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Categories: Activism
Disclaimer: In this post we will feature two environmental activists. We do this only to show what they've done, what they've accomplished, and the connection to our discipline of project management.
Project management is about change.
It's literally about change because we try to make projects more effective and efficient, leaving our sponsors with a little bit of change (as in money, thus the image above).
It's also about change because by definition, projects are put in place to make a change. A bridge where there was none before. A new release of software which didn't exist last week. A new drug. It's all about change, and so by definition, we are agents of change.
When it comes to the environment, this does not mean that we all need to become members of Greenpeace. However, if we feel the inclination to do something about climate change, we have more power (excuse the pun) to do so, and to pull away from that urge to do so, we deny what should be in our own PM DNA.
Here are two examples of activism with regards to the environment, which are recent and striking - and also which have been effective.
Tim DeChristopher - Bidder 70
Soon, you willl be able to see a movie - a documentary - with this title. It tells the story of Tim DeChristopher, an environmental activist who went to a US Federal Bureau of Land Management auction, and... well, we'd rather let the movie's web page describe what happened:
On December 19, 2008 Tim DeChristopher disrupted a highly disputed Utah BLM Oil and Gas lease auction, effectively safeguarding thousands of acres of pristine Utah land that were slated for oil and gas leases. Not content to merely protest outside, Tim entered the auction hall and registered as bidder #70. He outbid industry giants on land parcels (which, starting at $2 an acre, were adjacent to national treasures like Canyonlands National Park), winning 22,000 acres of land worth $1.7 million before the auction was halted.
Two months later, incoming Interior Secretary Ken Salazar invalidated the auction. DeChristopher, however, was indicted on two federal felonies with penalties of up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines. Patrick Shea, former BLM Director for Clinton, represented DeChristopher pro-bono.
With the threat of prison looming, DeChristopher stepped up his activism and evolved into a charismatic and ingenious climate justice leader. He co-founded Peaceful Uprising, a grass-roots group dedicated to defending a livable future through empowering non-violent action.
After two years and nine postponements, his trial began on February 28, 2011. Outside the courtroom, hundreds rallied in solidarity with Tim. Inside, Judge Dee Benson disallowed every defense his lawyers put forth. After a five-day trial, DeChristopher was found guilty. His sentencing was scheduled for summer 2012.
Refusing to back down, Tim flew to D.C. in April 2011 to give a keynote speech at Power Shift 2011 in front of 10,000 students. He then led students to occupy the Department of the Interior. Tim wisely avoided arrest, but dozens of others were arrested for this mass act of peaceful civil disobedience.
Tim just finished serving his sentence. Here he is on the US talk show, "Late Night with David Letterman":
Ma Jun's new playbook for change in China
A recent story in Time magazine shows us another, very different, but equally effective form of activism, this time in China.
Ma Jun, who founded the non-profit Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs in 2006, in China, has aimed at cleaning up China's environment. After all (see our post covering the book, The Devouring Dragon) China is responsible for about 25% of global carbon emissions.
Ma worked with the government to effect change, not by stopping an auction, like DeChristopher, but instead by the power of data. This snippet from the article makes the main point:
Working with two staffers (he now has 10) in a tiny Beijing office suite, Ma found a creative way forward. Rather than overtly pressuring the government--a strategy that rarely succeeds in China--he embraced the government's data as a tool. Ma cut a deal to put China's records about pollution by Western firms and their suppliers online, then used that information to quietly pressure the companies. The results have been remarkable. A 2011 report on Apple, for instance, resulted in a major effort to clean up environmental violations in the company's supply chain.
Ma hopes for even more impact with his new action against the huge power and energy companies that are responsible for the lion's share of China's pollution. Because they are largely owned by the Communist Party and funded by state-owned banks, they've traditionally been off-limits for criticism. But buoyed by his wins with Western corporate giants, Ma recently announced plans to compile a similar database on these SOEs. "It's a much more delicate issue," he says with a somewhat nervous smile. "We're not sure yet how it will all work out."
Ma's leverage this time is that the government is increasingly concerned about the environment. Leaders know the issue has the potential to galvanize mass protests, bringing out everyone from rural farmers whose land is contaminated by heavy metals to soccer moms worried that their children will get asthma from playing outside their schools in the Beijing smog. The initial goal is to coax the SOEs to grab the low-hanging fruit--retrofitting coal-fired power plants to reduce the worst emissions or stopping overproduction of steel. (China churns out 1 billion tons of it a year even though total global demand is only 1.7 billion tons.)
Whether with auction disruptions (like DeChristopher) or increased transparency (like Ma Jun), we see that it's possible to be a change agent in the area of environmentalism.
As a project manager, we can be change agents in - and around - our projects. A quick example. We're trying to purchase some supplies for the project and have a choice of two vendors. One has a product which is more environmentally-friendly but consts a little more. How do we justify the more expensive material? Event though the project itself may only use a little in the pilot period, we know that this material will be used in quantity when the product is handed over to operations.
We could tie the rationale to the company's environmental purchasing policy. Wait. We don't have one? We can be the change agent that suggests a company policy. Why not? We are, after all... change agents.
Have a look at the two stories, see if they inspire you to become that agent of change that you already are.
Posted
by Richard Maltzman
on: June 29, 2013 10:06 AM |
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