What it is
Competence is demonstrated, not claimed
10
competence units
2
practitioner tracks
8
shared units
v2.1
2025
Free
always
Standards tell an organization what to measure and methods tell a team what to do. Neither says what a person must be capable of. The Sustainability Competence Standard fills that gap. It is the performance-based competence standard for sustainability professionals and for the project managers who deliver sustainability through projects, and it defines competence as observable performance with evidence rather than as topics covered in a course.
Version 2.1 was rewritten from the ground up. Ten competence units are each broken into elements and performance criteria. Eight units are shared by sustainability leaders and project managers; two more, project design and project oversight, cover the project manager's application of the method. The standard is grounded in the GRI Standards, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the P5 impact framework, and its contributors include people who helped write the GRI Standards and contributed to the SDGs.
The ten units
Eight shared, two for project managers
| Unit | Track | What competent performance looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Ethical leadership | Both | Decides and acts against stated values under pressure, names conflicts of interest and holds others to the same standard. |
| Living systems stewardship | Both | Understands the organization's dependence and impact on living systems and acts to protect and restore their capacity. |
| Talent acquisition, retention and empowerment | Both | Builds teams with fair, inclusive practices and develops the capability sustainability work requires. |
| Assessing and responding to sustainability impacts | Both | Runs a P5-based impact assessment, applies materiality, and turns findings into governed responses. |
| Stakeholder collaboration and engagement | Both | Identifies, listens to and works with affected stakeholders, and records how their input changed decisions. |
| Sustainable procurement | Both | Sources against impact criteria, carries due diligence through the supply chain and enforces supplier commitments. |
| Change management and resilience | Both | Leads change that sticks and builds the capacity to absorb shocks. |
| Regenerative design | Both | Designs work that measurably improves system capacity beyond a baseline, with indicators and verification. |
| Project design | Project managers | Designs a project so that impacts, thresholds and commitments are built into scope, plan and gates from the start. |
| Project oversight | Project managers | Monitors, escalates and verifies sustainability performance through delivery and into benefits realization. |
Certifications
The standard behind the CSPMs and CSPMx
Foundation
CSPP™
The Certified Sustainable Project Professional, delivered through PMI: the exam-based certification that tests the P5 method. Formerly the GPM-b, established 2013.
Specialist
CSPMs™
Assessed against the competence units with evidence from real projects. The certification for practitioners who apply the method in their own work.
Expert level
CSPMx™
The highest level, with advanced performance evidence of leading sustainability across projects and organizations.
Leaders
CSP™ and CSF™
The Certified Sustainability Professional and Certified Sustainability Facilitator, for the leadership track of the standard.
Assessment against the standard is done by GPM through its certification program, with a public registry of holders.
In the ecosystem
Where it sits among GPM's publications
The interactive ecosystem map shows the competence line: the standard and the certifications built on it, running alongside the method so that the people at every gate have the capability the gate assumes. Choose a station below to light it up on the map.
The competence lineThe competence standardCSPPCSPMsCSPMxDecision gatesThe sponsor
Click a line to follow one publication; click any station for its definition. The full-size map is on the ecosystem page.
Getting started
Download, assess yourself, then be assessed
Download the standard. Read the units for your track and mark the criteria you can already evidence.
Take the free self-check. The certification self-assessment maps your strengths and stretch areas across the domains and routes you to the right next step.
Be assessed. Apply for the CSPMs or CSPMx, or start with the CSPP if you are new to the method.
Questions
Frequently asked
What is the Sustainability Competence Standard?
A performance-based standard that defines what a sustainability leader or a project manager must be able to do, in ten competence units with elements and performance criteria tied to evidence. Version 2.1 (2025) is free.
What does performance-based mean?
Competence is demonstrated, not claimed. Each unit is broken into elements, and each element into criteria that describe observable performance. Assessment asks for evidence of what the person did and what resulted, rather than for a list of topics studied.
What are the two tracks?
Eight units are shared by sustainability leaders and project managers: ethical leadership; living systems stewardship; talent acquisition, retention and empowerment; assessing and responding to sustainability impacts; stakeholder collaboration and engagement; sustainable procurement; change management and resilience; and regenerative design. Project managers add two units, project design and project oversight, that cover application inside a project.
Which certifications use it?
The CSPMs (Certified Sustainable Project Manager, Specialist) and CSPMx (Certified Sustainable Project Manager, Expert) are assessed against the competence units. The CSPP, delivered through PMI, is the exam-based certification that sits before them and tests the P5 method.
What is the regenerative design unit?
A forward-looking unit added in Version 2.1 to set direction for the profession. It describes the competence needed to design work that measurably improves the capacity of the systems it touches, beyond a baseline.
Who wrote it, and what is it grounded in?
Contributors include people who helped develop the GRI Standards and who contributed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The standard is grounded in GRI, the 17 SDGs and the P5 impact framework.
How much does it cost?
Nothing. The standard is a free PDF, and the assessments built on it are described on the certification pages.
Who publishes it?
Version 2.1 is a PMI-GPM publication. GPM wrote the standard and its earlier versions, and writes the assessments that use it.
Author
Dr. Joel Carboni is the founder and president of GPM and the architect of the standards, methods, and certifications behind Sustainable Project Management®, delivered through the PMI-GPM joint venture. He created the P5 Standard, the Sustainability Competence Standard, the Sustainable Project Management® Practice Guide, the Project Sustainability Reporting Guide and the PMI GPM Guide to Responsible Project Sponsorship. For over 30 years, his work has moved the profession in a different direction. A Forbes Business Council member and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) contributor, he was shortlisted for Thinkers50's inaugural regenerative business award in 2025 for his book Becoming Regenerative.
Published 5 September 2026. Corrections through the contact page.
GPM®, Green Project Management® and Sustainable Project Management® are registered trademarks of GPM Ltd. PRiSM™, P5™, CSPP™, CSPMs™, CSPMx™, CSP™, CSF™, GPM360°™ and PSM3™ are trademarks of GPM Global and, where applicable, PMI-GPM. PMI and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute.
Also on this site
GPM certifications: how the standard is assessed. The P5 Standard: the impact framework the units apply. The Professional Certificate in Regenerative Leadership: learning built on the regenerative design unit.