People, Planet, Profits & Projects

Even on Governor's Island, which houses both the international airport and the federal university of Rio de Janeiro, waste water pours unfiltered into the environment. The treatment plant there doesn't work either".

Step back and think about that for a moment.

Seven waste treatment plants.  Three of them work.  The four failures are attributed to "poor planning and corruption". 

In this photo taken on Friday, June 15, 2012, a pig eats from a trash-ridden creek that runs towards the conference center where the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The throngs streaming into Rio for the Earth summit may be dreaming of white-sand beaches and clear, blue waters, but what they are first likely to notice as they leave the airport is not the salty tang of ocean in the breeze, but the stench of raw sewage. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Not quite the image of Rio you expected, right?

Let's see.  Which discipline is it that creates a unique deliverable with a specified start and finsh time, applies a code of ethics and professional responsiblitiy, and gets things done?   Like, for example, say, turning over a waste treatment plant that runs properly?

I'm pretty sure you'll come up with the same answer that we did: project management.

And what is the purpose of the seven waste treatment plant projects?  To provide a more sustainable aquifer and water supply for Brazil's people.

50,000 attendees from 190 countries are seeing the results of failed projects.  Four out of seven waste treatment plants not working.  Project management - or the lack of it - right in their face.

So here is an in-your-face example of how the two concepts are sometimes quite directly related.

And 50,000 ecology-minded individuals are seeing firsthand what happens when the project management discipline isn't successful (although to be fair, we're sure that there are other disciplines who have 'helped' in these failures).

These examples of Green By Definition¹ Projects quite strikingly demonstrate the intersection of PM and sustainability.  We hope it will increase the awareness in the PM community to look for the sustainability aspects of their proejcts which likely do not have the direct environmental impact of a waste treatment plant.  And we hope also that it will reiterate the importance of providing whatever deliverable(s) your own project was meant to deliver.

¹ Green Project Management, Maltzman and Shirley 2011

The first word our blog's title is People.  And it's been said that project managers don't manage projects, they manage people - who then execute projects. 

We often focus on the other three elements (planet, profits, and projects),but this post shows that good work done in the "people" area flows easily to the other aspects of the QBL (Quadruple Bottom Line).

This post is about the Corporate Social Responsiblity (CSR) efforts of a couple of companies - about how they are initiating projects that help people.

We start with New Balance.  Ane we'd like to have you start with a look at this brief editorial from today's Boston Globe:

"Lately, the notion that commuter rail can reliably meet the needs of local employers often seems in doubt amid the MBTA’s money troubles, and efforts to promote bicycling as a serious means of commuting sound to skeptics like an urban planner’s pipe dream. Which make the role that New Balance, the local athletic-shoe maker, is playing in the local transportation landscape all the more noteworthy.

New Balance has for the last two years paid for the shoveling of the Charles River bicycle and running paths during the winter months. Last year, the company also became the corporate sponsor of the Hubway bike-sharing system. Promoting outdoor activity is good PR for a Boston-based company that makes athletic apparel. But the company’s willingness to tie its name to bicycling also has a legitimizing effect on an insurgent form of transportation.

Meanwhile, New Balance’s commitment to pay for a new rail stop near its planned mixed-use development is another significant statement. The MBTA has been under siege in recent years as its financial woes have deepened, and recently approved price hikes are bound to discourage some riders. The New Brighton Landing stop, as the facility will be known, will fill a need in an underserved neighborhood. It’s also a clear vote of confidence in the viability of the rail system.

If this is a self-interested move on New Balance’s part, well, so much the better: The company’s presumption that rail service for its employees is worth millions of its own dollars sends a strong message to everyone else."

What we see here is a company doing the right thing - funding portfolios of projects that align with its overall mission statement, and enhancing its brand name to the point where a major newspaper is effectively helping it advertise its image.  And we see that by doing the right thing, they are doing things right - one of the 5 Assertions that form the foundation of our book Green Project Management.

From New Balance's web page, here is a fairly inspirational statement:

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New Balance is aligning its strategy with its projects, and using its projects to help project its brand and stay true to its mission.  We think this is a great example, and it's reassuring to see them get some good public press from their project efforts.

That good press helps their image.  A good image drives sales - and revenues - and profits.  This builds morale.  Visibility of projects like these helps project managers with a bent for sustainability and CSR link their 'workaday" projects to the more lofty goals.  It's then up to the individual project managers to make that connection.  When companies do what New Balance is doing, it's much easier.  And it's not just consumer product companies; we've seen a similar effort from Alcatel-Lucent and its contribution with the creation of the non-profit GreenTouch consortium and their recent breakthrough in huge energy savings in the telecom/IT world with their Bit-Interleaved Passive Optical Network protocol.  Visible programs such as those by Alcatel-Lucent and New Balance help the project manager who is working on a new optical product release, or a new atheletic shoe, connect their project's 'sustainability goals' to corporate goals.

