Board of Environmental, Health & Safety Auditor Certifications
CERTIFICATION
Qualification Criteria
BEAC offers the CPEA certification in the following specialty programs:
Management System Qualification Criteria
Education: Bachelor's degree or higher. The applicant must arrange for a transcript to be sent to BEAC directly from the awarding institution. To allow for consideration for cultural and societal differences outside of the United States, a photocopy of diplomas awarded and an equivalency review can be requested.
Professional Experience: Applicants for certification must have four years of relevant work experience as defined below.
Audit Experience: Applicants must perform a minimum of 20 MS audits for a minimum of 100 days within the four years prior to certification. Of the 100 days, a minimum of 20 days must be conducted on site.
Auditor Training: Formal training as an attendee or provider is required within the three years prior to certification. This training shall consist of 40 hours of formal training as outlined in the Definition of Relevant Experience and Training Elements shown below and may be internal or external to the applicant's organization.
Character Reference: Applicants must provide the contact information for two character references, from a responsible person such as a supervisor or a manager. Individuals providing references must have known the applicant for a minimum of two years and have knowledge of the applicant's experience and skills relative to EMS and /or auditing.
Certification Examination: Applicants must successfully complete BEAC's 6-hour Management System examination. This examination is held at various locations throughout the year.
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DEFINITION OF RELEVANT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING ELEMENTS Relevant experience and training for the Management System Certification must include any combination of environmental, health and safety (EHS) science and technology; EHS management and technical aspects of business activities including facility operations; requirements of EHS laws, regulations, and related documents at the national and local jurisdictional levels; evaluation, implementation, and management of EHS compliance; EHS standards against which management systems and compliance audits may be conducted; management systems and compliance audits procedures, processes,and techniques; and principles of EHS compliance and compliance implementation. |
Environmental Compliance Qualification Criteria
Education: Bachelor's degree or higher. The applicant must arrange for a transcript to be sent to BEAC directly from the awarding institution. To allow for consideration for cultural and societal differences outside of the United States, a photocopy of diplomas awarded and an equivalency review can be requested.
Professional Experience: Applicants for certification must have four years of relevant work experience as defined below.
Audit Experience: Applicants must perform a minimum of 20 environmental compliance audits for a minimum of 100 days within the four years prior to certification. Of the 100 days, a minimum of 20 days must be conducted on site.
Auditor Training: Formal training as an attendee or provider is required within the three years prior to certification. This training shall consist of 40 hours of formal training as outlined in the Definition of Relevant Experience and Training Elements outlined below and may be internal or external to the applicant's organization.
Character References: Applicants must provide the contact information for two character references, from a responsible person such as a supervisor or a manager. Individuals providing references must have known the applicant for a minimum of two years and have knowledge of the applicant's experience and skills relative to environmental compliance and/or auditing.
Certification Examination: Applicants must successfully complete BEAC's 6-hour Environmental Compliance examination. Applicants having certain other certifications (CIA, CPA, CHMM, etc.) may be exempted from certain portions of the exam. This examination is held at various locations throughout the year.
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DEFINITION OF RELEVANT ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING ELEMENTS Relevant experience and training must include identifying environmental aspects and impacts, assessing compliance with environmental laws and regulations, and/or applying professional environmental compliance auditing practices. It may include any combination of: environmental science and technology; environmental management and technical aspects of business activities including facility operations; requirements of environmental laws, regulations, and related documents at the national and local jurisdictional levels; evaluation, implementation, and management of environmental compliance; environmental standards against which management systems and compliance audits may be conducted; management systems and compliance audits procedures, processes, and techniques; and principles of environmental compliance and compliance implementation. |
Health & Safety Qualification Criteria
Education: Bachelor's degree or higher. The applicant must arrange for a transcript to be sent to BEAC directly from the awarding institution. To allow for consideration for cultural and societal differences outside of the United States, a photocopy of diplomas awarded and an equivalency review can be requested.
Professional Experience: Applicants for certification must have four years of relevant work experience as defined below.
Audit Experience: Applicants must perform a minimum of 20 health and safety audits for a minimum of 100 days within the four years prior to certification. Of the 100 days, a minimum of 20 days must be conducted on site.
Auditor Training: Formal training as an attendee or provider is required within the three years prior to certification. This training shall consist of 40 hours of formal training in relevant experience elements identified below.
Character References: Applicants must provide the contact information for two character references, from a responsible person such as a supervisor or a manager. Individuals providing references must have known the applicant for a minimum of two years and have knowledge of the applicant's experience and skills relative to health and safety compliance and auditing.
Examination: Applicants must successfully complete BEAC's six-hour Health & Safety examination. Candidates having either a CIH or CSP designation may be exempted from certain portions of the exam. This examination is held at various locations throughout the year.
