Sustainble project managment

Mathies Augustin Olrik Nielsen

Abstract

One of our times largest and most comprehensive challenges we as humans are facing is to turn our lifestyle and impact on the earth into something sustainable, that will leave future generations, wildlife and nature being able to live on the planet and sustain itself. A developing approach companies use to address implementation of sustainability in their processes are sustainable project management.

The UN Sustainability Goals has since 2015 put sustainability on the world agenda, but also agreements like the Paris Agreement, shows that there is a political consensus towards a more sustainable world. Companies all over the world are realising 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 upcoming European Sustainability Reporting Standards dictates companies to report their sustainable actions. Furthermore, companies are also realising that future economic profit is tightly connected to a more sustainable world and that sustainability actually can become a profitable business.

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

This article will investigate how sustainable project management is performed in companies today and how it’s role might be in companies in the future. It will furthermore investigate which tools, practices, skills, and qualifications that are needed for implementation, governance, and documentation of sustainable project management in companies around the world.

What is Sustainable Project Management

Practical sustainability in companies is often initiated with either a top-down or a bottom-up approach. It can be a result of a top-down management approach with the implementation of strategies that dictates sustainability as a company agenda. This can include tangible goal setting, development of Environmental Performance Indicators (EPIs) for benchmarking the progress and specific strategies to follow. It can also come from a bottom-up approach in a specific area of the value chain, eg. using eco-design practices in the 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.

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 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 economical sustainability for the company and its surroundings.

Definitions

Several definitions exist (TBD)

Evolution SPM

The field of SPM origins from two areas:

1. The sustainable development area (focusing on SDGs etc.): The area was originally very idealistic but when formalized and made tangible 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 by [] often called "Management of sustainable development project"
2. Classical project management of sustainability projects: With an increasing focus on sustainability, companies initiated projects towards sustainability refered by [] as "Management of green project". This further developed to be more than just a project with a sustainable outcome, but also including a sustainable process, refereed to as "Sustainable management of projects"

These two areas have later on merged into what today is known as Sustainable Project Management, where the project itself, is the road towards sustainability.

The project managers role

(the following is future work and only notes)

Projects, programs and portfolios as the areas of implementation and the PMs as the driver.

CSR Officer/sustainability and PMs often lack general understanding of each others role, ability to support each other in the creation of strategies and implementation, and in general lack communication

IsoStandards: https://www.iso.org/standard/63578.html

Utilization of Sustainable Project Management

Tools and best practices

• PRISM
• Sustainable Prince2
• Sustainable GWW
• Healthy Maturity Assessment Model
• Sustainable Management Plan
• Sustainable Project Management Canvas
• Project Management Maturity Model SPM3

SPM in real life

(this chapter might simply change to "Case examples")

(Possible) References

1. 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 from:https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/5887512a444ef71a36006785
2. Gupta, S. (2021). Study on the Sustainable Project Management. Samvakti Journal of Research in Business Management, 2(Anon), 16. https://doi.org/10.46402/2021.01.13 Retrieved from:https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/61c31f9ddc0ecff973ad2434
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
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7. Ozumba, A., Chothia, T., Booi, Z., & Madonsela, N. (2020). Sustainability in Project Management Practice. 9th International Conference on Engineering, Project, and Production Management (eppm2018), 312, 02015 (14 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/202031202015 Retrieved from:https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/5f79b59fd9001d01a14492f6
8. Keshavarzian, S., & Silvius, G. (2022). THE PERCEIVED RELATIONSHIP: BETWEEN SUSTAINABILITY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND PROJECT SUCCESS. Journal of Modern Project Management, 10(1), 66–85. https://doi.org/10.19255/JMPM02805 Retrieved from:https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/6327bab235608855f9ca1e59
9. Martens, M. L., & Carvalho, M. M. (2017). Key factors of sustainability in project management context: A survey exploring the project managers' perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), 1084–1102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.04.004 Retrieved from:https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy.findit.cvt.dk/science/article/pii/S0263786316300163

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652617317444

https://greenprojectmanagement.org/about/what-is-sustainable-project-management

https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/what-is-project-management/what-is-sustainability-in-project-management/