Practice Exam

Question 1

Ecological footprint/ Earth Overshoot
I. Last year, 2013, Earth Overshoot Day fell in August. This means we would need 1.5 planets to sustain our lifestyle.
II. If we continue with our current lifestyles (business as usual) we would need three planets by 2050.
a) Both statements are true
b) Statement I is true, statement II is false
c) Statement I is false, statement II is true
d) Both statements are false

Answer 1

a) Both statements are true

Question 2

2. Social sustainability refers to what?

Answer 2

d) Sharing benefits fairly and equitably and respecting the quality of life of communities and of human rights

Question 3

3. Costs principles and valuation
   I. External costs of a certain product are environmental or social costs that cannot be influenced by the producing company.
   II. From a corporate standpoint, negative social and environmental impacts are often considered externalities, which are costs (such as pollution) or benefits from an economic activity that are not fully reflected in the price of a good or service.
   a) Both statements are true
   b) Statement I is true, statement II is false
   c) Statement I is false, statement II is true
   d) Both statements are false

Answer 3

c) Statement I is false, statement II is true

Question 4

Which of the underneath answers is incorrect?
According to State of the World 2013 a good solution for feeding 9 billion people in 2050 is to:
a) apply more large scale agricultural practices associated with “The Green Revolution”
b) tackle food waste in developing as well as developed countries
c) grow more healthy food in developing as well as developed countries
d) make young people more excited about agriculture

Answer 4

a) apply more large scale agricultural practices associated with “The Green Revolution”

Question 5

5. Rethinking Production

We could, in theory, make all of our industrial processes sustainable if we could ______.

Answer 5

b) transform linear processes into circular ones

Question 6

Toxicity

The process in which the concentration of certain chemicals increases in each step in the food chain is called:

Answer 6

b) biomagnification

Question 7

Water

Potable (drinkable) fresh water is required for the following application:

Answer 7

c) Doing the dishes

Question 8

8.	Millennium Development Goals
	One of the eight Millennium Development Goals as set by the World leaders in 2005 is:
a)	eradicating extreme poverty
b)	ensure environmental sustainability
c)	achieve universal primary education
d)	all of the above

Answer 8

d) all of the above

Question 9

9. Resilience
   Many proponents of sustainability believe that encouraging local self-sufficiency is important for building sustainable societies.

a) This is correct because it eliminates governmental influence on local practices.
b) This is correct because it forces citizens to look more closely at the global community.
c) This is true because, when people are tied more closely to the area they live in, they will value the area more and seek to sustain its environment and its human communities.
d) This is not correct. Proponents of sustainability believe that encouraging local self-sufficiency will pose a threat to building sustainable societies.

Answer 9

c) This is true because, when people are tied more closely to the area they live in, they will value the area more and seek to sustain its environment and its human communities.

Question 10

10. Biodiversity

Biodiversity:

Answer 10

a) includes genetic, species, ecosystem, and functional diversities.

Question 11

a) Can you name three reasons for why it would be important to prevent bees from going extinct. Rate the reasons from more to less important.

Answer 11

1. Pollination
2. Medical applications
3. Beeswax

Question 12

b) Can you name three specific measures that can be taken to protect bees?

Answer 12

1. Plant Things that Bees like
2. Provide Bee Habitats, like dead trees, branches, bee house/ bee hotel
3. Eliminate harmful pesticides
4. Support your Local Beekeepers

Question 13

12. The value of water

a) Explain the concept of virtual water.

Answer 13

Virtual water is the water that is used to produce food, raw materials and products.

Question 14

b) The Western world creates a burden on developing countries in several ways. Explain how the Western world contributes to water related environmental problems in water scarce regions by its consumption of virtual water.

Answer 14

The Western world consumes much more water than its direct physical water consumption, in the form of imported goods from developing and water-scarce countries.

Question 15

c) Give two examples of products that consume much virtual water and what you could do to reduce your own water footprint. Note: give examples explicitly related to virtual water, not related to the consumption of physical water!

Answer 15

Typical products are cotton imported from water scarce regions like India. Imported meat. Tomatoes from Spain.
Eat more local and seasonal food. Cut down on eating meat, eggs and dairy products. Buy more local products. Don’t buy products that need a lot of water that are produced in countries facing water scarcity. Consume products with a low water footprint. If the student mentions measures for reducing visual water consumption, this is incorrect and no points are given.

