A Green PM Primer

Dr. Andrew Makar is an IT program manager and is the author of the Microsoft Project Made Easy series. For more project management advice, visit the website TacticalProjectManagement.com.

  Career Development   Organizational Culture   Sustainability  

The project management domain is full of evolving terminology and buzzwords. Just as I get comfortable with the latest acronyms, new vernacular emerges. When I first heard the phrase “Green PM”, I assumed it was related to saving energy with those spiral light bulbs that claim to look like daylight but still look fluorescent. Fortunately, I reached out to a colleague--Charlene Draine, who is active in the Green PM mindset and the Chief Sustainability Officer at Cheetah Learning. Below is an interview about being a Green PM and pursuing sustainability in project management.

What is a Green PM?
“The Green PM concept is founded in ‘being green’. Green is nature’s color and represents sustainability. Sustainability focuses on creating the ability to endure without permanently depleting or permanently damaging our resources. Project managers are familiar with the project triangle will appreciate the Green project viewpoint of the triple bottom line known as People, Planet and Profit (PPP). Green PMs seek to advance all three of aspects of the triple bottom line without sacrificing any of the Ps.

Project managers are also inherently ‘green’ as PMs are business change agents that bring the corporate vision to life by successfully delivering one project at a time. Since projects change business and help it endure, project …

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