Sustainability Excellence Associate (SEA) and Sustainability Excellence Professional (SEP) · International · Green Business Certification Inc., with the International Society of Sustainability Professionals as education partner
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe human side of sustainability: how socio-technical transitions happen, governance at multiple levels, behaviour change, gender and equity, stakeholder engagement, and leading change in organisations and communities.
In the exams: SEP (GBCI) stakeholder engagement and strategy domains; UGC NET Unit 10; senior and leadership roles
How our questions for Sustainability Excellence Associate and Sustainability Excellence Professional spread across the units of Sustainability Transitions, Governance & Social Dimensions. Difficulty: 6 easy, 43 medium, 14 hard.
| Just transition for farmers and rural workers | 9 | |
| Organisational sustainability strategy and change management | 9 | |
| Behaviour change and social norms | 8 | |
| Multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions | 7 | |
| Stakeholder mapping and engagement | 7 | |
| Communicating environmental science | 7 | |
| Environmental conflict and negotiation | 5 | |
| Science-policy interfaces: IPCC, IPBES and national bodies | 5 | |
| Gender and social inclusion in environmental programmes | 4 | |
| Polycentric and multi-level governance; commons governance | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
In the multi-level perspective, what is a niche?
C. A protected space where radical innovations emerge and are nurtured
Niches, such as pilot projects or subsidised early markets, shelter radical innovations. The regime is the dominant configuration; the landscape is the wider context.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
Which approach, developed in the Netherlands by Rotmans, Loorbach and colleagues, uses transition arenas, visions and experiments to steer long-term change?
C. Transition management
Transition management is a reflexive, participatory governance approach using arenas of frontrunners, visions and experiments. The others are assessment tools.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
What does polycentric governance describe?
D. Overlapping decision centres at several scales that interact
Polycentric systems (V. and E. Ostrom) have many semi-autonomous, overlapping centres that cooperate and compete. They are not centralised, uniform or unanimity-based.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
Mitchell, Agle and Wood (1997) proposed that stakeholder salience depends on which three attributes?
A. Power, legitimacy and urgency
Salience rises with the number of attributes held among power, legitimacy and urgency; stakeholders with all three are definitive.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
Which list gives the five levels of the IAP2 spectrum of public participation, in order of increasing public influence?
C. Inform, consult, involve, collaborate, empower
IAP2: inform, consult, involve, collaborate, empower. The other sequences are reordered or unrelated.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
Why can stakeholder mapping based mainly on power lead to poor outcomes in agricultural projects?
B. It sidelines women, landless workers and others with little power
Focusing on power may exclude those most affected; good practice deliberately seeks out marginalised groups. Powerful actors do matter, mapping by power is not prohibited, and inclusion often improves projects.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
Which practice best supports women's participation in agricultural programmes where social norms limit mixed meetings?
C. Separate consultations timed to fit women's workloads
Separate, well-timed sessions, sometimes with women facilitators, enable women to participate and be heard. The other practices exclude women.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
For smallholders in developing countries, which condition is especially important for a just transition?
C. Secure land tenure and access to finance and markets
Tenure, finance and market access enable smallholders to invest and participate; poor farmers have low historical responsibility for emissions.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
Which is one of the four elements of principled negotiation in Getting to Yes?
B. Focus on interests, not positions
Principled negotiation: separate people from the problem, focus on interests, invent options for mutual gain, insist on objective criteria. Extreme anchoring and adversarial tactics are not its elements.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
Which is good practice when communicating scientific uncertainty to the public?
D. Ranges, natural frequencies and calibrated terms with meanings
Honest, understandable uncertainty, with ranges, frequencies and defined terms, builds trust; hiding or exaggerating uncertainty misleads.
Further reading: See the manual sources: the original works named in the explanation (Geels, Ostrom, Arnstein, Ajzen, Rogers, Fisher and Ury, IPBES, Kotter)
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