People, Planet, Profits & Projects

Many of our PM colleagues don't buy the whole climate change "thing".

And that's actually fine with us.

We're not selling a philosophy, nor are we pushing any agenda, political or otherwise.  We have (for many years now) simply been asserting that there is a connection between project management and sustainability.  In our past book (Cleland Award-winning "Green Project Management") we made that connection between projects, project managers, and sustainability.  In our upcoming book, "Sustainability in Projects, Programs, and Portfolios", as you can probably guess, we've advanced that assertion to the program and portfolio level - partially because we know that business leaders - VPs and Directors - ARE buying sustainabiilty as a business imperative and are integrating sustainability into their business plans, and partially because we've found a much more receptive audience for sustainability and long-term thinking in project management at the program and portfolio levels.

This is illustrated in the latest issue of PM Network, which features a front page showing the Ivanpah solar installation in California and is titled, "The Energy Evolution" issue, there is a quote which illustrates this.

"Because of the 20- to 50-year lifespan of typical energy capital projects, investment decisions and resulting assets from these projects will impact the organization for decades to come", says Galen Townson, PMP, PMO lead at Synergy, an energy provider based in Perth, Australia.  "Not knowing what's going to happen in longer horizons creates a lot of risk in that investment, and the uncertainty is greater and it demands even more of a portfolio management approach". 

This quote shows us that Synergy - by necessity, is buying long-term thinking in their projects.

And that takes us to the numbers.

The numbers to which we send you is the "metrics" section of PM Network this month, which features some astounding figures.  For example:

• US$700 billion: Annual additional spending on clean energy infrastructure, low-carbon transport, energy efficiency and forestry projects need to cap the rise of global temperatures
• US$271 billion: Annual cost of climate change in the United States by 2025, including hurricane damage, real-estate losses and increased energy and water costs
• US$73 billion: Annual cost to climate-proof East Asia's infrastructure per through 2050
• 85% increase in teh number of undernourished people in southern Africa by 2050 - due to climate change
• and on, and on... see page 16 of the October, 2014 issue of PM Network for the full graphic

So this is PMI (not Greenpeace, not the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, not Al Gore) simply reporting on the numbers - the facts - that are out there, whatever your beliefs are about the science.

We're depressed by some of the numbers (like the sea level rise numbers, comparing .62 feet between 190 and 2010 verus a projected 2 to 4.6 feet from 2000 to 2100, or the projected global tempurature increases of up to nearly 10 degrees F), but we are glad to see that at least the amount of investment that business and government is committing is present and public in a journal like PM Network.

So we hope that you are "buying' at least the concept that projects focused on sustainability are on the rise - and that you can also make the connection to the concept that projects (at all levels, and whether or not they are related to climate change) should be integrating sustainability, holistic, long-term thinking, if for no other reason than to tether them more firmly to the mission and vision statements of the enterprise.

The altruism is there but often silent.

The numbers - well, they're a little louder.

Are you buying?

To follow up on my last post, I thought I’d talk about the opposite problem.  In some parts of the world, there appears to be enough water to satisfy the citizen’s need.  Take Germany, for instance, while there is enough water, the Germans continue to serious conservation efforts.  This led Anton Troianovski, writer for the Wall Street Journal to ask about Germany, “Is the country saving too much water?” in Monday, September 29, 2014’s edition. 

Some of the conservation efforts undertaken in Germany are: flushing toilets with old bath water, taking turns in a bathtub without refilling, new toilets that have a two gallon normal flush and a 1 gallon water-saving flush.   When children leave a ½ of a glass of water or there is water from washing vegetables, it gets poured into a watering can.  While saving water in Germany isn’t necessarily going to help water starved areas of Africa, “conserving water is an expression of personal virtue and social responsibility”, according to the article. German’s also conserve water to save money.    However, it is one of those vicious cycles, utility costs are fixed, and using less water means higher prices per gallon, which means more conservation measure and increasing prices, etc.

But there are consequences for saving too much water and that spawns various projects.  So projects aren’t just created to reduce water consumption, but also to handle the issues resulting from water saving endeavors.  A major issue that has arisen due to the reduced water usage is that sewage isn’t moving quickly enough through the system, causing odor and corrosion problems.  Berliner Wasserbetriebe, Berlin’s utility authority has an Odor and Corrosion Control Task Force.   Some of the measures being used are flushing fresh water through the system, deploying salt, filters and sticky panels of deodorant. 

While the issues do arise, conserving water is innate.  Even an engineer on the task force continues to reduce his and his family’s water usage.  Students in school are taught to turn off the water while shampooing their hair, soaping their hands, and brushing their teeth.  The one or two minute shower is still popular. 

It is important to know that there are at least two sides to every issue.  Project managers who are aware of those different sides will be able to take advantage of many projects that are created. 

As project managers we are often faced with tough descisions.

So it's a relief, isn't it, when you stop off at the market on the way home from a long day of progressive elaboration and rolling-wave planning, Monte-Carloing, Paretoing, and determining the Estimate at Completion, that the only decision you have to make is.... Paper or Plastic for your bag.

What a relief.  An easy, no-brainer.  Paper!  Right?  It's brown, it's re-used materials... right?  Right?  RIGHT?

Not necessarily.

We think there is actually quite a lessons-learned in the area of Procurement Management for your projects in the video we provide below.

The speaker,  Leyla Acaroglu is outstanding as she provides a flowing, logical description of how purchasing decisions should really be made.  She's speaking in general, but if you have your "PM antennae" on, and you're willling to think a little more holistically about your project - including the time after the moment you leave the project because it's turned over to your client - you'll find that this talk can help you in your PM decision making.

