track of your continuing education CE hours, and complete the renewal application, all on a password-protected, secure site. Click here to login to your dashboard, then click on CMP in the toolbar and complete and submit your application. (Once your completed online application has been submitted and the Certification Renewal Fee has been paid, your certification will be renewed for 5 years from the date of payment).

Reinstatement

If you earned a GACA or GACP credential, but let your certification lapse, there are two choices you have to reinstate: 1) take and pass the most current GACA or GACP exam or 2) take and submit approved courses to reinstate your certification if it has not lapsed for more than one year. If you want to take the most current GACA or GACP exam, click here to register. If you want to reinstate through course submissions, follow the steps below.

How to Submit Courses for Reinstatement

  1. Log in to your dashboard and click on reinstatement.
  2. Follow the directions to complete a reinstatement application listing the CE hours documentation associated with the period of time that your certification has lapsed (no more than one year). 
  3. Make payment for the time period or periods you’ve missed. Click here to see the fee schedule.

*Terms and conditions for certification renewal and reinstatement are subject to change.