People, Planet, Profits & Projects

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.

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.

The year: 413 BC.

A fleet of Athenian vessels forms a blockade at Syracuse.  It's critical that they have the light of the moon to work and patrol.  One fateful night however, there is a full lunar eclipse and half of the huge 130-ship fleet is destroyed by the Spartans.

The Greeks realized that knowing when eclipses were coming... well, that just might be important. 

Flash forward to 1901.  A sponge diver discovers a wreckage of a Roman ship which clearly was full of Greek artefacts when it sunk, at some point probably around 65 BC.  Amongst the items in the wreckage is a small, laptop-PC sized chunk of corroded bronze metal which clearly is composed of gears.  Lots of gears.  Lots of very small, intricate gears that until that time, nobody thought the Ancient Greeks were capable of making.  Some of these gears even had pin and slot and other sophisticated mechanical 'tricks' to account for the eliptical and changeable orbit of the moon.  It's really quite an amazing device.

What drove them to invent this device, called the Antrikythera Mechanism, was a need for long-term planning.  Turns out that this device was actually a sort of astronomical clock/computer which could forecast not only the timing of the eclipses (both solar and lunar) but even the colors and directions of shadow which would be seen on them.  Pretty amazing stuff.

If you are interested in this story and the Antikythera Mechanism itself we strongly encourage you to watch this video and perhaps the entire episode of NOVA which covers the story (it's called 'Ancient Computer').  You may also like this video:

Our points here are simply these:

• Necessity is the mother of invention... and disaster is the grandmother of invention
  • (In a related but little-known sub-theory from project management, scope creep is the 3rd cousin of invention, and contingency reserves are the crazy uncle of invention, but it turns out that the risk register is only a close friend)
• The need to think long-term can be driven by disaster (such as melting ice caps, increasingly intense weather patterns, and so on) but it's better if it becomes routine and integrated into planning
• Project managers - driven by the constraints of time, resources and meeting the immediate scope or their projects - are not prone to integrate long-term thinking into their projects

Taken together, the Antikythera Mechanism can serve as a symbol for you and your project.  Did you think about the kinds of things that happen when your project is in its steady state?  Have you thought at all about the product of your project while it is in operation?  And - perish the thought - have you considered what happens to the product of your project when it is disposed of? 

All of those should not be 'Greek to you'.  We assert that they should be fundamentally part of your project planning process.

So - go out there and "gear up" for long-term thinking.

 Stay tuned here and also visit EarthPM for more posts like this.

Our little company is called EarthPM.  It's named that way so that it's clear that we are about the intersection of project management and sustainability, but also with the intended double-meaning that we are here for the project managers of our rock - the third rock from the sun - Earth.

So why the heck are you looking at a Mars bar? 

Well, we wanted to familiarize you - or perhaps refamiliarize you - with the concept from our book called "A Rainbow of Green".  The idea (although you need to read the book to fully understand) is that projects which are focused directly on sustainability - that is, those whose project product is a reduced impact on the environment or an improvement in CSR metrics, for example, are on the "green by definition" end of the spectrum, and that new Release 8.3.4.3.6b of your company's accounting software would be on the other end of this spectrum.

At a meeting of our local sustainability professionals tonight, the meeting, which took place at local non-profit consulting firm FSG, was kicked off by Special Projects Coordinator Mary Light, who gave us an example of one of their projects - one which involved the Mars Company.

To quote from FSG's web page:

"70% of the world’s cocoa supply originates in West Africa with Côte d’Ivoire as the world’s largest producer. Cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire is grown by more than 700,000 small holders who farm, on average, approximately 3 hectares each. Production volumes and quality have been constantly declining over the last decades due to a multitude of economic, social, and environmental challenges. The underlying problems include: fluctuating weather patterns, low incomes, weak rural infrastructure, lack of improved planting material, aging farms, loss of biodiversity leading to exposure to pests and diseases, deforestation, and declining soil fertility. Without urgent action to address these challenges, the cocoa sector faces the risk of collapse."