You're going to find definitions in this talk which will be helpful as well.

• extraction
• biodegradability
• Life Cycle Assessment (or Analyisis) - LCA

This is a highly-recommended talk.  You will be that much smarter after listening.

When I was in high school (along with George Washington), a long time ago, I was required to memorize a poem and present it in class.  I chose the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Coleridge.   To this day, I can still recall bits and pieces.  One piece I remember vividly is:

"Water, water everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink."

Of course there are many interpretations of the meaning of this, but literally, it is a pretty scary thought, but yet, it may be a reality.  We’ve talked before about freshwater being the next oil, a limiting resource.  There’s lots of saltwater, like in the Rime, but you can't drink it as is.  We’ve seen Wall Street bet on water becoming scarcer in the future resulting in a supply and demand situation and the cost of water rising to some expensive level like gasoline.  We can live without gasoline; we can walk, we can ride a bike, we can seek alternative energies.  But we can’t live without water.  We can live longer without food.  According to livescience.com there is a “rule of three”.  You can live 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food.  Of course it is all situational, but one can see that water is critical.

According to an article[1] in a recent issue of Outside, “In ten to twenty years, unless the drought breaks or everyone in Los Angeles starts recycling their own pee, Lake Mead will run dry and the Southwest will have to pack up its playthings and move in with its relatives back east.”  That is because there are legal requirements (Law of the River) that govern water release to Mexico, California, Arizona, and Nevada, and those allocations of water are unsustainable given the current situation.  The original document was created during the “wet” period early in the twentieth century.  We all know what has happened since and most recently; fires, droughts, water rationing, and more.  However, I do believe that with the help of projects and competent project management, that there are ways to mitigate this risk.  Remember, nothing gets done without projects and project managers who are aware of all of the issues, including life cycle assessment and sustainability, will be the ones to bring us into a “sustainable future.”

So, what can be done?  According to Mr. Rowan, we need to be smart about our water usage, “Children of Dune smart.”  The article suggests many projects to help the low water conditions.  I will highlight a few here. Phoenix uses 165 gallons of water per person per day, Tucson uses 128 gallons.  The difference is that Tucson embraces the desert look, while Phoenix likes the lush lawn look.  Project – move at least all industrial and commercial sites in Phoenix to native (desert) landscaping.  Incentivize individuals to do the same.  All new homes are required to recycle their grey-water (shower, sink) for irrigation. 

Using Las Vegas as a model – project – all drain and toilet water is treated and pumped back into Lake Mead (except for evaporation) 100% recycle.  LA project – paying LA residents $2.00/sq. ft. to remove their lawns.  Australians have been dealing with a lack of water longer than we have, and they have successfully adopted processes to greatly reduce their water usage.  Australians use about ½ the water per person as we do.  If they can do it, we can.  All it takes is projects to move ideas to reality.

One of the larger projects undertaken will be with the agricultural industry.  According to the article, agriculture uses at least 70% of the water in the Colorado River basin.  An interesting fact is that each hamburger produced takes about 500 gallons of water.  If we all eat 1 less hamburger per year, we can save a generous amount of water.  Isn’t an advertising campaign to make people aware of some of these statistics a project?  I didn’t know, however, that we have a “use it or lose it” policy when it comes to water usage.  In other words, there is no policy where a farmer can sell back surplus water.  Instead, the current policy encourages farmers to use their allotment no matter what.  As a result, farmers over grow alfalfa, as an example, then ship the excess overseas.  That policy needs to change!

We need to be creative.  We need to develop projects that will both encourage conservation and create new ways to use water in a more sustainable way.  Those projects need to be managed by competent and sustainably savvy project managers.  The second piece we can’t forget is that sustainable savvy project managers also are aware of the way they manage their projects so that they are managed in a sustainable way.  We approach it this way. It is a two-pronged approach; sustainable project managers manage both the product of the project and the project itself, both in the short term, and for the entire life cycle of the product.  That is why we encourage all project managers to continue to “get smart” on sustainability.

The theme this week is up.

Our 21-September-2014 post on EarthPM is called "Up, Up, and Away" .  Today also, hundreds of  thousands of people were filling UP New York City to draw attention to climate change.  And finally (and the reason for today's post at P@W) is something way, WAY up in the sky - the MAVEN spacecraft, which, as this post is being written, is supposed to supposed to fire its six main engines, slowing down enough so it can be captured by the gravity of the red planet and go into orbit.

You can (and should) read about the MAVEN project here and here.  You can even follow a live stream of the mission at that second link from NASA.  The bottom line (I know, I know, we said "up" and we're referring you to a bottom line...sorry) for MAVEN is that its misison is to understand the history of the climate on Mars.  Why?  Because the climate of Mars changed radically sometime in the last billion years and understanding that change will help us understand climate change here on Earth as well.

Besides the obvious project management connection inherent in any space mission, we also want to point out that in this particular case there is another key theme: pointing to facts.  When thee is a disagreement between project stakeholders, it's often the project manager that's called upon to referee.  This NASA mission is one that will help provide more science to the discussion about climate change, by providing impartial, factual data about what happened on an entirely different planet as a basis for comparison with what is happening now on our planet.

We applaud NASA for doing what we need to do as project managers - bringing clarity and new, impartial information to bear for a better project outcome.

We wish NASA - and MAVEN - the best of luck with their mission, and we hope that you as project managers embrace your responsibility to be that arbitrator of fairness and fact - and to do it when called upon but also when your 'expert judgment' says, "it's time to step UP".