Sustainable project management

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Contents

Introduction

One of the greatest and most far-reaching challenges of our time is to ensure that the impact of human activity on the planet is becoming more sustainable to enable future generations, wildlife, and nature to thrive and sustain itself. We, as humans, are still facing social inequality, poverty, and hunger while we are deteriorating nature, wildlife, and the planet itself with our immense impact and footprint. Sustainable action and mindset have for many become the most important agenda. A developing approach companies use to address the implementation of sustainability in their processes is sustainable project management.

The UN Sustainability Goals has since 2015 put sustainability on the world agenda, but also agreements like the Paris Agreement show that there is a political consensus towards a more sustainable world. Companies all over the world are realizing that they also need to take action to support these goals. The customers of companies are starting to expect sustainable action while directives and legislation like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Standards (CSRD) dictate companies to report their sustainable actions. Furthermore, companies are also realizing that future economic profit is tightly connected to a more sustainable world and that sustainability can actually become a profitable business.

Several different approaches can be taken to implement sustainability in a company from top management to local initiatives at the employee level. Sustainable Project management can help execute and communicate a systematized inclusion of sustainability into projects that put action behind sustainability strategies and proactively suggest a mindset and work approach.

This article starts with an overview of sustainable project management and the role of the project manager. Along this, the topic is compared to the more traditional view of project management while briefly describing how it coheres with program and portfolio management. The article continues with an overview of how to apply and implement sustainable project management in an organization or company. Finally, the article reflects on the benefits, challenges, and limitations of sustainable project management.

What is Sustainable Project Management

Figure 1: A view of the approaches used in sustainable project management compared to traditional project management, adapted from: [1]


As an independent field, sustainable project management is rather young, but it is developed and based on a merge of the commonly known and older principles of 1) sustainability (environmental, social, and economical) and 2) project management[2].:

  1. The sustainable development area (focusing on SDGs etc.): The area was originally idealistic but when formalized with goals and pragmatism, saw the need for project management inclusion and continuity towards the goals. This use of project management as a means to solve sustainability issues is often referred to as "Management of sustainable development projects."
  2. Classical project management of sustainability projects: With an increasing focus on sustainability, companies initiated projects towards sustainability often referred to as "Management of green projects." Sometimes there has also been a focus on a sustainable process more than the project outcome referred to as "Sustainable management of projects."


These two areas have merged into what today is known as Sustainable Project Management, where the project itself, is the road towards sustainability. An important part of sustainable project management is that it proposes that sustainability considerations and implementation are equally important in the project process and outcome. [3] [2]. As stated by The Green Project Management (GPM)[4]:

"Sustainable Project Management is the application of methods, tools, and techniques to achieve a stated objective while considering the project outcome's entire lifecycle to ensure a net positive environmental, social, and economic impact."

While traditional project management focuses on the cost, time, and scope as the triple constraint for the success of the project, sustainable project management takes a more holistic approach by incorporating sustainability as an equally critical component of success. It combines the project success, goals of the organization, sustainability, and prosperity of nature and people into a homogenous and self-reinforcing goal that is supported through the use of tools, methods, planning, and project management practices. Studies have furthermore shown that the inclusion and application of sustainable project management has a high risk of leading to more and unseen project success. [5]


The project managers role

The sustainability challenge is often mentioned to be approachable from either a top-down (strategies, legislation, etc.) or a bottom-up approach (initiatives from individuals), and both approaches are needed for successful and impactful implementation that result in actual sustainable solutions [6]. This also applies to companies and organizations, for example, a production company that delivers products to its customers.[7] The first, the top-down management approach with the implementation of strategies that dictates sustainability as a company agenda. This can include tangible goal setting, the development of Environmental Performance Indicators (EPIs) for benchmarking the progress, and specific strategies to follow. Secondly, it can come from the bottom-up approach in a specific area of the value chain, eg. using eco-design practices in product development or in general using specialist knowledge to optimize or innovate a given area. Both approaches will be needed for companies to obtain incremental, but also larger and more systemic changes, towards sustainability in their operations and innovations.[7]

The project manager offers the possibility to combine and align both approaches. A sustainable project management approach can facilitate and govern top-down strategies while also systematizing and replicating and sharing bottom-up practices. Sustainable project management can be the link between the approaches, and a key driver for sustainability communication, implementation, and operation in the company. By implementing the approach of sustainable project management, the purpose aspect of the project itself expands to include more than just the ordinary project success criteria, but now also includes the triple bottom line of environmental, social, and economic sustainability for the company and its surroundings.

