People, Planet, Profits & Projects

Project managers may have a “rough ride” when it comes to sustainability.  As a naturalist, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt certainly had a clear vision about sustainability with his “conservation movement”, a social, political, and environmental (sound familiar) movement whose mission is to protect natural resources.  The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), an organization founded on Roosevelt’s principles, is an alliance formed in 2000 with Trout Unlimited until 2002 when TRCP applied for their own tax exempt status.  TRCP’s primary mission is to protect quality open spaces for hunting and fishing. 

We’ve written and spoken to many attendees of webinars, key notes, workshops and conferences about the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill.  In this month’s issue of Fly Fishing in Salt Water (Nov/Dec 2013, Vol. 20 No. 6, pg. 62), there is a brief note titled TRCP Partnership.  “The Theodore Roosevelt Partnership (TRCP) and other sport fishing interests have stressed the need for stakeholder input in charting a project-based approach for recovering fisheries and economics affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Recreational anglers as well as the Gulf Coast Ecosystems Restoration Council welcomed a vote to adopt a plan outlining recovery efforts both ecological and financial for the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the oil spill.  Projects will help repair habitat degradation that occurred from the spill and address issues affecting the region that date from decades before.” [Emphasis is mine.]

A couple of things stood out in above brief note.  The statement includes or infers all of the aspects of the triple-bottom line, financial (or economic), social, and environmental.  “The need for stakeholder input” is a very telling phrase for us project managers.  The Project Management Institute in its Fifth Edition of the PMBOK® thought that stakeholders were so important that it added Stakeholder Management as the 10^th knowledge area.  It is rare that PMI® makes additions of this magnitude, so we pay attention.  Stakeholders needs have always been important to project success, but those needs are also being driven back into the decision making process for choice of projects.  Stakeholders are also becoming more and more concerned with environmental issues which will help to drive more sustainable projects.  One of our tips to project managers is to become aware of those issues and take advantage of that awareness to avail themselves of opportunities in this emerging project area.

 “A project-based approach for recovering fisheries and economies” is a reality.  Wouldn’t we want to both be aware of the issues and be able to speak the language of sustainability in project management (SiPM™)?  Again, forewarned is forearmed!  As project managers, the more information we can accumulate on a particular area of interest, the more we can differentiate ourselves to take advantage of new opportunities.  One of the key phrases in the note is “…address issues affecting the region that date from decades before.”  Not only is the relatively recent oil spill creating projects, but the potential of decades of damage will also drive projects.  If all of these projects are to be successful, it is my assertion that we will need knowledgeable project managers, to smooth out their sustainability ride.

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In the latest edition of PM Network there is an article entitled “Weather Alert: Flooding Ahead.”  The subtitle is “It’s high time to plan for high tides with global projects” and it is by Mark Guarino.  The article points out a striking example of how future projects will be driven by issues of sustainability; by the triple-bottom line, people, planet, profits. 

Rich and I are facilitating a ‘sustainability in project management’ course for the Sustainability Learning Centre and we use two examples of how high tides are affecting the environment.  An island that was being contended by India and Pakistan, South Moore Island, AKA Talpatti, is no longer a problem.  It is now under water due to rising ocean levels.  The people of Talpatti needed to relocate themselves and their personal property (a project).  The other example we used was from an article in The Boston Globe, August 4, 2012, Rising Tide of Concern.”  That article pointed out the developers and building owners in Boston are considering locating their electrical facilities on upper floors, building new buildings with floodwalls, higher first floors, landscaping buffers, etc., to prevent the problems caused in New York by Hurricane Sandy. 

We’ve always believed that project managers should avail themselves of the opportunity to lead sustainability efforts.  Whether it is an obviously sustainable project like managing the installation of a wind farm, to managing the planning organization and implementation of a new software release, project managers should be involved.  One of the ways to avail yourself of those opportunities is to understand that there is a 'rainbow of green ; from projects that are green by definition, projects that are green by project impact, projects that are green by product impact, and projects that are green in general.  The specifics are detailed in our book and we’ve talked about it quite a bit in this blog as well as on our website. 

That’s not what I want to talk about here.  What I want to talk about here is that it is just as important to the project manager to be aware of the terminology and the fundamentals about sustainability in project management.  Yes, you can get a good basic understanding from our book.  In addition, Greg Balestrero (he gets it!),  former President and CEO of Project Management Institute (PMI®) is now working with  the International Institute of Learning (IIL) and will be speaking during International Project Day (Thursday, November 7^th, 2013) on the subject of Organizational Survival: Profitable Strategies for a Sustainable Future.  For more information go to IIL’s website.   It’s free and you can get some PDU’s and it will be available on demand for those who cannot participate during the live presentations.  Greg and Nathalie Udo also co-authored a book by the same name as the presentation.  That book is now available.