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DEFINITION OF RELEVANT HEALTH & SAFETY EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING ELEMENTS Relevant experience and training must include identifying health and safety aspects and impacts, assessing compliance with safety-related laws and regulations, and/or applying professional health & safety auditing practices. It may include any combination of: safety engineering; industrial hygiene; health and safety management and technical aspects of business activities including facility operations; requirements of OSHA laws, regulations, and related documents at the national and local jurisdictional levels; evaluation, implementation, and management of health and safety compliance; health and safety standards against which management systems and compliance audits may be conducted; management systems and compliance audits procedures, processes, and techniques; and principles of health and safety compliance and compliance implementation. |
Responsible Care® Qualification Criteria
Education: Bachelor's degree or higher. The applicant must arrange for a transcript to be sent to BEAC directly from the awarding institution. To allow for consideration for cultural and societal differences outside of the United States, a photocopy of diplomas awarded and an equivalency review can be requested.
Professional Experience: Applicants is required to have a minimum of 4 years relevant work experience, gained during the last ten (10) years. Clear evidence of work experience in the chemical industry or EH&S fields that provides an understanding of these issues shall be required. Relevant work experience shall be considered verifiable experience and shall be defined as experience that develops skills and understanding in at least two of the areas described below.
Audit Experience: Applicants must have performed at least 4 EMS-related audits consisting of at least 20 total days within the two years prior to certification.
Auditor Training: Formal training as an attendee or provider is required within the three years prior to certification. This training shall consist of 40 hours of formal training in relevant experience elements identified below. As part of this training, the applicant must successfully complete an ACC qualified Responsible Care® course in accordance with "Responsible Care® Auditor Course Requirements."
Character References: Applicants must provide the contact information for two character references, from a responsible person such as a supervisor or a manager. Individuals providing references must have known the applicant for a minimum of two years and have knowledge of the applicant's experience and skills relative to auditing.
Examination: Applicants must successfully complete BEAC's six-hour Responsible Care® examination. This examination is held at various locations throughout the year.
DEFINITION OF RELEVANT RESPONSIBLE CARE® EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING ELEMENTS Relevant experience and training must include verifiable experience gained during the last ten years and shall be defined as experience that developes skills and understanding in at least two of the following areas: implementation of Responsible Care® programs; EH&S science and technology; work experience gained by actual hands-on roles in the chemical process industry and/or EH&S services; product stewardship, transportation or distribution of chemical products; requirements of EH&S laws, regulations and related documents; and EH&S/Responsible Care® management systems and standards or related auditing procedures,processes and auditing techniques. Auditor training must include 40 hours in the last three years and successful completion of an ACC qualified Responsible Care® course in accordance with "Responsible Care® Auditor Course Requirements" (RCMS206.00). |
Certification Examination Retake and Exemption Policy:
The BEAC certification examinations are set on a three-part module basis: Part I (multiple choice); Part II (multiple choice and/or short answer; Part III (essay). An applicant who passes Part I of their initial certification exam, may be exempt from taking Part I of any subsequent certification exam they apply for within five years.
An applicant who does not pass their initial certification exam (a total score of 70% or better) may carry forward, up to five (5) years, the score of the module/s of the exam that they do pass and only retake that module/s of the exam that they did not pass.
Those holding the following certifications are exempt from Part I of any of the BEAC exams: CIA, CPA
Those holding the following certifications are exempt from Part II of the BEAC Health & Safety exam: CSP, CIH
Those holding the following certification are exempt from Part II of the BEAC Environmental Compliance exam: CHMM
Certification Examination Pass Rates:
EXAM PASS RATE PERCENTAGES (as of 12/31/08)
| Based on # parts taken | Applicants passed** | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXAM TYPE | PART 1* | PART 2* | PART 3* | ||
Environmental Compliance |
92.9% |
53.5% |
52.4% |
87.8% |
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Health & Safety |
88.5% |
25.8% |
55.9% |
79.2% |
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Mangement System |
95.1% |
64.8% |
68.9% |
82.5% |
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Responsible Care |
84.3% |
82.1% |
58.6% |
86.8% |
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- Part 1 is the same for all exams, consisting of 131 multiple choice questions focused on Auditing Principles, Standards, and methodology.
- Part 2 is different for each exam, and can include multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions focused on the specialty’s technical subject matter (legs & regs).
- Part 3 is essay questions, different for each exam specialty.
- * pass rates by exam part is based on the total number of times the part was taken; some applicants take the part more than once
- ** Overall pass rate is based on number of applicants who passed the exam; some applicants take the exam more than once in order to pass