Many companies have a CSR officer or some sort of sustainability manager. They are often responsible for reporting on sustainability and supporting organization transparency while also having a key role in the development of the company's sustainability strategy and target setting. A sustainable project manager supports the implementation of sustainability across the value chain since they are able to speak the language of the CSR officer, whereas traditional project managers and CSR officers often suffer from miscommunication and a lack of understanding of each other's roles and importance. [2]

Benefits of sustainability in project management

Sustainable project management incorporates the classical project management idea of success but does not do on the expense of the planet or other people. The goal of sustainable project management is to support long-term goals that support the planet and sustainable and shared prosperity. Doing this has many benefits. Of course, the most apparent benefit of sustainable project management is that it supports above said things, thereby supporting a sustainable world, however, it also comes with huge benefits for the individual company or organization practicing it. Firstly, it can be economically beneficial, since reduced energy and resource consumption, reduced waste, leaner production, and use of renewable energy will also lead to cost reductions, just to mention a few. Sustainable project management supports the consideration of these aspects and ensures that it is utilized during all project phases. Secondly, if communicated truthfully and properly, it can lead to increased reputation, company image, and customer loyalty, which further can lead to increased market share. It has also been seen that there is an increased interest in sustainable stocks. Thirdly, it mitigates and helps reduce risk. Being dependent on fossil resources and only focusing on the short term is an enormous future business risk, due to the risk of higher prices, resource scarcity, new legislation, etc. By taking a proactive approach, the projects become adaptable and resilient to change. Many companies take a proactive approach to be ahead of the risk and upcoming legislation, instead of falling behind and only realizing the need for change too late. Fourthly, projects being performed with a holistic sustainable approach tends to increase community engagement and thereby resolve in outputs that benefit locals and are done with their insights and favor. It can be difficult and complex to work with sustainability but when done properly it will result in several measurable but also some less evident or maybe even unintended benefits.[8] [9]

Application of Sustainable Project Management

The Green Project Management (GPM) is a social enterprise and the main driver of sustainable project management tools, methods, and standards. [10] GPM have created the PRiSM methodology for application of sustainable project management fully compatible with acknowledged project management standards as the ISO 21500, ISO 14001, ISO 26000, ISO 50001, and ISO 900. The foundation of this methodology is based on the GPM standard, the P5: People, Planet, Prosperity, Process, and Products.[11] . The P5 is a tool for aligning traditional project, program, and portfolio management with organizational sustainability strategies. It supports that both project processes and deliveries result in a net positive environmental and social impact while also delivering organizational and local prosperity. [4]

PRiSM

Projects integrating Sustainable Methods (PRiSM) is based on a project lifecycle perspective that includes several steps and tools to use during the different phases of a project. The phases are:

Figure 2: The PRiSM Phases or Project Lifecycle, adapted from the GPM Reference Guide [4]
  • Pre-Project Phase: Where the project objectives are determined, a high-level business case is developed, the project team is selected, and initiation is authorized.
  • Discovery Phase: Where the gathering of solution requirements and requirements for the next phases are determined. GPM suggests creating a Requirements Document, which includes sustainability, user, functional, non-functional, and implementation requirements. This document should help stakeholders understand what needs to be done but not how it should be done. The discovery Phase is also the first where the P5 is used in a P5 Impact Analysis (P5IA). In this phase, the first draft of the Sustainable Management Plan (SMP) is developed. This will be further explained later.
  • Design Phase(s): Where the solution is developed, the business case and Sustainable Management Plan are updated and acceptance criteria are defined. Initially, this phase is started by creating a design document (brief) that suggests how the deliverable should be achieved. This phase might need several iterations. P5IA is also performed.
  • Delivery Phase(s): Where the solution, that hopefully achieves the outcomes and benefits intended, is delivered. This phase might need several iterations. P5IA is also performed, and the business case and SMP are updated
  • Closure Phases: Where the handover of the delivery is coordinated and where sustainability information for materiality reporting is done. Afterward, the project team is dismantled and the project benefits are realized.

At every phase, it is evaluated if the project and its business case are still feasible and if it should continue. If it goes on, the next phase is planned. Now, a few methods that support sustainable project management and the entire framework of PRiSM will be elaborated on.

Figure 3: The P5 Impact Analysis Canvas. An extraction from a case, adapted from the GPM Reference Guide [4]


P5 Impact Analysis

The P5 Impact Analysis is based on the GPM® P5™ Standard for Sustainability in Project Management which gives an inventory of sustainability topics to consider. The P5 Impact Analysis is best performed in the project team, with relevant stakeholders in a workshop to support the highest level of awareness and understanding. It is suggested to do it as a visual canvas that ongoingly can be used and revisited during the project process.

