A1 Level – Elementary
1. What is one thing you do to save water?
2. Do you use a reusable shopping bag?
3. What makes a house energy efficient?
4. Do you like walking or cycling instead of driving?
5. What is the difference between pollution and clean air?
6. Do you recycle paper and plastic?
7. What makes clothes sustainable?
8. What is a common way to grow food at home?
9. Do you think sustainable living is important?
10. What makes a product biodegradable?
11. Do you use a single-use plastic bottle?
12. What makes something last a long time?
13. What is the opposite of waste?
14. What are some different types of green energy?
15. Do you buy things second-hand?
A2 Level – Pre-Intermediate
1. What are the key differences between reducing your personal carbon footprint and larger societal sustainability efforts?
2. Describe one change you made to your daily routine to live more sustainably (e.g., reducing meat consumption).
3. What are the pros and cons of buying local, organic produce versus cheaper imported food?
4. What role does government funding play in promoting sustainable public transport options?
5. Have you ever tried to completely eliminate single-use plastics from your life?
6. What specific items (e.g., lightbulbs, appliances) are essential for an energy-efficient home?
7. What is the difference between buying “eco-friendly” and buying “fair trade”?
8. What are common challenges when trying to repair an item instead of replacing it?
9. How does technology (e.g., smart home systems) help people manage their energy use?
10. What are the biggest challenges of encouraging a whole family to adopt sustainable living habits?
11. What is the importance of knowing where the products you buy are manufactured?
12. Do you think individual sustainable actions have a noticeable impact on a global scale?
13. What are the challenges of setting up effective composting or food waste reduction programs?
14. What are the best ways to educate people about the long-term benefits of sustainable choices?
15. What is the difference between conservation and preservation?
B1 Level – Intermediate
1. Discuss the conflict between the high cost of many sustainable products and the economic reality for low-income citizens.
2. How can urban and rural areas be designed to make sustainable travel (e.g., walking, cycling) the most convenient option?
3. What are the ethical issues surrounding “greenwashing”—companies making false or misleading claims about their sustainability?
4. Do you agree that the most effective way to live sustainably is to consume much less overall?
5. Describe a time when a sustainable choice (e.g., taking public transport) was significantly more difficult or inconvenient than the alternative.
6. To what extent should governments use taxation (e.g., carbon tax) to nudge citizens toward sustainable behaviors?
7. What role do international environmental agreements play in influencing national sustainable living policies?
8. How do cultural traditions about consumption and materialism conflict with the principles of sustainable living?
9. Discuss the psychological challenge of overcoming inertia and making significant, sustained changes to daily habits.
10. What are the challenges of managing global supply chains to ensure ethical and sustainable sourcing of materials?
11. How does the concept of “fast fashion” fundamentally work against the goals of sustainable clothing consumption?
12. Should public funding prioritize research into new sustainable materials or mass public education on reducing consumption?
13. What is the difference between living sustainably and living minimally?
14. Discuss the concept of a “zero-waste lifestyle” and its feasibility in a modern city.
15. What is the long-term impact of consistently choosing convenient, unsustainable products over difficult, sustainable ones?
B2 Level – Upper-Intermediate
1. How does the structure of a consumer-driven economy fundamentally rely on unsustainable cycles of production and disposal?
2. What are the ethical arguments about highly sustainable products being marketed exclusively to affluent, Western consumers?
3. Should governments legally mandate that all new homes must meet high standards for energy efficiency and water conservation?
4. What are the psychological reasons why people feel overwhelmed and disengaged from global environmental problems?
5. How has the dominance of online shopping increased the waste generated by packaging and returns?
6. Discuss the idea that truly sustainable living requires a complete overhaul of political and economic systems, not just personal choices.
7. What is the role of legal frameworks (e.g., extended producer responsibility) in forcing companies to adopt sustainable practices?
8. How do our cultural narratives about success and material abundance create psychological barriers to embracing sufficiency and reduction?
