As green initiatives have infiltrated both public and corporate conscience in recent times, we at Arras People wanted to learn more about the green sector as it applied to the future of project management.
In other words, we wanted to talk to someone who practised what they preached. Enter EarthPM.
This is the full-length version of our interview with EarthPM, a website developed earlier this year that seeks to be “at the interesection of green and Project Management” (boldface from the EarthPM website). The content is derived from emails exchanged by myself and the website’s co-founder, Dave Shirley, a veteran project management instructor and consultant who collaborates on the website with Rich Maltzman, PMP (many of you familiar with the project management blogosphere will recognise from Scope Crepe).
Let’s say you were to take an objective look at a project and declare ‘That’s a green project.” What traits and characteristics would that particular project display to affirm this declaration? First, all projects have some green aspects to them. But to answer your question directly, we would look for environmental impacts of both the product of the project, and the methodology of the project management. Depending on the deliverable(s) of the project, the product impacts are usually the easier ones to measure. The more difficult ones are assessing the impact that “doing” the project will have. As a simple example, take the communications plan and ask this question; Are we generating paper schedule after paper schedule for communicating progress, or do we have web-based folder so that all interested can see the progress without the need to generate a copious amount of paper, thus saving paper costs and the resources needed to produce the paper, raw materials, energy, etc? In some cases, ironically, where the outcome of the project is a wind farm or carbon scrubber, it’s the project’s methodology that could use a little greening up, and that could include the paper aspects as above, or other project inefficiencies that could be improved.
Given the same, ideal Green project posed already, contrast that project with one you would classify as (for lack of a better description) ‘non-Green’. What characteristics are we seeing in the ‘non-Green’ project that you wouldn’t expect to see in a Green project? Which of those non-Green factors are irreversible? Again, in the strictest sense, to us, a non-green project would be one where no environmental impacts are considered and/or is running in such a way as to unnecessarily consume resources. This could even involve buying equipment that isn’t upgradeable and must be destroyed as – for example – capacity is exceeded. We really think that every project has areas for improvement in efficiency. Let’s take a software development project; is that a non-green project? The project’s product is not affecting the environment in any way, right? It’s software, for goodness sake! Not necessarily. How will it be packaged, advertised, used? And, as above, how did the project itself, that delivered the outcome, operate? Was it run in such a way that consumed the minimum amount of resources? Those are areas that will certainly impact the environment. Failing to take into account the carbon footprint of the project itself as well as the product of the project is a failure not only of responsibility to the environment but a failure to do the best possible job for all stakeholders.
Arras People believe that the emerging Green sector will draw most of their project management professionals in the years to come from big business. What sectors do you think will be supplying this generation of eco-friendly PMs? As with most things, as big business goes, so does everything else. No doubt, big business is learning. As GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt says, “green is green”, meaning that being green is good for generating income (green as in dollars) to the bottom line. So as big business gears up their project management efforts, more project managers will be greened. To be honest, though, project managers are green. We have always been green (perhaps without knowing it), conserving scarce resources. That’s our job. However, we believe that since the majority of project management professionals will come from a variety of places, including big business, academia, small business, consulting firms, etc., there is a need for some standards and validation in this area. We think it’s now time to put in place a green certification program for project managers. In fact, we, at EarthPM, have been working with several local colleges and universities on a certification process. We have defined a curriculum that includes several levels of green PM certification that cross the project practice areas, as does the PMP® credential.
Will the emerging generation of eco-friendly PMs already display eco-conscious characteristics in their CV, or will it be a case of “some of them do, some of them don’t, but both are expected to make a positive impact regardless of their work history?” Interesting question (not that they all aren’t), but this one is particularly insightful. So, what are the expectations? Since you asked us, we’ll tell you what ours are. We expect that all project managers will continue to do what they do and are expected to have positive impact regardless of their work history. We also expect that there will be a large majority of PMs, including those “eco-friendly PMs” who will want to take that next step, similar to those who seek master’s certificates in project management, or PMPs, to get certified in green project management with programs such as the one we’re going to introduce. And remember, eco-friendliness is only one aspect of green project management. It’s really about viewing a project – and project management – through an environmental lens, which we assert also makes good business sense. Bottom line – and a tip for your readers – it may be a good idea to re-frame your CV with that environmental spin.
How do the dynamics change for green-mindedness in projects when you venture from the green sector to other sectors that may not have listed eco-friendliness as a priority 10 years ago? Another excellent question, and one that we have been grappling with. The best way to demonstrate (and yank those companies who have not been particularly eco-friendly in the past into the 21st Century) that green project management makes sense is to show them specific examples of how green has added to the bottom line. Companies like Stoneyfield Farms, Timberland, Adobe, and Whole Foods have documented substantial increases to their profitability simply do to the fact of being green friendly. I say “simply due to the fact”, but there is nothing simple about changing corporate culture. But money goes a long way to doing that. I don’t want to sound mercenary, but being green makes money. And let’s go back to an assertion we made before; PMs are green by nature (excuse the pun) because they are – or should be – all about conserving resources. So if that’s true, it’s not much of a leap for a PM, whether he or she is delivering a wind turbine or a software package, to be green.
One of your most intriguing of The 5 Assertions of EarthPM on your website is the fifth one, especially the following: “…the cost of ‘greenality’, like the cost of quality, is more than offset by the savings and opportunities is provides.” Couldn’t critics fairly argue that for the sustainability of a project’s ‘greenality’, the project’s bottom line is going to be weighed just as heavily as it was for other additional measures for project coverage in the last 50 years? To paraphrase Phillip Crosby who said “Quality is free,” we say greenality is free. The cost of being green is outweighed by the benefits to the bottom line. You’re right, the process of building quality into the product did weigh heavily, but companies have come to realize that building quality in actually increases the bottom line, eliminating excessive rework, scrap, etc. Of course, it is another thing that the project managers have to manage, but as I said before, we’ve already been doing that on an ad hoc basis, let’s just make it more of a process. Like the cost of non-conformance in quality, think of the costs of non-conformance in the environmental world. We urge PMs to keep their projects ahead of the curve and avoid the embarrassment, cost, and inefficiencies gained by skipping these considerations for a quick savings.