Take a lesson from these companies.  If you're a corporate executive, note the good press they're getting, sense the way it makes their employees (including project managers) feel.  If you're a project manager, find out what similar efforts your company has undertaken.  Use them as inspirations for your projects and use them to help demonstrate why you are 'psyched' about sustaianbility elements in your project, and how they go do indeed serve but also go beyond altruism; it really is about People, Planet, Profits, and Projects.

While being a local story to those of us in Maine, it really has been and is a national story about projects that are green by intent.  This project in particular, and the other projects both locally and nationally, is also about the triple bottom line, people, planet (and fish) and profits.

It is about removing a dam on Maine’s longest river, the Penobscot, to allow “endangered and dwindling species to return to their historic spawning grounds.”  When the project is completed, approximately 1,000 miles of habitat will be accessible for spawning for species like the Atlantic salmon and the short-nosed sturgeon.  This project is unique in another way because the direct stakeholders include the Penobscot Indian Tribe, state, local and non-profit entities like the “Penobscot River Restoration Trust, which bought the dams for $24 million two years ago and is overseeing their demolition.” 

From the article on Boston Globe.com: “Like other rivers in the region, such as the Kennebec, Androscoggin, Merrimack, and Connecticut, the Penobscot had massive fish runs until the early 1800s, when the nation began installing dams and log drives, mill waste, and other pollution began making many rivers into the equivalent of industrial dumps. There were as many as 100,000 salmon, 6 million American shad, and some 20 million river herring that migrated every year from the ocean to well north of Bradley to spawn.

There are now fewer than 1 percent that many fish of most of the 11 species that inhabit these waters, with less than 500 salmon counted this year, environmental advocates say. Most were bred in a hatchery. For years, the advocates prodded dam owners to build better fish ladders to allow the salmon to cross safely. But they found improved fish ladders didn’t do enough. The only answer, they decided, was to remove the three dams in the river’s lower 10 miles.

The salmon population is now on life support, and it’s a miracle that we’re still finding all species that historically inhabited the river,’’ said Andy Goode, vice president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation in Brunswick, noting that many salmon die while trying to pass through the dams. “We think this is the last best chance to save the Atlantic salmon from extinction. They’ve already been lost on many other rivers.’’

Like other rivers in the region, such as the Kennebec, Androscoggin, Merrimack, and Connecticut, the Penobscot had massive fish runs until the early 1800s, when the nation began installing dams and log drives, mill waste, and other pollution began making many rivers into the equivalent of industrial dumps. There were as many as 100,000 salmon, 6 million American shad, and some 20 million river herring that migrated every year from the ocean to well north of Bradley to spawn.

There are now fewer than 1 percent that many fish of most of the 11 species that inhabit these waters, with less than 500 salmon counted this year, environmental advocates say. Most were bred in a hatchery. For years, the advocates prodded dam owners to build better fish ladders to allow the salmon to cross safely. But they found improved fish ladders didn’t do enough. The only answer, they decided, was to remove the three dams in the river’s lower 10 miles.”

So that is the planet piece, but what about the “people and profit” pieces?  Well, I am glad you asked.  “The project, estimated to cost $62 million, will allow six other dams that will remain on the Penobscot and its tributaries to produce more electricity. Together, they will generate an estimated 50 megawatts of power, enough for about 25,000 homes.”  That is the profit piece and "Among the beneficiaries are members of Penobscot Nation, which has a reservation on an island in the middle of the river near the Milford Dam. The historic fish runs long had cultural and nutritional importance for the tribe. “This watershed has provided the means for survival for tribal members for thousands of years,’’ said John Banks, the tribe’s natural resources director. “We feel this project is somewhat precedent-setting in that it brings folks together from diverse backgrounds and interests to restore the ecological values of this river, while maintaining generating capacity. So it’s really a win-win for everybody.’’”

Projects that are “win-win” have a much better chance of meeting or exceeding stakeholder expectations, and that works for projects with the element of sustainability especially well.  To read the entire article please go to here.

Yeah, okay, okay, so it's Rhode Island.  Still, Today's Boston Globe is reporting that ten developers are lined up to potentially build what would be a wind energy area larger than the US State of Rhode Island.

We blog about this for two main reasons.

1. This is huge.  Literally.  Many project managers may gain employment from the project as it is conceived and built.

2. The connection to PM planning - especially in light of the Cape Wind project and its delays, this is huge. Figuratively.

Number 1 above is so obvious, given the cpacity of 4 Gigawatts of power, that we'll leave that to your imagination.

