Living in a Material World: An Illuminating Project

Ian Whittingham, PMP is director of Calixo Consulting, providing project and program management expertise from initiation through to implementation, covering business transformation, workflow process re-engineering, and enterprise data integration. He is a regular contributor to ProjectManagement.com. You may contact Ian directly at [email protected].

  Innovation   Organizational Culture   Sustainability  

It was once more valuable than gold. In both its natural and manufactured states, it is so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible. It is present in whatever digital device you are reading these words on. It hides in plain view in so many objects and artefacts of our daily life that its predominantly shiny and reflective surface invariably impinges on our sight and touch.

Beyond its sensory qualities, its lightweight characteristic enables us to fly anywhere in the world, and even fly out of it into the farthest depths of the universe. In 2005, we consumed almost 32 million tonnes, and continue to consume it, year on year, in ever greater quantity. Yet together with glass and paper, it is a material we are constantly recycling, theoretically at a rate of 100% without loss of the natural qualities that make it such a useful material.

The electrolytic process used to produce it was developed almost 130 years ago. That process is still in use today. In 1889, a Swiss company started using the process on an industrial scale. It, too, still operates today.

Remarkably, in 2014, the Project Management Institute awarded its PMI Project of the Year to a joint venture--in which a contemporary rival of that Swiss company was a partner--for the development, construction and commission of a state-of-the-art aluminum smelting facility at Jonquière in Quebéc, Canada. …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.