Is this for you
You set the approach others follow. Certify it at the highest level.
10
competence units
0
exams
2011
GPM certifying since
USD 1,499
one fee, monthly plan available
The CSPMx is for the people whose decisions decide how an organization delivers sustainability through its projects: the program director who sets the gates and the reporting for a capital portfolio, the PMO head who writes the method everyone else follows, the delivery executive who arbitrates when a sustainability commitment and a schedule collide, the senior consultant whose recommendation becomes the client's standard. The evidence is highly complex work, and the bar is mastery: what you changed, and what stayed changed after you left.
It is the top of the PMI-GPM project family. The CSPP shows knowledge of the P5 method; the CSPMs shows competent application on moderately complex projects; the CSPMx shows that you can lead the hardest work and shape practice around you.
Program and portfolio leaders
Capital programs, transformation portfolios, multi-country delivery
Many parties, shifting conditions, cascading risk. Your evidence is how sustainability commitments survived all of that.
PMO and methods owners
Heads of PMO, delivery excellence, enterprise methods
You define how projects assess impact, set thresholds and report. The CSPMx recognizes the sustainability content of the system you built.
Delivery executives
Directors and VPs accountable for outcomes
You make the calls when commitments and pressure collide. The evidence is the decisions, the trade-offs recorded and the results.
Senior consultants
Advisers who set client practice
Your recommendations become other organizations' standards. The CSPMx is the individual certification that backs that role.
What it certifies
The ten units, at mastery level, on highly complex work
The GPM Sustainability Competence Standard defines ten units. Eight are shared with GPM's certifications for sustainability leaders; two, project governance and planning and project monitoring and control, cover how a project manager designs and runs a project so that sustainability commitments are met. The PMI GPM P5 Standard supplies the impact structure and the PRiSM method the delivery method that the evidence is judged against.
| Unit | What you show evidence of |
|---|---|
| Ethical leadership | Decisions taken against stated values under delivery pressure; conflicts of interest named; the team held to the same standard. |
| Living systems stewardship | The project's dependence and impact on living systems understood and managed: compliance, resources, emissions, land, water, biodiversity. |
| Talent acquisition, retention and empowerment | Fair, inclusive practices in building and running the project team, and the capability sustainability delivery requires. |
| Assessing and responding to sustainability impacts | A P5 Impact Analysis run at the right points, materiality applied, thresholds set, and responses governed through the Sustainability Management Plan. |
| Stakeholder collaboration and engagement | Affected stakeholders identified and engaged, with a record of how their input changed scope, plan or design. |
| Sustainable procurement | Sourcing against impact criteria, supply-chain due diligence, supplier commitments written into contracts and monitored. |
| Change management and resilience | Change delivered so that it sticks, and the project's ability to absorb shocks built in. |
| Regenerative design | Deliverables designed to measurably improve system capacity beyond a baseline, with indicators and verification. |
| Project governance and planning | Impacts, thresholds and commitments built into the business case, scope, plan and decision gates from the start. |
| Project monitoring and control | Sustainability performance monitored, breaches escalated, results verified through delivery and into benefits realization. |
How the assessment works
Six steps, no exam
Enrol on the portal, free
Open the submission guide on GPM's learning portal and read the introduction. The competence units, elements and performance criteria are all visible before you pay anything.
Check your fit
Map your own work against the units. If you can point to real outputs for most criteria, you are ready. If not, the gaps tell you what to build first.
Pay the assessment fee, USD 1,499
One payment, or a monthly plan. The fee covers the assessor's review of your portfolio, the interview and the certification itself.
Upload your CV and declaration
A current CV and a signed candidate declaration, including any access needs and consent for GPM to verify what you submit.
Submit evidence unit by unit
For each performance criterion, attach the document, record or measurement that shows it and write a short note on your role and the result. Most candidates complete the portfolio in four to eight weeks alongside their job.
Mastery interview, decision and badge
A GPM assessor reviews the portfolio and then meets you online to probe the evidence. A pass leads to certification, a digital badge and a listing in the GPM certification registry. A shortfall comes back as specific feedback so you can resubmit.