Here is what we do not want to leave to your imagination: the importance of stakeholder management and its deep connection to project risk identification, analysis, and response.  See, you thought this post was going to be all about renewable energy and Mother Earth, and butterflies and unicorns, didn't you?  But there are hardcore PM lessons to be learned in the area of sustainability and PM, and many of them are in play based on this article alone.

Here is an introductory snippet from the article:

"The wind farms would be built in an expanse of federal waters larger than Rhode Island, about 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and identified by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as an ideal place for such development. After more than two years of talks with local and state officials, environmentalists, fishermen, and tribal leaders..."

You see?  The tribal leaders were included up front, as were environmentalists and the fishing industry.  This was not the case with Cape Wind.

Here is another piece:

Developers say wind energy areas will also be the proving ground for the next generation of wind turbines, each capable of generating 5- to 7-megawatts worth of power and being located far enough offshore so they would not be visible to many people. The prospect of turbine towers visible to Cape Cod landowners sparked much of the opposition to Cape Wind.

Our favorite overall quote is here - indicating the benefit of long-term thinking when identifying risk and stakeholders, and how the two go hand-in-hand:

“The federal government is working with the state to try and ensure that by investing a lot of their energy on the front end, it will be easier for a company to take a project through the permitting and approval process".

What they are saying is that by doing a thorough job of identifying a wide variety of stakeholders, and through that expanded list of stakeholders fully and deeply identifying their areas of concern, we have a more intelligenlty articulated set of risks (both threats and opportunities) that we can analyze and respond to properly, rather than uncover haphazardly as we start (trying to do) the construction of the project.

Note the comments from Tommy Beaudreau, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management:

"one of the main goals of designating the wind energy areas is to streamline the approval process for offshore wind projects".

Beaudreau’s agency was particularly deliberate in determining the wind energy area off Massachusetts in an effort to minimize conflicts like those experienced by Cape Wind, which faced a decade of opposition and legal fights before winning federal and state approval in 2010. The project still faces appeals.

“It’s really about trying to design or make available areas up front that have buy-in from the states and communities,’’ Beaudreau said. “There are a lot of takeaways from Cape Wind.’’

We're sure you read that like we did.  Takeaways = Lessons Learned.  Do a better job of stakeholder identification.  This will enable you to do an exponentially better job of risk identification, which will yield a significantly better job of risk analysis and response.  And what that means is that the project - whether it be something as important as this and as large as a US state - or a new deck for your back yard, has a much better chance of getting done, and getting done properly.

In our book, Green Project Management, we included an entire chapter on life-cycle assessment (LCA).  As a matter of fact, we went even further to work with Dr. Mary Ann Curran, the director of the US EPA’s LCA research program at the National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio.  And, Dr. Curran wrote the foreword to our book.  That’s how important we believe the connection between LCA and sustainability. 

 Recently we read an interesting article about the efforts of Levi Strauss & Company to take that next step and develop their own LCA tools, to better measure their unique inputs, outputs and to better understand and track the impacts of products from the design stage to end-of-life.  “Levi’s is working to take LCA out of the sustainability silo and into the design room. The company's clothing designers are using its Evaluate tool on a daily basis to make decisions about things like fabric choices, washes and dyes.”

They are using their tool “Evaluate to reach down to the material level to assess the impacts of various components” to be able to make informed decisions.  Levi designers are evaluating fabric sustainability early in the process to be able to make choices prior to the design process.  According to Paul Dillinger, senior director of global design for Levi's Dockers brand, “Now we have 16 core fabrics we'll put through the tool to further hone the assortment -- so all that information will be available to us prior to the design process. Rather than audit our choices later, this gives us a chance to start off with the right fabrics."  As we have always said, like quality, greenality needs to be planned in, not inspected in.

 Levi’s is not unique, other companies like Canon, Kraft and Mazda are also doing work in the LCA arena prior to product design.  In our book, we used Proctor and Gamble as an example of a company using LCA tools to view their products holistically.  Nike is another company who is using, and has been using for a while, LCA in the apparel industry.  When you look at Kraft – food industry, Levis and Nike – apparel industry, and P&G in the consumer goods industry, the use of these tools is wide-spread and pervasive, a good thing. 

 Chapter 10 of our book is about waste reduction and our 4-Ls, Lean, Learn, Linked and Lasting.  The aforementioned companies make the same connections we do, between LCA and the 4-Ls.  They are approaching sustainability in a holistic way, considering their entire footprint.  One example of this approach is Levi’s use of “Waterless Jeans” process.    According to the company it has saved 172 million gallons of water since introducing the process in 2010. 

 We certainly are encouraged with these holistic, LCA, approaches to sustainability.  These are all projects and the more familiar today’s project manager is with these processes the better.  We believe that Green Project Management is the future and we, as PM ourselves, want to be on the leading edge of it.