Project managers are a pragmatic lot. That’s what we really like about them. They are always looking for the “facts”, the bottom-line, and no BS. Whether we are consulting, networking, giving a seminar or teaching a class in sustainability, one of the most often asked questions is “What is the end game for project sustainability?” In other words, what are we trying to accomplish at the intersection of green (sustainable) business practices and project management. After all, that is where Rich and I live. 
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Told you a THOUSAND times...
Categories:
Leadership
Categories: Leadership
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We all have probably heard that phrase - "I told you a thousand times", from our sons, daughters, moms, dads, spouses, nurses, doctors, customers, bosses, and so on. Above, you see an old 45rpm record label with the title, "I've Changed My Mind A Thousand Times". So it seems like a bad thing... But in this case - it's a good thing. The 1000 times we're talking of is a 1000x reduction in energy use by the telecom industry. Yes - a one thousand times reduction. GreenTouch, a non-profit consortium of companies (see http://www.greentouch.org ) which are normally compeitiors and customers and suppliers of each other, have collaborated on several key energy saving schemes since its inception in 2010. We blogged about this on our EarthPM site. This story, posted just a few days ago, gives a great update in detail. To save you some time, we're just going to point you to a short video that sort of says it all. After watching it, we'll give you the connection(s) to project management, which you've probably already made.
Our favorite quotes: "Anything that is not green does not belong to the future" "new projects - ongoing....starting... it could be the blueprint of what R&D means to society" "give yourself the freedom to think differently" The project connections are obvious:
Once again - opportunity is knocking. If you are in the ICT industry, it's wise to become conversant in the language not only of bits, bytes, lasers, radio... but also the language of sustainability. |
End Game
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We know what our end game is. It is not about another certification, the addition of more alphabet soup. Sometimes we wonder how some people fit all that on their business card. And that’s okay! The most important thing to us is that the “alphabet soup” represents learning, or at least we hope it does. That’s our end game, education and the meshing or smashing of sustainability and project management together. For those of you who have seen our webinars or read our book know that we coined word “greenality”, the smashing of green and quality together. We also have a set of assertions that smash project management and sustainability together: (1) Doing the right thing helps the project team do the right thing, (2) Green PM helps better equip the team respond to project risks, (3) Green PM helps the project and the product of the project, (4) An environmental lens is a necessary part of a PM’s toolbox, and (5) Greenality, like quality, must be planned in, not bolted on. No matter what the book you read, course or webinar you take, you’ll see that those basics assertions reflected somewhere. While all of these assertions are important, for the purposes of this discussion, “Greenality, like quality, must be planned in, not bolted on,” is the key. It is not complicated (as the AT&T commercial says). We advocate that it is critical not to consider Green Project Management as a separate entity. Don’t “bolt it on.” We get concerned that in an effort to differentiate the various efforts out there to provide courses and/or “certifications”, this concept is lost. We’ve always advocated that Green Project Management should be a part of project management, not separated from it. The “environmental lens” becomes a part of the PM toolbox, like the communications lens or quality lens we PMs are always considering. Green PM becomes second nature. Does some sort of sustainability credential help? It doesn’t hurt? Is it needed? It probably is not as long as the project manager has a basic knowledge and understanding of the language and conditions of sustainability. Those can be found in the various books on the subject. “The proof is in the pudding,” so to speak. It is a logical approach to utilize the learning’s of sustainability in the project managers’ everyday life, so that the project team does the right thing, responds to the projects sustainability risks (both opportunities and threats), and help the project and the product of the project be more sustainable. When that is accomplished, the end game is near! Note: The words Green Project Management or Green PM are used in reference to our book, Green Project Management, (C) CRC Press, 2010. |
Geothermally speaking
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A story in this month's PM Network magazine, "Geothermal Energy is Hot in Iceland", provides a good example of the complexities involved in any energy project. But in particular, it points us to the core PM skills that a PM working in the area of sustainability must have. Something that seems so intuitively green - drawing from already-present energy within the Earth to drive turbines and generate electricity with a minimum of carbon footprint - is not as straightforward as it seems. First a little background. Geothermal power projects are increasing. Going back to 2010 - a whole 3 years ago - we find only 26 countries with geothermal developments. Now in 2013 (and we're less than halfway through) there are 64 countries with 567 geothermal projects in progress or in operation worldwide. We suggest that you have a look at the entire article for the rationale to further develop the geothermal power grid in Iceland but it involves a massive undersea cable that would run from Iceland to Scotland and then to continental Europe. And it's part of an overall effort to meet the EU's mandatory agreement to get to at least 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2020. What's interesting to us is the assemblage of stakeholders that have to be satisfied for this proejct to get underway. You've already read here - and hopefully will read more - about the motivation and the EU governmental stakeholders. Obviously, electric power rate payers are stakeholders as is the Icelandic government. But also in the mix is a non-profit Invest in Iceland group, promoting the project. But there is also a consortium of 11 national environmental groups who warn that the profit margin could drive the project to have enormous environmental impact due to the actual construction of the power plants themselves as well as the overhead power lines. They also warn that geothermal drilling that gets too 'aggressive' could actually remove geothermal from the list of renewable sources of power (because in their eyes it becomes akin to mining). A lot is at stake here. This is a project requiring an initial investment of over US$2B. So our point is that whatever the project, stakeholder identification and management is critical. As we know, PMI has now devoted an entire Knowledge Area - ironically, Chapter 13 - to look at the unlucky combinations of project stakeholders with whom we have to work. Even green projects which appear on the surface (or in this case way BELOW the surface) to be obvious 'slam dunk' projects which should be green lit, deserve a sophisticated and thorough stakehholder analysis. So it pays to drill down. And the pun is intentional. |
Wait! They validated the steady-state. It's great, mate!