Another way is to become more educated is to take a course or two in sustainability and sustainability in project management.  The Sustainability Learning Centre has some great offerings in this area. 

Forewarned is forearmed.  Arming yourself with sustainability and sustainability in project management information is another way to make you, a project manager, more marketable as well as ready to take advantage of any and all opportunities.

We are often asked the question “What can we do to become more sustainable?”  Project managers are not only interested in their processes/projects and making them more sustainable, but also what can they do to make their everyday lives more sustainable.  The answer to that question is very complex because of all of the sustainability opportunities that exist.  We certainly don’t know them all, although we do know a lot ways to become more sustainable, the connection between sustainable business and project management and a more general connection between ourselves and sustainability. 

Here is something we came across recently.  “Boston University (BU) Dining Services is pleased to report the sustainable progress that we have made on 2012 across campus.  As we continue our mission to serve wholesome, delicious, and affordable food to the BU community and its guests, we strive to do so with a parallel goal: the extension of dining hall as a classroom.  As we change how things are done in our kitchen and dining rooms, we strive to communicate both the challenges and benefits to our main customers: students.  By making students aware of our initiatives, goals and challenges, we hope to create knowledgeable and empowered consumers and operators, who will demand high standards from their food sources, both while on campus and as they make their own path after graduation.”

One of our assertions is that consumers are becoming smarter about sustainability and that is a driver for organizations to become more sustainable.  Efforts like this at BU only reinforce our assertion by providing the education to make “smarter” consumers. 

BU’s Dining Services started their efforts with buying local.  Not only does it save transportation costs and carbon footprint, the choices are also wholesome for the students, “preserve farmland in New England and support environmentally friendly agricultural practices.”  Produce, dairy, baked goods and groceries like Ken’s Salad Dressing are locally sourced.   Offerings to the students include vegan and “cage-free and American Certified Humane Eggs.” "BU’s Union Food Court is considered The Greenest Food Court in the Country.”

As we all know, to be truly effective in our sustainability efforts, it has to be a total program.  In 2013, BU Dining Services were asked to serve as a case study for Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Recycling Works program.  BU’s contributions will help other Massachusetts institutions and businesses prepare for the upcoming organics waste stream ban.   We’ll talk more about that ban in a later post.  In 2012 the waste diversion rate at the student union was 69% and 32 tons of waste was diverted at the 2012 commencement ceremony.    There was a 50% increase in beverage purchases and the list goes on.  Metrics are important, as we’ve said many times before; you can’t manage what you can’t measure.   [While this phrase is often attributed to Deming, in truth, no one knows where it came from, although it is also often attributed to Peter Drucker. – a little trivia for your]

Universities, companies and individuals are all getting the sustainability message.  When you think about it, these are changes, and therefore require change agents (project managers) to implement.  That is the just one example of the sustainability connections to project management.  For more information please see full report.

One of the “elephants in the room” when it comes to sustainability is “what’s in it for me (us)”?  We’ve always contended that there is a lot in it for you (collectively), whether you are an organization or an individual, and many of you know that.  One of the aspects of greenality, a word we coined while writing our book, Green Project Management, is the “hugger-hummer” scale.  The hugger-hummer scale is an arbitrary scale that we developed.  At one extreme end of the scale are the so called “tree hugger” and at the other extreme end is the antithesis.  However, we believe that most people live in the area somewhat in the middle.  Those to the right of middle (hummer side of course) may be moved closer to the middle when provided with some information.

In a recent webinar, Metrics that Matter: Leading Companies Know How to Measure Employee Engagement, presented by greenbiz, a great resource for those interested in sustainability, points out that there are ways to measure (provide data) to organizations about the positive effects of sustainability.  There are companies, including the host of the webinar, practically green™ that can provide “digital sustainability engagement programs” to global companies.  Some of the metrics that can be tracked and reported are employee personal activities related to sustainability, commuting and business travel.  These programs use social media, intranets, and more, to make it easy for individuals as well as organization to capture their efforts.

The program includes four level; (1) direct benefits including employee participation rate, ongoing engagement rates, actions/activities completed, number of people influenced, environmental/social impact, and return on investment (ROI).