Question 16

d) Can you name three other specific ways by which the Western world is impacting developing countries in an environmentally or socially way?

Answer 16

Buying cheap clothes that are produced under poor social standards. Importing biomass, like palm oil for which tropical forests are cut. Creating climate change, that impair poor countries the most. Creating pollution that travels all over the world (e.g. PCB’s in mother milk of Eskimo’s resulting in birth effects), high consumption of rare earth materials leading to conflicts (war on minerals), dumping electronic waste, etc.

Question 17

13. Cradle to cradle (C2C©)
    a) What are, according to the toxicologist Braungart & the architect McDonough (the scientists that introduced the concept of cradle to cradle), the problems with some of the currently used environmental management systems, like “eco-efficiency” programs and recycling? (5 points)

Answer 17

Eco-efficiency only focuses on reducing the usage of energy, water, non-renewable resources and toxic materials, but when total production increases the net benefit will be zero. The problem with many recycling systems, is that the products are often not produced to recycle at the first place, so the recycling is hard to do and the value of the materials degrade by every recycling step (this is called down-cycling). Eco-efficiency will still lead to a slow suicide, according to Braungart and McDonough, and might even be dangerous since an imperfect system is made more efficient, which makes the system even harder to change.
One relevant argument two points, two relevant arguments five points.

Question 18

b) What kind of solution do they propose instead? Hence, explain the concept of cradle to cradle. Specifically indicate in your answer what characterizes products that are designed according to the cradle to cradle principles. (5 points)

Answer 18

Products are designed in a way that the materials can be fully composted and/or fully recycled (4 points), without using toxic materials (1 point) and without harming any living being on earth (equity principle, if student answers this, 1 point can be earned with a max of 5 points for this question).

Question 19

c) A statistical relation between the environmental and financial performance of companies has been confirmed by many academic studies. One way for a company to improve both its environmental and financial performance is by taking so-called eco-efficiency measures, like reducing the usage of energy, water and materials and by creating less waste.
Please name three other ways by which companies can improve their financial performance, while taking good governance and corporate social responsibility into account.

Answer 19

• Stimulating innovations/ first-leader advantages
• Easier access to capital, lower cost of capital
• Less lawsuits
• Easier to get permits
• Improved reputation amongst consumers/ sell more products
• Less administrative work, less control by the government
• Less environmental taxes
• Earning carbon credits

Question 20

d) Name two ways by which governments can assist in helping companies to embrace good environmental and social practices.

Answer 20

• Tax environmentally unfriendly products higher and give tax relieves to environmentally friendly products
• Setting up stringent regulations for environmentally unfriendly corporate operations and monitor the companies in a good way.
• Grant subsidies (although this could also disturb markets and subsidies often go to the big companies since they have the capacity and knowledge for doing the subsidy application. The big companies are usually not the most innovative ones and the ones that need it the most).
• Adjust regulations so that laws and regulations don’t hinder eco-innovations, as they often do.

Question 21

14. Planetary boundaries
    “Planetary boundaries” is the central concept in an Earth system framework proposed by a group of Earth system and environmental scientists led by Johan Rockström from the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Will Steffen from the Australian National University.

Answer 21

a) The group of scientists identified 9 planetary boundaries. Can you name three of them? (6 points)
Stratospheric ozone layer, Biodiversity, Chemicals dispersion, Climate Change, Ocean acidification, Freshwater consumption and the global hydrological cycle, Land system change, Nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to the biosphere and oceans, Atmospheric aerosol loading.

Question 22

b) Can you explain the importance of the concept of the planetary boundaries? So what makes this concept valuable and useful?

Answer 22

It is a novel framework through which our scientific understanding of the Earth System can potentially be used more directly in the societal decision making process. In essence, it is drawing the first — albeit very preliminary — map of our planet´s safe operating zones. And beyond the edges of the map, we don´t want to go. Future research will consider ways in which society can develop within these boundaries. The Planetary Boundaries can help identify where there is room and define a “safe space for human development”, which is an improvement on approaches which aim at just minimizing human impacts on the planet.