The first Tuesday in November is voting day in the United States. How often have you found yourself in the voting booth, scanning your ballot and realizing you don’t know much about many of the candidates and policies you’re being asked to choose among? But voting isn’t the only time you have choices. How about the myriad decisions you need to make every day about “eco-friendly” products and services? In each scenario, one thing determines whether you’ll make a truly wise choice: knowledge.

How wise are you in the ways of sustainability? illustration

A 2018 survey of American undergraduates found that students scored an average of just 52% on environmental literacy questions—about half the time, they didn’t know the correct answer. For most of us, there is a considerable gap between what we think we know and what we actually do know.

This week’s action step is delightfully simple: test your environmental knowledge with our short seven-question quiz. Whether you ace it or discover unexpected gaps in your understanding, you’ll walk away with practical insights that can guide your decisions—from how you vote to how you manage your household. Even better, you can forward this quiz to friends and family to spark conversations about sustainability and see how your collective knowledge stacks up.

Ready to discover how wise you are in the ways of sustainability? Let’s dive in.

An Environmental Wisdom Quiz

Question #1: Community Pathway

Studies show that people are most likely to take positive voluntary action to protect our environment when they:

A) Receive negative feedback about failing to take action
B) Are shown the economic benefits of protecting our environment
C) See other people in their community taking action
D) Learn about the environmental impacts of their actions

Question #2: Food Pathway

Per acre of agricultural land, eating a plant-based (vegetarian) diet instead of an animal-based (carnivore) diet:

A) Feeds four times more people because it’s more efficient to get fats, proteins, and carbohydrates directly from plants than from animals
B) Feeds about the same number of people because animals efficiently produce proteins from plants
C) Might feed more or fewer people depending on agricultural practices
D) Feeds fewer people because humans must eat meat to get essential fats in their diet

Question #3: Water Pathway

Which uses the most water per year in the typical North American household:

A) Taking showers
B) Flushing toilets
C) Washing laundry
D) Washing dishes

Question #4: Movement Pathway

Which is the most energy-efficient form of transportation:

A) Walking
B) Taking a train
C) Carpooling in an electric car
D) Riding a bicycle

Question #5: Energy Pathway

Which saves the most energy:

A) Unplugging electronic devices when not in use
B) Installing an electric heat pump hot water heater in place of a gas-burning hot water tank
C) Replacing an older refrigerator with an Energy Star model
D) Carefully recycling all the plastic you buy instead of throwing it in the trash

Question #6: Goods Pathway

Which practice can keep the most material out of landfills:

A) Composting
B) Recycling plastic
C) Recycling metal
D) Recycling glass

Question #7: Habitat Pathway

Which practice does the most to protect biodiversity:

A) Observe “no mow May”
B) Use natural fertilizer instead of synthetic chemicals to maintain your lawn
C) Keep your cat indoors to protect birds
D) Leave a section of your yard to go wild, allowing weeds to grow

Answer Key and Explanations

Question #1: Community Pathway

Answer: C) See other people in their community taking action

Research on behavior change consistently shows that “social contagion” is one of the most powerful motivators for environmental action. Studies by researchers Christakis and Fowler demonstrate that behaviors spread through social networks—each person typically influences a half dozen others in their immediate network. When you install solar panels, for example, you increase the likelihood that your neighbors will adopt solar by up to 44% within a half-mile radius. This is why leading by example in your community creates ripple effects far beyond your individual impact.

Question #2: Food Pathway

Answer: A) Feeds four times more people because it’s more efficient to get fats, proteins, and carbohydrates directly from plants than from animals

The energy efficiency of different diets is straightforward biology. When you eat plants directly, you’re consuming energy at the source. When you eat animals, you’re getting energy that has passed through another organism first—and most of the energy is lost at each step in the food chain through metabolism, movement, and heat. Research shows that much more protein can be produced per acre growing plants compared to raising animals. This doesn’t mean everyone must become vegetarian for humanity to survive, but understanding this efficiency difference helps explain why even modest reductions in meat consumption—particularly beef and dairy—create significant environmental benefits.

Question #3: Water Pathway

Answer: B) Flushing toilets

This answer surprises many people, but toilets are indeed the primary source of water use in most homes, accounting for nearly 24% of indoor water consumption according to the EPA. Americans flush toilets about five times per day on average, and older toilets (pre-1992) use up to seven gallons per flush—that’s 35 gallons per person daily just for flushing. Modern WaterSense-labeled toilets use 1.28 gallons or less per flush, which is why replacing old toilets with efficient models is one of the highest-impact water conservation steps you can take. In homes with water-efficient toilets, showers typically become the largest water users, accounting for about 17% of indoor water use.

Question #4: Movement Pathway

Answer: D) Riding a bicycle

Bicycles win the energy efficiency contest by a remarkable margin. Cycling requires only about 35 calories per mile, making it roughly three times more energy-efficient than walking (which requires about 100 calories per mile) and far more efficient than any motorized transportation. A bicycle converts about 90% of pedaling energy into forward motion, whereas a combustion engine wastes about 80% of its fuel energy as heat. Even electric passenger vehicles or electric trains, despite their impressive efficiency compared to gas cars, can’t match the elegance of human-powered cycling.

