Sustainability Specialty (SSP)

The next available exam dates are February 5 - February 19, 2025.

You must hold a current CCA certification to be eligible to take the SSp exam.

The purpose of implementing a Sustainability Specialty is to utilize CCAs to help farmers/producers to become better acquainted with and adopt, enhance, implement sustainability concepts, stewardship, and best management practices within their operations. CCAs are the single best influencers to work with local producers and help them adopt more sustainable crop production practices that will satisfy the future demands of the food industry and address demands from consumers for safe food, while protecting the environment and preserving natural resources.

Sustainability can sometimes be a misunderstood word as many people and organizations use it to describe different versions of agricultural production practices. This specialty is in direct response to the demand by consumers on food companies and retail businesses to implement more sustainable production practices and to ensure to the consumer that the food they purchase is produced sustainably. A cross section of the agricultural community with sustainability experiences and interests came together to develop the performance standards that are available here.

This is a great opportunity for CCAs who want to focus their work on sustainable agronomic production practices and help their farmer clients implement those practices. 

Maintaining Certification

Once the SSp exam is passed, an annual fee will be charged in addition to your CCA renewal to maintain both certifications, and a Sustainability CEU category requirement of 5.0 credits will be added onto your CCA CEU requirements. 

Study Materials

Important Notes

The ICCA Program partnered with and received funding from the United Soybean Board (USB) to develop the CCA – Sustainability Specialty Certification.

This exam is not offered in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Mexico, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan at this time.