The message has been clear, powerful, and repeated.
The facts are indisputable.
The logic is impeccable.
We cannot keep taking resources from the planet – resources that took hundreds of millions of years to produce, use them for a few minutes, and discard them haphazardly.
Most people “get” that. And so, you would think that in a place like the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a center of thinking, home of top colleges like Harvard University and Boston College, people would really get it. Smart people. Educated people. Pro-environment. Knowledgeable. Aware of their surroundings. They’ll be leaders in this area, of course. Of course they will. Right?
PSYCHE!
The sad truth is: they don’t get it at all. Take Newton, Massachusetts. Newton! This is a town in which 75% of the electorate voted for President Obama. So you would expect that it has a high, and increasing rate of recycling, because the folks there are aware of the environment, aware of the little things they can do to make things better. Right?
Um, no.
Look at the chart below.
I’d say that even those of us with limited mathematical skills can see that in the decade past, Newton’s recycling rates have dropped significantly. And the picture is almost as embarrassing across the entire Commonwealth.
Here’s a chart from today’s Boston Globe (see the whole story here) which shows the stunning rate at which recycling has improved in green-aware, eco-friendly Massachusetts:
Not so good, eh? 10 years of awareness, programs, projects, and we’ve increased by 1%. ONE PERCENT!
Put this up against San Francisco, where recycling rates are like Newton’s take on Obama: 75%. That’s truly pitiful.
So why this rant, and why – of all places – on a project management blog? Well, one of our points is that Project Managers should give back to the community. And it looks like we really can make a difference. Remember the contrast between San Francisco and Massachusetts? Oh come on, of course you do, it was only a few sentences ago!
Have a look at this page – Project Recycle – an effort of the State of California. It looks like if we combine the talents of project managers with leaders in the community we can increase awareness effectively and put programs in place to get people out of their bad habits and doing the right thing.
If you’re in Massachusetts, take this as a challenge and DO SOMETHING about it. Actually, EarthPM has been getting visited increasingly by people all over the world. So although this is incredibly embarrassing for Massachusetts, you could be in Belize or Lithuania or Malaysia, South Africa, or Belgium, India, or Argentina. It doesn’t matter. Find out how your own community is doing in this area and see if you can lend a hand from a project management standpoint to get some more effective recycling action. It sure seems like words are not enough! And when words aren’t enough, project managers are the ones who should be able to take words (ten YEARS of words in this case) into action.
Oh. And if you are wondering about those facts mentioned up front in this posting, see this interesting article which happens to come from California.
So…
Who’ll step up? We’ll send you a box of Fig Newtons* if you do…
*Fig Newtons were invented in Newton, Massachusetts.
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There is a Cree Indian saying “Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”
Firms need to be held to account for their actions and inactions by a multitude of stakeholders (employees, customers, communities, NGOs and shareholders). Yet most corporations have neither the governance structure nor the systems to handle these conflicting demands.
At the IMD OWP 2010 one can better understand these challenges as well as identify some of the organizational systems, strategies and mindsets that can help firms thrive under conflicting stakeholder demands.