Level 2 - ROI, Sony Electronics looks at ways to reduce employee footprint while at work and their contributions to Sony’s environmental and efficiency efforts.  The results were a savings of $84/employee, 101.78 metric tons of CO₂ saved, 11 tons of waste diverted, 36,228 gallons of water saved, and 2,000 gallons of fuel saved. 

Level 3 is beyond resource costs including; brand, health, engagement scores, and employee personal savings.   Caesars International uses “Codegreen Rewards”.   It targets increased brand approval from green efforts, employee health through green living, what personal actions by employees have been achieved as well as personal savings resulting from those actions. 

Level 4 is looking to the future with improved verification and real-time metric collection, innovative connections (Smart phones, social media) and engagement between employees, suppliers, customers, and the community.

No matter what size company you have or what size company you work for, there are ways to measure your sustainability efforts.  Those measurements help to show the “real” benefits of sustainability and how they help the bottom line (and social consciousness) of both the organization and the employee.

We've talked about the sea’s warming waters before.  We can look global climate change from many different perspectives, and one of those perspectives (or lens) is that no matter where you are on the Hugger-Hummer Spectrum, as a project manager, you should be looking through the “projects” lens.  So what can we learn from a  recent article from the UK.

The title of the article is “Warm water species spreading northward into British waters” from The Guardian, by Severin Carrell, Scotland Correspondent.  The gist of the article is that because of the warming ocean temperatures, certain species of fish, like the Bluefin tuna, thresher shark, and anchovy are being seen more frequently in British waters.  These are species common to southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Canary Islands, are being caught by fishermen off of southwestern England, and in some cases the North Sea. 

Commercial fishermen are catching anchovies, red mullet and sea bass in greater quantities than the traditional cod and haddock, colder water species.  Northern commercial fishermen are also targeting squid, a staple of Mediterranean restaurants.  That may sound good to those who are fishing for the species, but it will probably adversely affect existing fisheries.

Non-native species will compete with native species for limited resources.  Beside the competition, these non-native fish may introduce parasites and disease for which the native species have no resistance.  One of the projects that may arise out of this change is what Richard Benyon, UK minister for the environment, calls a “whole-seas approach.”  “If fish aren’t in certain parts of the sea, but are going elsewhere, we need to have fisheries management policies that will make sure they are more sustainable, wherever they are.”  One of the factors involved in the project planning effort is that foreign vessels will now be competing for those shifting resources in conflict with local fishermen. 

Prince Charles said that “while his international sustainability unit, a fisheries and environment thinktank funded by his charitable foundation, had established there were numerous success stories where fisheries were sustainable and secure, there were many that were not.” "Vast numbers of people around the world rely upon the sea. Their survival depends upon the ocean's capacity for renewal, which can only be maintained if we take an intelligent approach now," he told the congress.

From the article:

Farmed mussels: a study of commercial mussel farming in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland found that if water temperatures rose by 1C, production would fall by 50%, and by 70% if temperatures rose by 4C. Non-native Pacific oysters would be less affected, declining by just 8% under both scenarios, suggesting shellfish farmers could switch to that species in future.

Boarfish: since 2001, there has been a "dramatic increase" in landings of boarfish, a bony, spiney fish which is ground into fish-meal for fish farms, as it has moved into the south-west approaches and the Celtic seas due to global warming. Last year, 130,000 tonnes of boarfish were landed.

Anchovy: the salty fish better known in the Mediterranean and Bay of Biscay, are moving northwards up the Irish and British coast and now being caught at commercial levels in the Channel and North Sea as far north as the Pentland Firth. About 800 tonnes were caught in south-west England in 2011 but biologists believe they are native stocks, which have bloomed in size with warmer British waters.

Salmon farming: fish-farming cages are very vulnerable to storms, which are expected to get more violent and more frequent as climate change takes hold, presenting economic and ecological risks as they escape and inter-breed with wild salmon. Scottish farmed salmon netted £563m in 2010 but over seven years, nearly 2.2m cultivated salmon escaped after storms, with about 820,000 fish escaping during one storm alone in 2005.

Bluefin tuna: once commonly fished in the North Sea until the population collapsed in the 1960s, Atlantic bluefin tuna have slowly started reappearing in the waters off south-west England: one was caught off Dorset last July. Now critically endangered through overfishing, and a favoured target species for sea anglers, there are demands for a total ban on fishing bluefins.

See if the plight of those “sea creatures” don’t inspire some projects.