Question #5: Energy Pathway

Answer: B) Installing an electric heat pump hot water heater in place of a gas-burning hot water tank

Water heating typically accounts for 14-18% of home energy use, making it one of the largest energy consumers in most households. Electric heat pump water heaters are game-changers because they move heat rather than generate it, achieving efficiency ratings of 300-400% (compared to maximum efficiency of less than 100% for gas-burning systems). This means they can reduce water-heating energy use by up to 75% compared to burning fossil fuel. While unplugging phantom loads, replacing old refrigerators, and recycling are all beneficial practices, none approach the energy savings of upgrading to a heat pump water heater. As for recycling plastic, it’s largely ineffective since most plastic isn’t actually able to be recycled for other goods, regardless of whether you put it in the recycling bin.

Question #6: Goods Pathway

Answer: A) Composting

Composting takes the top spot because organic materials (food scraps, yard waste, and paper products) make up about 51% of what Americans send to landfills—more than all recyclable materials combined. When organic matter decomposes in landfills without oxygen, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Composting this material instead prevents methane emissions, creates valuable soil amendment, and completes the natural nutrient cycle. While recycling metal, glass, and even some plastic has value, the sheer volume of compostable material means composting keeps more waste out of landfills than any other single practice. Metal recycling is particularly valuable for environmental reasons, but it represents a smaller portion of total waste.

Question #7: Habitat Pathway

Answer: D) Leave a section of your yard to go wild, allowing weeds to grow

While all these practices benefit wildlife, allowing native plants (often mislabeled as “weeds”) to flourish creates the most robust habitat for biodiversity. Native plants support complex food webs: they harbor microorganisms and insects, which feed amphibians and birds, which in turn support larger predators. Research by entomologist Doug Tallamy shows that native oak trees alone support over 500 species of caterpillars—crucial food for baby birds—while non-native ornamentals might support fewer than 50 species. “No Mow May” helps spring pollinators, using natural fertilizer reduces chemical pollution, and keeping cats indoors prevents about 2.4 billion bird deaths annually in the US. But creating permanent wild spaces with native plants provides year-round habitat that becomes more valuable over time as ecosystems establish and diversify.

Why Your Environmental Knowledge Matters

How did you do? If you scored 7 out of 7, you’re well-equipped to make informed decisions about sustainability. If you got some wrong, you’re in good company—and now you know more than you did ten minutes ago.

Environmental knowledge isn’t just about feeling good about quiz scores. It directly affects the real-world impact of your choices. When you understand that heat pump water heaters save more energy than unplugging devices, you can prioritize that bigger investment over endless vigilance about phantom loads. When you know that composting prevents more landfill waste than recycling plastic, you can focus your efforts accordingly. When you recognize that cycling is incredibly energy-efficient, you can support policies that prioritize bicycle infrastructure and bike lanes.

This knowledge becomes especially critical when you vote. Environmental policy debates are often clouded by misconceptions, misleading claims, and genuine complexity. Candidates and ballot measures make competing claims about renewable energy, waste management, water conservation, and land use. Your ability to evaluate these claims based on a solid understanding of environmental science helps you support effective policies rather than well-intentioned but ineffective ones.

Share the Knowledge

Now that you’ve tested your environmental wisdom, forward this quiz to friends and family. Environmental literacy spreads through social networks—remember Question #1 about how people learn through their communities? You can be part of a positive, community-building “social contagion” by sharing what you’ve learned.

Make it a friendly challenge: “I just scored [your score] out of 7 on this environmental quiz—think you can beat me?” Or frame it as collaboration: “I learned some surprising things from this quiz. Let’s see how we both do and discuss the results.” These conversations matter. They help people question assumptions, discover gaps in their understanding, and ultimately make better decisions for our planet that benefit everyone.

Deepen Your Knowledge

This quiz barely scratches the surface of environmental sustainability. If you’re hungry for more detailed, science-based guidance on the practices that make the most significant difference, check out Your Earth Share: Seven Pathways to Sustainable Living and companion resources at www.suspra.com. Our short book helps people turn knowledge into action — and makes a great gift for anyone who cares about a sustainable future.

Knowledge is power—but only when we act on it. Whether you aced this quiz or discovered surprising gaps in your understanding, you’ve taken an important step this week. You’ve tested your environmental wisdom, learned from the results, and have some ideas that can spark conversations with others. Next week, we’ll send another idea for putting that knowledge into action. Until then, share this quiz widely and watch how environmental wisdom spreads through your community.

References and Resources

Behavior Change and Social Influence

Food and Agriculture

Water Conservation

Transportation Efficiency

Home Energy Use

Waste Management and Composting

Biodiversity and Native Plants

Environmental Education