ITIL Sustainability Sample Questions & Practice Test

ITIL Sustainability in Digital and IT focuses on how digital and IT decisions affect sustainability outcomes, operating choices, suppliers, measurement, and improvement.

This page includes 12 original sample questions for initial review. Full IT Mastery practice for ITIL Sustainability in Digital and IT is not live yet; use the Notify me form if this route is the one you want prioritized.

ITIL Sustainability exam snapshot

• Provider: PeopleCert
• Official route: ITIL Sustainability in Digital and IT
• Family: ITIL extension route
• Best fit: IT leaders, service managers, cloud/platform teams, governance candidates, and sustainability-focused technology professionals

What sustainability questions usually test

• connecting IT and digital services to sustainability goals
• measuring impact with relevant and credible indicators
• balancing environmental, social, governance, cost, and service needs
• managing supplier and lifecycle sustainability factors
• improving services without greenwashing or unsupported claims

Common sustainability traps

Sample Exam Questions

Try these 12 original sample questions for ITIL Sustainability in Digital and IT. They are written for self-assessment and are not official exam questions.

Question 1

Topic: sustainability goals

A CIO wants IT services to support sustainability. What should be defined first?

• A. Clear sustainability objectives, scope, measures, ownership, and decision criteria
• B. A slogan for the intranet
• C. A vendor shortlist with no requirements
• D. A ban on all technology change

Best answer: A

Explanation: Sustainability work needs defined goals and evidence. Without scope and measures, teams cannot make consistent decisions or show progress.

Question 2

Topic: measurement

Which measure is most useful for a sustainability initiative?

• A. Number of meetings about sustainability
• B. Relevant indicators such as energy use, device lifecycle, cloud consumption, waste reduction, or supplier evidence tied to the objective
• C. Number of posters printed
• D. Number of emails sent

Best answer: B

Explanation: Measures should show impact, not only activity. The right indicators depend on the sustainability objective and service context.

Question 3

Topic: cloud sustainability

A team moves workloads to the cloud and declares the service sustainable without reviewing usage patterns. What is the main problem?

• A. Cloud always eliminates environmental impact
• B. Sustainability never applies to cloud services
• C. The claim may be unsupported because consumption, architecture, region choice, and provider practices still matter
• D. Usage patterns cannot affect sustainability

Best answer: C

Explanation: Cloud can help, but sustainability depends on how services are designed and consumed. Unsupported claims create greenwashing risk.

Question 4

Topic: lifecycle thinking

Which action best reflects lifecycle thinking for end-user devices?

• A. Buy the cheapest device only
• B. Dispose of devices without data or environmental controls
• C. Ignore the support lifecycle
• D. Evaluate procurement, energy use, repairability, reuse, disposal, security, and user needs

Best answer: D

Explanation: Sustainability decisions should consider the lifecycle, not one purchase moment. Security and service quality still matter.

Question 5

Topic: supplier management

What sustainability question should be included in supplier evaluation?

• A. Whether the supplier can provide credible evidence for relevant sustainability practices and commitments
• B. Whether the supplier uses the longest marketing slogans
• C. Whether sustainability can be ignored after contract signing
• D. Whether the supplier avoids all reporting

Best answer: A

Explanation: Supplier sustainability claims should be supported by evidence. Contract and performance management should keep expectations visible.

Question 6

Topic: trade-offs

A sustainability improvement reduces energy use but lowers service resilience below agreed requirements. What should happen?

• A. Accept all resilience loss automatically
• B. Assess trade-offs and find a balanced option that supports sustainability without unacceptable service risk
• C. Reject every sustainability idea
• D. Hide the resilience issue

Best answer: B

Explanation: Sustainability is part of service decision-making, not a separate slogan. Trade-offs should be visible and managed.

Question 7

Topic: demand management

How can demand management support sustainability?

• A. By blocking all user requests
• B. By increasing unused capacity
• C. By shaping consumption toward useful, efficient service use and reducing avoidable waste
• D. By ignoring consumption behavior

Best answer: C

Explanation: Demand patterns affect resource consumption. Good service design can reduce waste while still meeting user outcomes.

Question 8

Topic: software efficiency

Why can software design affect sustainability?

• A. Software has no resource impact
• B. Only hardware matters
• C. Sustainability applies only to printed materials
• D. Inefficient workloads can increase compute, storage, network, and device resource consumption

Best answer: D

Explanation: Digital services consume resources through infrastructure and devices. Design and architecture choices can influence that consumption.

Question 9

Topic: governance

Where should sustainability decision criteria be placed?

• A. In relevant governance, architecture, procurement, service-design, and improvement decisions
• B. Only in an annual newsletter
• C. Nowhere after the strategy is approved
• D. Only in unrelated HR policies

Best answer: A

Explanation: Sustainability becomes real when it is embedded in decisions. Governance helps make it repeatable and accountable.

Question 10

Topic: greenwashing

What creates greenwashing risk?

• A. Publishing measured progress with caveats
• B. Making broad sustainability claims without evidence, scope, or transparent measures
• C. Reviewing supplier evidence
• D. Tracking energy use

Best answer: B

Explanation: Greenwashing occurs when claims are misleading or unsupported. Credible sustainability communication needs evidence and clear boundaries.

Question 11

Topic: improvement

A service team finds that automated test environments run all weekend unused. What is the best next step?

• A. Ignore the waste because it is technical
• B. Delete all test environments immediately
• C. Evaluate scheduling, shutdown, or right-sizing options while preserving testing needs
• D. Stop measuring resource use

Best answer: C

Explanation: This is a practical sustainability improvement opportunity. The right response reduces waste without damaging service quality or delivery capability.

Question 12

Topic: sustainability and value

Which statement best reflects ITIL Sustainability in Digital and IT?

• A. Sustainability is only a marketing topic
• B. Sustainability means stopping all IT services
• C. Sustainability never involves suppliers or users
• D. Sustainability should be integrated into digital and IT service decisions using goals, evidence, governance, and continual improvement

Best answer: D

Explanation: Sustainability in IT is operational and strategic. It needs evidence, ownership, decision criteria, and continual improvement.

What to open next

• Need ITIL basics first? Open ITIL Foundation V5 .
• Need cloud architecture practice? Open AWS SAA-C03 .
• Need governance and risk practice? Open ISACA CRISC .