Best questions for civil servant survey about environmental concerns and climate action

Here are some of the best questions for a civil servant survey about environmental concerns and climate action, plus tips on how to design them for deep insights. With Specific, you can build surveys like these in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for civil servant survey about environmental concerns and climate action

Open-ended questions let us dig beneath the surface—they reveal nuanced opinions, motivations, and real barriers. Use them when you want actionable, qualitative insights or need to uncover ideas you didn’t expect. This is especially valuable given that over 70% of civil servants are aware of environmental benefits, yet the details behind their perspectives are often hidden in data [1].

1. What are the biggest environmental challenges you notice in your workplace or community?

2. Can you describe a situation where you or your department took action to address an environmental concern?

3. What motivates you personally to participate in climate action initiatives?

4. What barriers prevent you or your team from adopting more sustainable practices at work?

5. How do you think policy could be improved to better support environmental sustainability in your area of responsibility?

6. Describe any obstacles you face when trying to report on or document sustainability efforts.

7. In your view, which climate action initiatives have had the most impact, and why?

8. How does formal administrative process affect your ability to act on green initiatives?

9. If you could implement one environmental change in your department, what would it be?

10. What support, tools, or training do you wish you had to further contribute to climate action?

Open questions like these let respondents address both the formal structures and intrinsic motivations that shape their work—important given the complexity of public sector environmental engagement [2].

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for civil servant survey about environmental concerns and climate action

Single-select multiple-choice questions are great when you need structured, quantifiable data or want to encourage participation by lowering the “activation energy.” They also work well as icebreakers before moving to more complex or open-ended discussions.

Question: Which of these environmental issues concerns you most in your current role?

• Waste management

• Energy consumption

• Biodiversity loss

• Climate change adaptation

• Other

Question: How often do you participate in voluntary green initiatives at work?

• Never

• Rarely

• Sometimes

• Often

• Always

Question: What is the primary barrier to implementing sustainability practices in your department?

• Lack of resources

• Lack of training or knowledge

• Competing priorities

• Administrative hurdles

• Other

When to followup with "why?" We always use a “why?” follow-up if a response reveals motivation, barriers, or ambiguity. For example, if someone selects “administrative hurdles” as a primary barrier, asking “Can you share a recent example or clarify what kind of hurdles you face?” yields actionable insights, illuminating how perceived formalism can block green behavior [4].

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always offer “Other” when your options may not cover all real-world scenarios. Following up after “Other” can expose fresh perspectives your team hasn’t considered—this is how surveys bring unknown issues into the light.

Should you use an NPS-style question?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) isn’t just for customer satisfaction. In environmental and climate surveys, NPS-style questions can efficiently tap into civil servants' level of engagement and advocacy for climate action. By asking how likely someone is to recommend environmental initiatives within their workplace (and why), we measure both sentiment and underlying drivers. This single score is easy to benchmark and track over time, making it an effective tool for ongoing climate commitment tracking. Try generating an NPS survey tailored for civil servants here.

The power of follow-up questions

Automated follow-up questions are the secret to Specific's conversational survey magic (see our follow-up feature deep-dive). They clarify, probe, and drive at the "why"—turning shallow answers into deep insights. Specific’s AI can ask follow-ups based on the respondent’s previous reply, just like a smart researcher would, ensuring that we don't miss context or subtleties.

• Civil servant: "Sometimes, I participate in environmental projects."

• AI follow-up: "Can you describe a recent project you participated in, and what motivated you to join?"

Without follow-ups, that first reply might leave us guessing about motivations, barriers, or outcomes. Automated follow-ups—done instantly and contextually—save everyone time versus emails or chasing clarifications.

How many followups to ask? In practice, 2-3 follow-ups strike a good balance: deep enough for insights, short enough for focus. With Specific, you control when to stop—by default, we end once we’ve collected what you need.

This makes it a conversational survey: With dynamic follow-ups, respondents feel like they’re having a real conversation, not filling out a form. It’s more engaging, and that’s why response rates climb.

Easy AI analysis: AI makes it simple to analyze qualitative survey responses—even when they're unstructured. With features like AI-powered response analysis, making sense of all the context is quick and actionable, not a manual slog.

Automated, intelligent follow-ups are new for many teams—try generating your own survey to experience it firsthand.

How to prompt ChatGPT (or other GPTs) for great civil servant survey questions

If you want to use ChatGPT or another GPT-powered tool to generate questions, use clear prompts. Here’s a good starting point:

Ask:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Civil Servant survey about Environmental Concerns And Climate Action.

But design your prompts with context for richer results. For example:

I'm a public sector manager in charge of a sustainability team. I need to know what motivates civil servants to participate in voluntary climate initiatives and what barriers they face in reporting activities. Suggest 10 tailored, open-ended questions to uncover these insights.

After you get initial questions, group them with:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then focus further:

Generate 10 questions for categories 'Motivation for climate action' and 'Barriers to reporting sustainability activities'.

This iterative approach yields targeted, on-point questions for your survey.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys go beyond static forms. Powered by AI, each question adapts based on what the respondent just said—mirroring a real discussion. This flexibility is vital when unpacking the complex relationship between policy, motivation, and formal structures in civil servant engagement with climate action [3], and is difficult to replicate with old-school tools.

Why use AI for civil servant surveys? Civil servants’ engagement with the environment is complex—the best insights come from flexible, context-aware conversations. AI survey generators like Specific adapt in real time (see an AI survey example) and summarize results instantly. You create, launch, and analyze in minutes—not weeks.

Specific’s best-in-class user experience ensures both survey creators and respondents have a smooth, engaging journey—whether editing with natural language using the AI survey editor, or learning to create and launch a survey in a few clicks.

See this environmental concerns and climate action survey example now

Discover how quickly you can launch a conversational survey that delivers richer insights, deeper context, and more actionable data. Start generating genuine feedback and drive meaningful environmental change—don’t get left behind.