Sustainability at Work Jeopardy

Recycling rules, carbon basics, energy savings, and ESG vocabulary for your green team. Grab a free copy and let colleagues buzz in from their phones.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

For work

Copies all 30 clues into an editor of your own. Free, no account needed.

Every clue on this board

This page is public, so anyone can read the answers — copy the board and swap a few clues before game day.

Recycle or Not

$200
Used paper towels and napkins usually cannot be recycled but can often go in this bin instead.
What is compost?
$400
Many recycling programs reject the greasy bottoms of these takeout containers.
What are pizza boxes?
$600
Tossing items into the recycling bin in the hope they can be recycled is called this.
What is wishcycling?
$800
These rechargeable power sources should never go in a regular bin, because they can start fires in trucks and sorting facilities.
What are lithium-ion batteries?
$1,000
The number inside the chasing-arrows triangle on a plastic container is this code, identifying the type of plastic.
What is the resin identification code?

Saving Energy

$200
These bulbs use at least 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last far longer.
What are LEDs?
$400
This blue label, backed by the EPA, marks energy-efficient appliances and electronics.
What is Energy Star?
$600
Electronics that keep drawing power while switched off create this, nicknamed vampire power.
What is standby power?
$800
This unit, 1,000 watts used for one hour, is how utilities bill for electricity.
What is a kilowatt-hour?
$1,000
This U.S. Green Building Council rating system certifies buildings at Silver, Gold and Platinum levels.
What is LEED?

Carbon Footprint Basics

$200
Released by burning fossil fuels, this is the main greenhouse gas from human activity.
What is carbon dioxide?
$400
Released by cattle and landfills, this greenhouse gas is far more potent than CO2 over a 20-year span.
What is methane?
$600
Paying for projects that cut emissions elsewhere to compensate for your own is called this.
What is carbon offsetting?
$800
Emissions from sources a company owns or controls directly, like its own vehicles, fall into this scope.
What is Scope 1?
$1,000
Created by the World Resources Institute and WBCSD, this standard defines the three scopes of emissions accounting.
What is the Greenhouse Gas Protocol?

Greener Commutes

$200
Sharing a ride to work with coworkers is called this.
What is carpooling?
$400
These vehicles have no tailpipe emissions because they run on battery power alone.
What are electric vehicles?
$600
Working from home some days and in the office on others is this kind of arrangement.
What is hybrid work?
$800
These bicycles with a battery-assisted motor make longer or hillier commutes easier.
What are e-bikes?
$1,000
This pre-tax benefit lets US employees pay for transit passes or vanpools with untaxed dollars.
What is a commuter benefit?

Sustainability Vocabulary

$200
Making misleading claims about how eco-friendly a company or product is has this name.
What is greenwashing?
$400
Balancing the greenhouse gases emitted with those removed from the atmosphere reaches this state.
What is net zero?
$600
This economic model keeps materials in use through reuse, repair and recycling instead of take, make, waste.
What is the circular economy?
$800
The 1987 Brundtland Report defined sustainable development as meeting present needs without compromising the ability of these to meet theirs.
What are future generations?
$1,000
This analysis measures a product's environmental impact from raw material extraction through disposal.
What is a life cycle assessment?

Environmental Milestones

$200
The first of these annual events was held on April 22, 1970.
What is Earth Day?
$400
This 1962 book by Rachel Carson warned of the dangers of pesticides such as DDT.
What is Silent Spring?
$600
This federal agency was created in 1970 under President Nixon.
What is the Environmental Protection Agency?
$800
This 1987 treaty to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals is often called the most successful environmental agreement ever.
What is the Montreal Protocol?
$1,000
This 1997 treaty, named for a Japanese city, set binding emissions targets for industrialized nations.
What is the Kyoto Protocol?

Final Jeopardy — Business Terms

Coined by John Elkington in 1994, this three-part framework asks businesses to account for people, planet, and profit.

What is the triple bottom line?

How to run this board

This board brings sustainability down to office scale. Categories cover recycling and waste sorting, saving energy, carbon footprint basics, greener commuting and travel, the vocabulary of corporate sustainability reporting, and the environmental milestones that shaped it.

It works well to launch a green team or a new recycling program, because the waste-sorting clues settle arguments people have been having at the bins for months. Edit those clues to match what your local hauler actually accepts.

A good closing touch: after the game, ask each team for one change the office could make this quarter, and let the winners pick which one gets tried first.

More from the library

Spotted a clue that's wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll fix the board. Or start from a blank board and write your own.