Green Skills
Green Skills
This domain tests environmental awareness in the workplace: sustainable use of resources, waste and energy management, and green careers. Questions often ask you to apply the waste hierarchy or identify a green practice in a given scenario.
Core rules and concepts
- Sustainable development meets present needs without compromising future generations. It balances environmental, social and economic concerns.
- The waste hierarchy is reduce → reuse → recycle → recover → dispose. Prevention is better than recycling because recycling also uses energy.
- Renewable resources such as sunlight, wind, water and biomass are replenished naturally; non-renewable resources such as coal, petroleum, natural gas and minerals are finite.
- A carbon footprint is the greenhouse gas emissions caused by an activity, product or person. It can be reduced by saving electricity, using public transport, avoiding food waste and choosing durable goods.
- E-waste, or discarded electronics, contains both valuable metals and toxic substances; it must go to authorised collection, not household bins.
- Green jobs improve environmental quality, for example solar installation, waste management, water conservation and environmental auditing.
Worked example
A school canteen throws away 10 kg of food waste daily and uses plastic cups. A green plan is to measure waste for a week, offer smaller portions, start segregated bins for food waste and recyclables, and ask students to bring reusable bottles. The first action is reduce, not recycle, because preventing surplus food saves money and avoids emissions from production, transport and disposal.
Traps that cost marks
Do not put recycling above reduction. Do not call all natural resources renewable. Do not assume natural always means sustainable. Do not ignore the energy used in recycling. Do not confuse a carbon footprint with the total weight of waste. In greenwashing questions, look for verifiable changes rather than slogans.
Key points
- Waste hierarchy: reduce before reuse, recycle and dispose.
- Renewable resources replenish; non-renewable resources are finite.
- Carbon footprint measures greenhouse gases, not waste weight.
- E-waste needs authorised collection because it contains toxics and valuable metals.
- Greenwashing uses slogans without verifiable environmental change.