9. What are the challenges of ensuring that sustainable energy projects (e.g., wind farms) do not negatively impact local ecosystems or communities?
10. Discuss the concept of “ecological footprint” and how it helps individuals understand their impact on the planet.
11. What is the difference between a product that is carbon neutral and one that is genuinely restorative to the environment?
12. Should there be stricter rules about water usage and waste management in large industrial and agricultural sectors?
13. What is the impact of corporate lobbying on the legislative process for creating strong environmental protections?
14. How does the history of environmental movements reflect the growing public awareness of unsustainable practices?
15. Discuss the idea that sustainable living should be the default, and unsustainable choices should be the expensive exception.
C1 Level – Advanced
1. Analyze the socioeconomic factors that correlate with environmental inequality—where the poor disproportionately suffer the effects of pollution.
2. To what degree should the legal system restrict individual freedoms (e.g., vehicle ownership, diet choice) to meet collective sustainability goals?
3. Discuss the philosophical concept of “intergenerational equity” and humanity’s moral duty to future inhabitants of the planet.
4. Evaluate the efficacy of using consumer boycotts and ethical divestment strategies to pressure corporations into sustainability.
5. How does the strategic use of emotional marketing and fear function to drive both sustainable consumption and resistance to it?
6. Examine the legal challenges of enforcing global treaties on biodiversity and resource management in sovereign nations.
7. What ethical guidelines should govern the use of AI and personalized data to create highly targeted sustainability behavior nudges?
8. Discuss the concept of “the tragedy of the commons” and the challenge of managing shared, finite natural resources.
9. How do different national policies on land reform and indigenous rights affect the preservation of critical ecosystems?
10. Analyze the interplay between the massive cost of sustainable infrastructure and the long-term economic benefits of planetary health.
11. What ethical challenges arise when wealthy nations promote “sustainable living” in a way that limits the economic development of poorer nations?
12. Debate whether a system of mandatory “carbon rationing” would be the fairest or most restrictive way to achieve global emissions targets.
13. How does the architecture of new sustainable cities (e.g., vertical farms) reflect an attempt to overcome ecological limitations?
14. Discuss the concept of “degrowth” as a necessary economic framework for achieving true planetary sustainability.
15. To what extent does the emotional weight of global climate crisis lead to personal paralysis rather than sustained, effective sustainable action?
C2 Level – Proficiency
1. How do you analyze the idea that sustainable living is fundamentally a philosophical and political problem, not a technological one?
2. Formulate a critique of the global financial system’s reliance on interest rates and continuous growth, which contradicts the core tenets of sustainability.
3. Analyze the intersection of complexity theory, ecosystem dynamics, and the challenge of managing integrated human-natural systems.
4. Discuss the philosophical distinction between “necessity” (essential consumption) and “desire” (discretionary consumption).
5. Critically evaluate the effectiveness of public education campaigns in instilling a deep sense of environmental responsibility in citizens.
6. Propose a new, globally enforced regulatory framework for product design that mandates full material traceability and end-of-life processing.
7. Examine the psychological function of nature exposure and biophilia in motivating long-term dedication to environmental protection.
8. How does the semiotics of advertising (e.g., images of untouched wilderness) communicate a false, idealized image of environmental health?
9. Discuss the ethical responsibilities of media outlets in ensuring that their coverage of environmental issues is both urgent and hopeful.
10. Analyze the historical relationship between cycles of technological innovation and the subsequent increase in resource consumption and pollution.
11. Articulate the inherent tension between the market’s demand for infinite options and the supply chain’s need for material standardization.
12. Debate whether a system of mandatory “environmental citizenship” training would be the most effective way to promote sustainable living.
13. Assess the long-term societal effects of mandatory sustainable behavior on individual freedom and consumer choice.
14. Discuss the philosophical definition of ‘responsibility’ when applied to the long-term consequences of human actions on the planet.
15. How might the principles of ecological restoration be used to model processes of organizational recovery from systemic failure?