The P5 Impact Analysis addresses all possible impact aspects of sustainability; Social, Environmental, and Economic. Every potential impact is categorized within the P5, which includes that it gets labeled with a sub-category within one of the sustainability aspects, and then further gets an element-label. They are also classified as being either product or process related (or both). This is simply done by following the framework of the P5. The rest of the analysis includes a deeper description of the context and what this exact possible impact relates to in the given case. Lastly, proposed actions to deal with this impact are suggested. There can be several suggestions for each possible impact. All suggestions get an impact score that goes from -3 to +3, indicating how well the proposed action handles the possible impact. An example of such a canvas can be seen in figure 3. This is based on an extraction from a case of a construction project. [4][12]

After the canvas has been created, several different proposed actions are suggested with an adhering impact score. The proposal can be grouped and displayed in a chart based on the average values of the impact scores across each sub-category. This can hopefully help the project team make the best sustainable decisions on what paths and proposals to follow.

Sustainability Management Plan (SMP)

GPM and others describe how it is essential to create a Sustainability Management Plan, but only very briefly discuss how it can be performed. Due to the lack of guidance to create this SMP, a method and tool called the Sustainable Project Management Canvas was created. It was created based on other Project Management tools and methodologies and intends to give a practical tool that supports the development of an SMP. It's constructed of three parts:

  • Part A: Sustainable Development Concepts
  • Part B: Sustainability Indicators
  • Part C: The project management placeholder and key questions.

The final form of the Sustainable Project Management Canvas is as the name implies a comprehensive visual canvas. Like the more traditional business model canvas it includes many project-related elements, like stakeholders, goals, benefits, risk, etc. but as the fundamental change, the different elements of sustainability are included as a fundamental and unavoidable part. It is suggested that the SMP is developed with the proper stakeholders in a workshop and that it is continually reevaluated and iterated on.[13]

Other relevant methodology outside PRiSM

Through in-depth analysis of state-of-the-art literature, other different methods and tools regarding the implementation of sustainability in project management have been found. In most cases, they are based on already acknowledged and standardized methodologies within the field of project, program, and portfolio management, with the inclusion of sustainability in the process and success criteria. Some examples can be seen below, but will not be further investigated in this article[13][10]:

  • Sustainable Prince2
  • Sustainable GWW
  • Healthy Maturity Assessment Model
  • Project Management Maturity Model SPM3

Limitations & Challenges

Sustainable project management is a tool for implementing sustainability in a systematic way into projects, but cannot alone promise absolute sustainability. It can be challenged by several factors reducing its impact and it also has its natural limitations.

Sustainability projects tend to have an even higher complexity since there are many things to satisfy. For example, a decision might solve the project goal to some extent and support an aspect of environmental sustainability but then indirectly harm an aspect of social sustainability. This makes decisions extremely complex and complicated, and they need to be based on a well-informed and considered background. This, of course, the project manager cannot do alone. Project managers are not supposed to be experts. [14] Therefore another challenge project teams could be facing, is actually establishing the needed project team to manage the complexity with the right sustainability expertise and competencies. For example, if the team wants to document or state that the project is more sustainable than alternatives, then it needs to be measurable in some sort of way, which to some extent demands a data-driven approach. This is actually also one of the general challenges with sustainability, that some aspects of it simply is very difficult to measure. This is also a concern for UN since there are several of the targets within the SDGs that at a global scale it is very difficult to measure. There might also be opposing areas of sustainability as briefly mentioned earlier, but to measure how one impact peripherally contributes either positively or negatively to another can be very difficult to measure - even after it actually has occurred. [15]

As mentioned, it can be a challenge to identify what the roles needed in the project team are. Another challenge can simply be the lack of sustainability competencies available due to high demand from companies while it is still a rather young field from an academic and practical perspective. Another, maybe even more present challenge, can originate from top management's or project owners' actions. If not enough or the right resources are allocated to the project, it can be very difficult for the project manager to execute the needed activities. Some organizations and companies try to incorporate a sustainability profile due to the benefits of branding but still suffer from resilience to change and a lack of investment in the more fundamental and systemic green transition. In worst cases, this can lead to accusations of greenwashing. In milder cases, it can simply mean that the project manager meets internal opposition. Sustainable projects tend to have a higher upfront cost, which might scare off some stakeholders. However, in a sustainability-dedicated company where the top management succeeds in creating, communicating, and following a truly sustainable strategy, it is known that sustainable solutions initially can be more expensive but in the long run, it will result in a vast amount of benefits.