Why competence-based
What a CSPMx tells a board or a client
| Exam-based certificate | GPM competence-based certification | |
|---|---|---|
| What it proves | That you can recall a body of knowledge on the day of the test. | That you have done the work, with results, to a published performance standard. |
| How it is assessed | Multiple choice, timed. | Evidence portfolio reviewed by a practising assessor, then a one-to-one competence interview. |
| The standard behind it | A syllabus or exam content outline. | The GPM Sustainability Competence Standard: units, elements and performance criteria you can read before you apply. |
| Process discipline | Varies. | Aligned with ISO 17024, the international standard for bodies certifying persons. |
| What an employer learns | That you studied. | What you can be trusted to do on Monday. |
GPM was the first organization to certify individuals in sustainability-based project management, in 2011, and its assessment discipline has not changed: a public standard, evidence, a practising assessor, an interview and a registry entry anyone can verify. The process is aligned with ISO 17024, and the head of GPM's assessor pool sits on the ISO committee that governs it.
Why now
The demand side
GPM's 2024 Insights survey of project professionals found that 73 percent consider sustainability critical to project success, that 68 percent of organizations have not aligned their project management practices with their sustainability goals, and that 53 percent of projects worldwide have been disrupted by extreme weather linked to climate change. The gap between what organizations need from their project managers and what most project managers can show they have done is the space these certifications fill.
The path
Where the CSPMx sits
Foundation
CSPP, Certified Sustainable Project Professional
The exam-based entry certification for the P5 method, delivered through PMI. Formerly the GPM-b.
Specialist
CSPMs, Certified Sustainable Project Manager, Specialist
Ten units, evidence from moderately complex projects.
Expert
CSPMx, Certified Sustainable Project Manager, Expert
Ten units, evidence from highly complex projects, programs or portfolios, at the level of someone who shapes organizational practice.
For sustainability leaders
CSF and CSP
GPM's certifications for people who lead sustainability outside the project function.
Getting started
Read the criteria first, then decide
Enrol on the portal. Enrolment is free and shows you all ten units and every performance criterion before you pay.
Choose the work. Rate your candidate programs and projects with the complexity tool and select the ones that show mastery across the most criteria.
Build the portfolio from what you already have. Governance frameworks, gate decisions, impact analyses, procurement standards, escalations and their outcomes, benefits reviews. The work is selecting, annotating and showing what changed.
Questions
Frequently asked
What is the CSPMx certification?
The Certified Sustainable Project Manager, Expert (CSPMx) is the highest competence-based certification in the PMI-GPM family for project professionals. It assesses evidence from highly complex projects, programs or portfolios against the ten units of the GPM Sustainability Competence Standard, at the level of someone who shapes how an organization delivers sustainability through projects.
Who is it for?
Senior project, program and portfolio managers, PMO directors and delivery executives who lead highly complex, sustainability-driven work and influence sustainability strategy at organizational level, in any industry and under any delivery approach.
How is it different from the CSPMs?
Same ten units, higher bar. CSPMs evidence comes from moderately complex projects and shows competent application. CSPMx evidence comes from highly complex projects, programs or portfolios and shows mastery: setting the approach others follow, resolving conflicts between sustainability commitments and delivery pressure, and changing organizational practice as a result.
What does highly complex mean?
GPM rates complexity on internal complexity, external complexity and coupling. Highly complex work has many parties who must agree, conditions outside the project that shift, and risks that cascade when one thing goes wrong. A free twelve-question tool gives the rating; CSPMx candidates present evidence from work in the upper ratings.
Is there an exam?
No. You submit an evidence portfolio against each performance criterion and then discuss it with a GPM assessor in a mastery interview. The process is aligned with ISO 17024.
What does it cost and how long does it take?
USD 1,499, with a monthly payment plan available. Enrolment on the portal is free. Most candidates complete the portfolio in eight to twelve weeks alongside their job.
Who awards it?
The CSPMx is a PMI-GPM certification administered by GPM: GPM's assessors review the evidence, conduct the interview and award the certification, and holders are listed in GPM's public registry.
How long is it valid?
Five years from the date of award. Renewal is arranged with GPM's certification team ahead of the expiry date. The CSPP, the PMI-GPM certification issued by PMI, follows PMI's own three-year, PDU-based cycle in the holder's PMI account.
Page updated 5 September 2026. Fees in US dollars; a monthly payment plan is available on the portal.
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
The CSPMs: the specialist level. The CSPP at PMI: the entry certification. The Practice Guide: the method the evidence is judged against. GPM360°: certify the project as well as the person.