That is the challenge.  To address it, the project put in place is described this way:

"The analysis revealed a high potential for shared value creation — Investing in a comprehensive sustainability program in Côte d’Ivoire will help ensure the long-term success of Mars’ chocolate business and at the same time improve economic, environmental, and social conditions in cocoa-growing communities. The goals of the “Vision for Change” program in Côte d’Ivoire thus address all three levels of sustainability including:

1. Economic: Improve Farmer Incomes. Helping farmers to make their farms more productive and to increase the quality of their crops will improve their income and allow them to better cover their family’s needs and reinvest into their farms.
2. Environmental: Improve Environmental Management. Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) will increase soil fertility, and more productive farms should reduce expansion of cocoa farming into protected forest areas.
3. Social: Invigorate Rural Communities. Empowering local communities will lead to improved living standards in cocoa-growing communities.

Mars understood early on that the challenges within the Ivorian cocoa sector are too complex to be tackled by Mars alone. The “Vision for Change” initiative for Côte d’Ivoire outlines a multi-stakeholder Collective Impact approach, combining pre-competitive public goods investments with supply-chain investments. Mars has proactively engaged with other interested stakeholders and sector investors including the Ivorian government, national institutions, the World Bank, bilateral donors, commercial suppliers, certifiers, and NGOs. FSG has facilitated a partnership between Mars and the Ivorian government, national agricultural institutions, and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). In March 2010, Mars and the government of Côte d’Ivoire signed an MOU as the basis for future collaboration.

Most recently, FSG has been assisting with the implementation planning of the “Vision for Change” program including developing action plans, orchestrating and facilitating meetings and communication among existing and potential partners, and providing continued strategic advice to Mars as the catalyst of this Collective Impact initiative."

This is about as far to the "Green By Definition" side of the spectrum as you can be, and still be on Earth.  And in fact, maybe it's not so coincidental that it's the Mars company that's doing it.  But we jest - the idea is that more and more of these proejcts need to be launched, and even better, managed by project managers with an improved sense of, and understanding of sustainability issues.

We encourage you to read more about the efforts of Mars, by following this choclatey link....

And, of course, we encourage you to read more about this in our book and by following us on Twitter and EarthPM's own blog.  Thanks!

...but perhaps not for long.

At least...not without the help of many water-related projects and project managers with sustainability awareness in their arsenal of talents.  Read on - you will find that as a project manager, you may be a strategic asset!

According to a U.S. State Department document released on World Water Day last year, the need for fresh water will exceed the supply by 40 percent by the year 2030.

The document contains this interesting graphic, so if you learn nothing else from this post, here is one takeway with the latest facts:

From this, we see that only 2.5% of the world's water is fresh water.  And in turn, that is used for all of the items shown on the right part of the chart - agricultural, industrial, residential.

All of this points to shortages that concern us not only from an (important) ecological and business perspective but even as a security issue for the US.

Quoting from the document:

We assess that during the next 10 years,

"Water problems will contribute to instability in states important to US national security interests. Water shortages, poor water quality, and floods by themselves are unlikely to result in state failure. However, water problems—when combined with poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weak political institutions—contribute to social disruptions that can result in state failure."

In other words, it can bring down whole governments.

Back to the U.S. State department report.  As a project manager, ever felt "strategic"?  Well, perhaps you should.  Here's a gem for you:

"we assess that states will also use their inherent ability to construct and support major water projects to obtain regional influence or preserve their water interests.". 

Where does that 'inherent ability to construct and support major water projects" come from?  Well of course, partially from the natural resouces of the state, but also, from....YOU.  You - as a PM - are part of the states' ability to support the projects.  So congratulations on your newfound strategic value!

Read more here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/03/22/world-water-day-a-forceful-reminder-that-the-u-s-is-running-out-of-fresh-water/