Annotated bibliography

The Green Project Management and its framework (see [12] and [4]) is the main referred and used guide for sustainable project management practitioners. Their framework is acknowledged by many and therefore is a standard within the field. Their methodology has increased the ease of use and access to material aimed at projects with sustainable processes and outcomes. GPM, formed in 2009, is a certified Social Enterprise that globally works with sustainable project management and offers certifications within the field.

Dr Gilbert Silvius, professor of Project and Program management is one of the front runners in the research area of sustainable project management. This is also apparent in this article since several of the articles used as the foundation for this article have contributions from or is solely by Silvius. Two articles, [5] and [10] describe the area of Sustainable Project Management from an academic perspective and how it differs from classical project management. In this article [13], Silvius, accompanied by independent researcher, Ron Schipper, further investigates the academic field of sustainable project management and its existing methods. Herein it is found that the sustainable management plan (a crucial part of the GPM framework) is one of the activities that within the field lacks explanation and guidance on. The article, therefore, describes the analyzed need for and development of such a tool - The Sustainable Project Management Canvas

This article [7] concerns the facilitation and implementation of ecodesign practices in companies. The authors, Professor Tim C. McAloone and Associate Professor Daniela Pigosso work with different implementation, management, and design aspects of sustainability in companies. If more information regarding sustainable product design projects is desired, it could be relevant to look into some of their work.

[8] is a Danish book trying to help companies with a sustainable transition. It can be a great introduction to companies on how to approach and chose targeted SDGs, but also help with the regulatory reporting aspect of sustainability.

References

  1. ↑ Köhler, A., van den Brink, J., & Silvius, G. (2012). The impact of sustainability on project management. The project as a social system: Asia-Pacific perspectives on project management, 183-200.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Silvius, G. (2016) - Lecture on Sustainable Project Management at the 4th IPMA Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neRO_nNtxUg
  3. ↑ Silvius, G. (2019). Making Sense of Sustainable Project Management. Annals of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2(4). https://doi.org/10.19080/ASM.2019.02.555594 Retrieved from:https://ideas.repec.org/a/adp/oajasm/v2y2019i4p106-109.html
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Carboni, J., Duncan, W., Gonzalez, M., Milsom, P., & Young, M. (2018). Sustainable project management: The GPM reference guide. Novi, MI, USA: GPM Global.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Dubois, O., & Silvius, G. (2020). The relation between sustainable project management and project success. International Journal of Management and Sustainability, 9(4), 218-238. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.11.2020.94.218.238 Retrieved from:https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/609c3615d9001d01fc36de4e
  6. ↑ Cairns Jr, J. (2003). Integrating top-down/bottom-up sustainability strategies: an ethical challenge. ESEP BOOKS ESEP BOOKS, 44. doi: 10.3354/esep003001. Retrieved at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26386716_Integrating_top-downbottom-up_sustainability_strategies_An_ethical_challenge
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 McAloone, T., Pigosso, D. (2021). Ökodesign. In: Bender, B., Gericke, K. (eds) Pahl/Beitz Konstruktionslehre pp 975–1021. Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57303-7_22
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Høyer, H., & Lynge, J. (2021). Bæredygtig business - For bundlinjen og en bedre verde
  9. ↑ Fathima, A. (2023). Case study article: Importance of Sustainable Project Management in India. Retrieved at: https://blog.greenprojectmanagement.org/index.php/2023/05/05/importance-sustainable-project-management-india/
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Silvius, G. (2019). Making Sense of Sustainable Project Management. Annals of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2(4). https://doi.org/10.19080/ASM.2019.02.555594 Retrieved from:https://ideas.repec.org/a/adp/oajasm/v2y2019i4p106-109.html
  11. ↑ Green Project Management homepage: https://www.greenprojectmanagement.org/
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Global, G. (2015). The GPM® P5™ Standard for Sustainability in Project Management. Retrieved at https://greenprojectmanagement.org/gpm-standards/the-p5-standard-for-sustainability-in-project-management
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Schipper, R., & Silvius, G. (2017). The sustainable project management canvas. Journal of Modern Project Management, 4(3), 50–59. https://doi.org/10.19225/JMPM01206 Retrieved at: https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/5887512a444ef71a36006785
  14. ↑ Adaptare.dk (2022) Article on the Green Project Management at https://adaptare.dk/greenprojectmanagement/
  15. ↑ Ritchie, H. (2018) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Tracker
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