{"id":20079,"date":"2025-09-16T15:34:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/?p=20079"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:34:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:34:26","slug":"lesson-12-solidworks-academic-certification-understanding-and-taking-the-solidworks-sustainability-associate-cswa-sd-exam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/2025\/09\/lesson-12-solidworks-academic-certification-understanding-and-taking-the-solidworks-sustainability-associate-cswa-sd-exam.html","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 12: SOLIDWORKS Academic Certification – Understanding and Taking the SOLIDWORKS Sustainability Associate (CSWA-SD) Exam"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOLIDWORKS Certification demonstrates your commitment to enhancing your skill set in an ever-changing world.<\/p>\n

Sustainable design, like quality, time to market, and cost, will soon dictate how engineers approach most every product they develop. Choosing products based on their carbon footprint will be equally as important as design validation. To stay ahead of the curve, you and your company need to understand sustainable design and how to implement it now.<\/p>\n

Sustainable engineering is the integration of social, environmental, and economic conditions into a product or process. Soon all design will be Sustainable Design.<\/p>\n

Lesson 12 covers general information and content of the on-line proctored SOLIDWORKS Sustainability Associate (CSWA-SD) exam. Note<\/strong>: Formally called the Certified Sustainable Design Associate, old acronym (CSDA).<\/p>\n

If your school is an Academic Provider, the provider can allocate free CSWA-SD exam opportunities. An Academic Certification Provider is defined as an educational institution on subscription, with a minimum number of licenses (varies by country), that is eligible to administer CSWA, CSWP and other specialty exams.<\/p>\n

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Passing the CSWA-SD exam indicates a foundation in and apprentice knowledge of demonstrating an understanding in the principles of environmental assessment, life cycle assessment and overall sustainable design.<\/p>\n

The main requirement for obtaining the SOLIDWORKS Sustainability Associate (CSWA-SD) certification is to take and pass the on-line proctored 60-minute exam (minimum of 24 out of 30 points). There are 30 questions, each question is worth 1 point.<\/p>\n

The 30 questions address various key categories: Environmental Assessment, Introduction to sustainability, and Sustainable design.<\/p>\n

All questions are in a multiple choice\/multi answer format. SOLIDWORKS does not require that you have a copy of SOLIDWORKS Sustainability, or even SOLIDWORKS. No SOLIDWORKS models need to be created for the exam.<\/p>\n

You are allowed to answer the questions in any order. Use the Summary Screen during the CSWA-SD exam to view the list of all questions you have or have not answered<\/p>\n

If you fail, there is a 14-day waiting period before retaking the (CSWA-SD) certification.<\/p>\n

The CSWA-SD is based off the SOLIDWORKS Sustainable Design Guide that incorporates concepts including sustainability, environmental assessment and life cycle impact assessment.<\/p>\n

The Guide is divided into ten chapters. First, feel free to jump around. The guide was made to be consumed in sections, and in no particular order.<\/p>\n

The Guide addresses terminology early on, so if you find concepts that you\u2019re unfamiliar with, navigate to the appropriate section to learn more. Going through the entire Guide should take approximately 3-4 hours.<\/p>\n

On the completion of the reading the guide, you will be able to:<\/p>\n