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Here is a short blog post just to point out sometihing of interest to those most focused PMs - the ones who read the PMBOK(R) Guide. The 5th Edition of this guide has been out for a little while now, and the new PMP(R) exam based on this version will begin starting on 1-August 2013. As some of our readers will know, we worked with a "crowd" of about 200 other PMPs to 'crowdsource' 18 changes to the PMBOK(R) Guide. Most of these changes were 'deferred' to the 6th Edition, one was accepted after an appeal process. In other words, most of our ideas to integrate sustainability into the PMBOK Guide did not get in this version. However, as we study the guide further, we noticed that - whether we had anything to do with it is up for debate - but we noticed that one process name changed along the lines of our suggestions. To quote PMI: "The Verify Scope process was renamed to Validate Scope and the text was reworked to add emphasis that this process is not solely about accepting deliverables but validating that the deliverables will deliver value to the business and confirms that the deliverables, as provided, will fulfill the project objectives, as well as their intended use to the project stakeholders."
There are some pretty key words in there. First of all, the main word - "validate'. We are constantly preaching about the need for the PM to be connected to the organization's mission, vision, and values. Well - the word validate, at least as we see it, is an affirmation that we don't just veirify scope, we test it against the project's, and as PMI says, the connection to the 'value to the business' and (shudder) 'intended use'. Do they mean 'long term' use? Well, they don't say so explicitly, but they do say "use'. And use refers to the steady state, to operations. And that's a major message of our book. We don't care how it got in there. It got in there. And that's what we call valid. |
Sing of Songdo and Sustainability (Part 1)
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Serendipity? Maple sugaring is big here in New England. For the past several years my wife and I have been invited to a small farm in the local area to witness, and at times feed logs into the fire, the cooking down of maple tree sap into that golden nectar we love so much called maple syrup. It is also a Rite of Spring, although spring may have a different meaning in New England than it has in other parts of the country. It could be 70 degrees and sunny, but most likely it is cooler than that and sometimes with a snow flurry or two thrown in. But that is New England! So getting to my point, at this year’s event, I met a woman (serendipitous) who heads a public relations firm whose client is the Songdo International Business District (IBD), located on 1,500 acres of reclaimed land along the Yellow Sea in Incheon, South Korea (above is an aerial view of Songdo IBD). Songdo IBD, thought to be one of the largest public/private real estate ventures in the world, will include forty million square feet of office space, thirty-five million square feet of residential space, ten million square feet of retail, five million square feet of hotel space and ten million square feet of public space. When completed in 2017, Songdo IBD will be home to 65,000 residents and 300,000 people will commute in daily. Currently, 22,000 people reside in Songdo IBD and by year-end that number will grow to more than 27,000. More than 25,000 people now work in Songdo IBD. I invite you to take a look at their website http://www.songdo.com/default.aspx. Songdo is a model for sustainable city-scale development project as it is one of Asia’s largest green developments. Heading the firm providing the public relations for Songdo, not only did May Lou provide me with information about Songdo (tremendous high-res pictures), but she is also a wealth of information on sustainability and the entire project/product life cycle. I intend to share some of that with you over a couple of posts. It is obviously way too much information to share in one post. Why should we be interested? Because it is one of the largest sustainablity projects I have ever run into. It is a massive undertaking within the shadow of North Korea. One aspect of the project is the commitment to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design www.usgbc.org/leed). Songdo is considered a world leader in this aspect for the design, construction and operation of green buildings, quite a project. To date, Songdo IBD has more that 13.7 million square feet of LEED-certified space in the first LEED-certified exhibit hall in Asia (Convensia Convention Center), the first LEED-certified residential tower in Korea (Central Park I), the first LEED-certified hotel in Korea (Sheraton Incheon) and the first LEED-certified School in Korea (Chadwick International School). More than 50% of Songdo IBD is complete including such core components as the Convensia Convention Center; the Sheraton Incheon; the 100-acre Central Park; numerous residential, commercial and retail projects; Chadwick International School; and the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, which hosted the PGA Champions Tour for the second consecutive year in September, 2011. The iconic 68-story Northeast Asia Trade Tower (NEATT), which will be South Korea’s tallest building is scheduled for completion in 2014. Lotte Shopping Town and an E-LAND mall will together create Korea's largest complex commercial district, and Songdo's planned IFEZ Incheon Arts Center will be one of the country's most sophisticated cultural centers. In future posts, we will look at some more sustainability specifics of Songdo. In the meantime, I continue to “sing” its praises. Pictured below is the Convensia Convention Center. (all picture used with permission) 
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