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Date
John S. Hoffman, an innovative US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official, died late last month. We'd like to take a moment to point out some of his work and connect it to our discipline - project management.
In the US, Hoffman was responsible for Energy Star.
One of his quotes really impressed us - he wrote this in 1992:
"profitably prevent pollution...using voluntary market enhancing programs"
Here's a little blurb about how that got started:
Legend has it that ENERGY STAR began 20 years ago after Hoffman conducted an informal walk-through of EPA offices. He wanted to see if employees remembered to turn off their computers when they left their workstations. He was not pleased with what he saw. He figured that if many of his staff members – who were well aware of the link between energy use and greenhouse gas emissions – forgot or found it too inconvenient to shut off their computers, the situation in the general population was far worse. He thought that a technical solution was needed – a way to automatically power down computers when not in use. And thus, a “star” (or at least a twinkle of a star) was born.
Source: http://ase.org/efficiencynews/memoriam-john-s-hoffman-father-energy-star
It worked - and continues to work.
This program, according to an editorial in today's Boston Globe has saved $230 billion in electrical bills and has avoided 1.7 billion metric tons of carbon emissions in the US alone. Hoffman's goal - and this is strangely reminiscent of our own blog title - was to "profitably prevent pollution, including greenhouse gases, using volutary market enhancing programs". His programs were instituted with no cost to consumers.
The connection we see to project management is multi-faceted. First, the institution of these programs were projects in and of themselves. Secondly, this shows what one change agent (and we, as PMs are nothing if not change agents) can do. Thirdly, this shows how partnerships of government, industry, and consumers can be built to further a program objective. We as project managers do this routinely for our projects. We can learn from Mr. Hoffman's inspiring work, not only the focus on the environment, but the pure intelligence of consortium-building that he demonstrated.
20,000 organizations now participate in Energy Star programs.
These organizations have had a huge impact on people.
They have helped reduce the impact of energy-hungry devices on the planet.
They have helped companies save money and increase profit.
And they have launched many successful progrmas and projects.
So you see the connection and the reason we choose to pay tribute to Mr. Hoffman's legacy here.
Get more detail about this "warrior for the ages" (Boston Globe Editorial, today, 16-October-2012) at these sites:
Boston Globe, "Energy-saving guru"
Think Progress story
Posted
by
Richard Maltzman
on: October 16, 2012 09:10 AM |
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