ICAEW SE Sustainability and Ethics: mock exams and practice questions

Sample question 1 · 1 · Concepts and significance of sustainability

The board of Hollinbrook Water, a regional water company, is choosing how much water to draw each year from an underground aquifer that supplies 400,000 homes. Which option is most consistent with the Brundtland definition of sustainable development?

1. A Set the extraction rate so that the aquifer recharges as fast as it is drawn down, while still meeting current household demand
2. B Extract at the maximum licensed rate now to keep bills low, on the basis that future customers will be able to rely on new technology
3. C Stop all extraction until the aquifer has fully recovered, even though current households would be left without a supply
4. D Choose whichever rate gives the highest return to shareholders this year, as current profits will fund future investment

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Answer: A. The Brundtland Report (Our Common Future, 1987) defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Both halves matter. A decision must meet present needs (so a complete shutdown fails) and must not run down the resources future generations rely on (so over-extraction fails). Extracting at no more than the recharge rate satisfies both.

Sample question 2 · 2 · Pillars of sustainability

Rothbury Brewing is reviewing four actions in its sustainability plan. Which action belongs mainly to the economic pillar of sustainability?

1. A Installing a system that recycles and reuses the water used to clean its brewing vessels and bottling lines
2. B Paying a real living wage to all its employees and on-site contractors
3. C Sponsoring youth football teams in the towns where its breweries operate
4. D Widening its customer base so that it no longer relies on one supermarket for half its sales

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Answer: D. The three pillars (often expressed through Elkington's triple bottom line of people, planet and profit):
- Environmental: use of natural resources, emissions, pollution, biodiversity.
- Social: people, including employees, communities, human rights, health and fair pay.
- Economic: the long-term financial viability and resilience of the organisation, and its contribution to the wider economy.

Many actions touch more than one pillar; the question asks which pillar each action mainly serves.

Sample question 3 · 3 · Regulation on sustainability

The sustainability manager of Ellison Marine lists four sources that shape how the company manages its environmental impact. Which of them is regulation, rather than policy or voluntary guidance?

1. A Environmental permitting rules that make it an offence to discharge polluting matter into a river without a permit
2. B The government's published net zero strategy, which sets out how it intends to cut the country's emissions by 2050
3. C A trade association's best-practice guide on how members should measure and reduce packaging waste
4. D Ellison's own board-approved environmental policy committing it to cut fuel use

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Answer: A. - Regulation: legally binding rules, with enforcement and sanctions (for example environmental permitting rules, or the Companies Act climate-related financial disclosure requirements).
- Policy: a government's statement of aims and intended measures (for example a net zero strategy). Policy often leads to regulation but is not itself binding on companies.
- Voluntary guidelines: frameworks and best-practice guidance that organisations may choose to follow (for example industry guides, or GRI).