How much would the bottom line affect ‘greenality’, in your opinion? Name some other factors that could also affect the viability of project ‘greenality’ focus. Let us take a couple of examples from the literature. In Gary Hirshberg’s 2008 book, Stirring it Up, he points out that Wal-Mart, yes Wal-Mart, is seeking to cut the carbon emissions of its 6900 truck fleet by 25%. That effort alone could generate as much as $300 million dollars in savings that goes right to the bottom line. They are also looking to reduce energy usage in other areas, too. Sounds like lots of project coming. In Gary’s own company, Stoneyfield Farms, between 1995 and 2005 he was able to reduce CO2 per ton of yogurt enough to save more than $1.6 million in the process. We’re not talking small money, here. The larger the company, the larger the positive impact both on the environment and on the bottom line.
Money, the environment, people’s perception of the company, morality, and ethics, all of those can affect the viability of a company’s green focus. Think about some of the companies, like Patagonia and Timberland. Their clothing may be a little more expensive than some, but at least we are attracted to them because of their environmental compass. And of course, there are the intangibles. How many (thousands of) people will fly JetBlue versus Delta if they JetBlue allows you to carbon-neutralize their flight? Not sure. But some will.
Do you believe a project be completely & truly green at the end of the day? Why or why not? The technical answer is no, because a project, by definition consumes resources. However, we do believe that a project can – in practice – be completely and truly green. We’re not saying that every aspect of the project contributes positively to its greenality, unless you do something proactively to offset the negative impacts. We’re not saying that you can always eliminate every threat, but you can do something like agreeing to purchase renewable energy credits (RECs). The other day Rich was buying airplane tickets on-line. After completing the purchase, a pop-up window appeared and ask if you wanted to buy some credits to offset the carbon footprint of the flight. So the project of flying across the country will of course have environmental impact, but is greened in the end by purchasing some offsets.
One negative factor we’ve noticed with contract PMs and their employers is the struggle with handover and sustaining the project/programme’s capabilities. Moreover, the idea of sustainability is the common goal for sound environmental policy. Do you see projects being more efficiently managed contractually or on a permanent basis? In the project/programme closeout, there has to been some consideration given and a plan put in place that addresses the more long term issues after project handoff. You’re right, it is a policy issue, as is greenality. Company-wide, top down support is needed and the succession plan of a company has to include, not just who will be taking over the company in the future, but how will it deal with the long term issues. Unfortunately, that was not considered in the past, so we have an enormous amount of work to accomplish on our “Superfund” sites. The same can be said for the positive future impacts. They need to be monitored, too, and credit given. We think that we have to get green into the DNA of all project managers because of this very point. Even if an organization has a great environmental policy, how does that “get to” the desk and mindset of a contracted project manager? It probably doesn’t, to be honest. The PM has to think that way on his or her own.
Consider a project team’s members spread about various locations who have to get together as a group for weekly/monthly/quarterly meetings. Travel is inherently involved, but fuel costs and the inherent environmental risks of travel would hear the project’s green-mindedness. Would an increase in conference calls be a tell-tale sign of the increasing greenality of projects? Is this something EarthPM would recommend to businesses looking to upgrade their eco-friendly policies? Increased conference calls – or web-based conferencing and collaborative tools, would of course be a way to help green a project. In fact, one of our first guest blog posts came from a company from New Zealand (Psoda) which specializes in this software. Another sign would be (for example) a commitment in the project charter to reduce the paper output by 25%. EarthPm will continue to be featuring some of these companies and their project collaboration products. After all, EarthPm is focused on the intersection of green and project management. Our focus is to do anything we can do to help project managers be more green efficient. Rich and I are also in the process of signing a book contract for a book focuses on green project management. It is due out sometime in the spring of 2010. Hopefully, that will be yet another resource for the project managers.
In your own careers, have you faced restrictions, skepticism or resistance from anyone privy to a project you were leading based on any green measurements you planned to undertake? What advice would you to green-minded PMs that may encounter such resistance? Stay the course. To quote our first Assertion “A project run with green intent is the right thing to do, but it will also help the project team do the right thing.” More and more executives will begin to understand that green is green, and a project manager wants to be there for that. Believe us, we have had our share of restrictions, skeptics, and resistance. We have been in the project management field for a long time and have been PMPs for a long time. We’ve seen transitions from project management to program management, and now to green project and program management. We met resistance all along the way and we are meeting it now. But we are persistent because we believe it is the right thing to do. We hope to have a set of greenality metrics soon to help project managers track their success. We are working on an EEVM, Earned Environmental Value Management, including an index just as is used in Earned Value Management. We’re also working on a template for an Environmental Management Plan, similar in nature to a Quality Management Plan to make it easier for project managers to manage the green aspects of their project. And we are working with PMI to codify these ideas into the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and the 5th Edition of the PMBOK® Guide. Those ideas are in their infancy and we would love input from your readers on these and any other subject on green project management. Please feel free to visit our website and contribute.
An excerpt of this interview was originally published in the September edition of Arras People’s monthly newsletter, Project Management Tipoffs. To subscribe to Project Management Tipoffs, click here. To read the September issue of Tipoffs, click here. For more about EarthPM, click here.
