Continuing Education
CEM Continuing Education Requirement
The Certified Environmental Manager (CEM) continuing education requirement was enacted to enhance the technical skills and regulatory knowledge of CEMs through education and training relevant to the management, investigation, response, and cleanup/remediation of hazardous waste and hazardous substances.
During the two-year certification period, continuing education must be earned to maintain certification into the future. The NDEP, Bureau of Corrective Actions Certification Program (Certification Program) measures continuing education in contact hours or professional development hours (PDHs). One PDH is one clock hour of learning time. Training and educational credit earned through one of the mechanisms discussed below may be applied in equivalent contact hours. To recertify, a CEM must demonstrate completion of a minimum of 24 hours of continuing education during the prior certification period.
Modifications to the continuing education requirement may be made at the discretion of the Certification Program for a CEM's active duty in the armed forces of the United States and CEMs experiencing physical disability, illness, or other extenuating circumstances that affects their ability to complete the required PDHs. Proof of these circumstances will be required for review before exceptions are made.
CEMs can earn continuing education credit for topics relevant to hazardous waste or hazardous substances through the following activities:
Activity | Associated # of PDHs |
|---|---|
Completing in-person or online industry training courses, seminars, workshops, conferences, conventions, and webinars1,2 | 1 PDH for each hour of instruction |
Actively participating in technical or professional societies | 4 PDHs per organization per year |
Teaching a course for the first time or teaching a course previously taught if substantial time was spent updating material | 2 PDHs for each hour of instruction |
Completing accredited college courses with a passing grade of a C or better | 3 PDHs for each credit hour earned |
Publishing professional papers | 8 PDHs for each published paper |
- 8-hour HAZWOPER and/or MSHA refresher training is eligible for credit annually (maximum of 16 credits per two-year renewal cycle).
- For online instruction, training, or presentations through YouTube or other recorded platforms, you will be required to provide documentation that provides details of the course content and relevance to the environmental manger certification if a certificate of completion/attendance is not provided.
Examples of Ineligible Continuing Education Content and Mechanisms
- Non-technical professional development such as workplace practices, business development, marketing, contractual law, ethics, harassment, or similar.
- Books or book reviews.
- Work hours.
- Independent pre-course study and review.
- Contact hours earned and used in the previous renewal cycle.
- Previously attended training courses, seminars, workshops, conferences, conventions, etc., with wholly similar content will not be approved for continuing education credit for multiple renewals.
- Annual 8-hour HAZWOPER or MSHA refresher trainings are the sole exceptions and can be used twice every two-year renewal period for a maximum of 16 hours combined.
Non-Compliance with Continuing Education
Failure to comply with the continuing education requirements by the expiration date of your certification period could jeopardize active CEM status and result in consequences including, but not limited to, the following:
- Due to extenuating circumstances, requiring additional continuing education within a specified grace period (not to exceed 1-year after expiration). The CEM would be considered active for a defined period assuming completion of continuing education requirements within a specified timeframe.
- Temporary inactive CEM status. The CEM would not be considered active until the continuing education requirements are met.
- Expired CEM status. The CEM fails to meet the requirements to renew within 1 year of their expiration date. The CEM would need to reapply as a new applicant and retake the exam.
Continuing Education Recordkeeping and Submittal
CEMs are responsible for maintaining records to support the completion of their PDHs. These records may include, but not be limited to, the following:
- Attendance verification record in the form of completion certificates or email correspondence associated with an online course evaluation form.
- Course syllabus/transcript.
- Conference agendas and details of the sessions with proof of attendance.
- Proof of professional organization/society membership.
- Course/training material created by you to provide education to environmental industry peers.
- Documents authored by you that have been published.
- For pre-recorded online instruction, training, or presentations through YouTube or other recorded platforms, you will be required to provide a written description of the course content sufficient for Certification Program staff to determine relevance to services typically provided by CEMs (NAC 459.9704).
The Nevada Environmental Activities online system is used to submit and track CEM continuing education. Credit may be entered into the system as it is earned (recommended) or provided at the time of submitting a renewal application.
There is a User Guide available on the system homepage (https://nevadaenvironmentalactivities.ndep.nv.gov/) to aid CEMs in uploading their documentation for credit via the Manage Continuing Education Units transaction. Additionally, a webinar recording (NDEP CEM Program Overview) is provided in the section below that gives an overview of NDEP’s continuing education requirements and use of the Nevada Environmental Activities system.
Training Resources
Certification Program staff must review and approve continuing education content. To facilitate this review and provide a list of approved activities for all to use, the program maintains a CEU Library. The library can be accessed on the Nevada Environmental Activities (NEA) system to search for approved content and/or select from when uploading continuing education documentation.
If an activity is not available in the CEU Library that you believe is eligible, you can use the Suggest CEM CEU transaction in the NEA system to submit the course, webinar, etc., for Certification Program staff to review. A User Guide is also available with instructions for this process. If approved, the content will be added to the library for others and yourself to select.
Below are common examples of continuing education sources that provide classroom, web-based modules, and pre-recorded presentations on topics relating to the management, investigation, response, and cleanup/remediation of hazardous waste and hazardous substances.
Contact the Certification Program with any questions regarding qualified training activities, as the Certification Program has final authority with respect to approval of courses and associated PDHs.
Nevada Division of Environmental Protection
NDEP CEM Program Overview Webinar Recording
ITRC
Many topics related to characterization, remediation, project management, etc.
https://www.itrcweb.org/Training
EPA Cleanup Information
Many topics related to characterization, remediation, project management, etc.
https://clu-in.org/
NEIWPCC
Various environmental training courses and webinar recordings.
https://neiwpcc.org/