ONLY KIDDING – But seriously, we have a gig scheduled in September and more on the horizon.  On September 21st, we’ll be doing a presentation and be available to sign our book at the Boston BioPharmaPM Conference: Delivering Value Through Projects titled “Blue Pill-Green Pill-Chlorophyll-Landfill”.  It’s about sustainability; its importance and applicability to the biopharma industry and how projects within the industry can benefit from green project management.  As always, we’ll have tips and techniques to help you.

Watch our site for we just may be appearing in a “theater” near you.  We’d love to meet you.

A champion of green projects passed away suddenly August 7th.  Matt Simmons, well known for his views on peak oil in his book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy apparently drown after suffering a heart attack.  Here in Maine, however, he was best known for championing green energy projects (Green By Definition from our book). He had big plans for some big projects, particularly trying to harness the ocean’s energy.  He founded The Ocean Energy Institute in Rockland, Maine, whose grand opening was in July, a “think tank” focused on tidal energy.  It is both a not-for-profit research facility coupled with a for-profit venture capital enterprise to fund the alternate energy.

From an article by Michael Corkery in today’s (Aug 9th) Wall Street Journal Blog, Matt Simmons is quoted as saying that, “When it comes to alternative energy, wind is perfectly commercial today. But when you try to scale it, it just doesn’t work. I suspect the cost of solar will finally come down, but you’ll never have solar be anything more than an intermittent source of electricity.” To him, the ocean was the logical place to capture energy.  In the same article he is quoted as saying “The Gulf Stream is essentially the largest river in the world … and there are devices being developed that are anchored in a current and end up having a rotor that turns because of the current. It might be perfectly viable to create a floating dry dock. Or you combine the water in a boiler with ammonia, and once you have boiling you have steam, and steam powers a turbine and creates electricity. This doesn’t sound nearly as complicated as creating fuels cells, for instance, which is still a real bugaboo.”

Matt believed that “Oceans are the last energy frontier, yet we know so little about how to harness them. The Ocean Energy Institute’s mission is to quickly fill this knowledge void and let our oceans supply us the energy that fossil fuels have provided for the last hundred years,” a direct quote.

A press release today from the Institute indicated that the work of the Institute will continue.  We hope so.  We didn’t know him personally, but he was on our list of “get to knows” because of the potential projects he was involved with.  We’ll be watching the work of the Institute, that’s for sure.  Matt Simmons was 67.

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In our book we’ve described how project managers can be change agents in their enterprises – not activists or tree-huggers, but change agents to bring the company more – well – change.  Change in terms different ways of doing things, but also change in the form of quarters, nickels, and dimes.  Lots, and lots of quarters, nickels and dimes, and dollars and Euros and yuan and shekels, so many coins in fact, that we’re talking about trillions of them.

A book we discovered after our manuscript was complete – unfortunately – is a pioneering book (2001) by Pamela Gordon called, “Lean and Green:  Profit for your workplace and the environment“.  You will find a rich source of information at this site, which will not only let you order the book but which also has a great video with Pam describing her motivation for writing the book and some of its background.  Her logic in the video and in the book is impeccable, and it has the following features:

• • • Debunks the myth that businesses must choose between profit and the environment
    • Shows how anyone, at any level of an organization, can help increase revenues by reducing harmful environmental impact
    • More than 100 compelling, real-life examples from 20 prominent and varied organizations, including Intel, Louisiana-Pacific, Horizon Organic Dairy, and Apple Computer
    • Chapter summaries provide easy “you-can-do-it” action steps that will yield immediate results

In any case, we’d like to (with Pamela’s permission, of course, which we indeed have) provide you with some of the highlights of her chapter on Environmental Management Systems.

We assert that PMs should “link” their projects’ charters to the EMS of the enterprise - and if their organization doesn’t have one, be the change agent to be sure that the enterprise adopts one.  So this is important stuff here!

First of all, what is an Environmental Management System?

It’s “environmental policies, how-to-instructions, and accountability measures for continual improvement” that “help your organization minimize harm to the planet and benefit from all the cost savings and revenue opportunities that Lean and Green organizations enjoy”.  It deals with goals, guidelines as to how to achieve them.  So it’s part vision and strategy, and part tactics.

Pamela interviewed many companies, amongst them Agilent, Apple, Celestica, IBM, Intel, Kyocera, British Aerospace, NEC, Philips, Polaroid, Sony, and TI, to find out what common threads their EMS had and singled out some best practices and tips we thought we would share with you.

Ten Suggestions

1. First consider the areas of largest environmental impact

2. Let employees know that the system was created because the organization cares about the environment

3. Embed the EMS’ requirements into the organization’s existing systems

4. Have each site or group form a cross-functional team to identify gaps between current practices and environmental goals, then have the EMS fill those gaps.

5. Use simple language.

6. Check frequently with each of the organization’s sites or groups to offer help in working with the system.

7. Match your employee training style to your organization’s culture.

8. Get outside help in creating your system.

9. Roll out the system in phases.

10. Add to your first time estimate.

The book “colors in” each of these points with details and examples from the companies interviewed by the author – but this should give you the gist of the suggestions.

Three pitfalls to avoid

1. Burdening people with bureaucracy.

2. Creating short-lived systems.

3. Depending on a single employee.

Eerily insightful

With the Deepwater Horizon disaster now heading towards its 100th day, it’s interesting to note Pamela’s highly insightful sidebar about being “prepared for emergencies”.  In fact it’s particularly interesting (and almost spooky) that the example – although about Apple, not BP, and thus the low numbers – was about of 20,000 gallons of spilled oil, and focuses on the regulatory and legal ramifications as well as how it would affect Apple’s image.

An example 10,000-meter view of an EMS

One company’s EMS is summarized (you’ll have to buy the book to find out which one) below :

1. Pollution prevention

2. Hazardous Material Shortage

3. Contingency and Emergency Response Plans

4. Hazardous Waste Management

5. Energy Conservation and Air Management

6. Water Conservation

7. Design for Environment

8. Site Acquisition and Closure

We assert that as a project manager, you could look at that simple high-level outline of an EMS and find many ‘connecting points’ to a project plan.  Projects use materials, during construction (and of course when the product of the project is in steady-state use – a subject for a posting on Life Cycle Analysis).  Projects use water, air, and need contingency plans.  So hopefully you recognize your PM discipline here.  That’s our point.  PMs need to be connected to the way the organization does business and now that includes Environmental Management Systems.

So be the change!

And help your company bring in the change!

We really like this quote from The Washington Post (the editorial copy) last November; “Let’s agree that there is debate about climate change and that we don’t know exactly when oil will run out. But let’s also agree that man has an impact on his environment. I don’t need a fancy degree or any reports to know that; I can see it every day in the litter lining our roads, in the murkiness of the Chesapeake Bay and in the smog hanging over our cities.”

The quote continues, “Yes, the environmental movement includes some elements of extremism, nannyism (the word is probably an outgrowth from Dean Baker’s The Conservative Nanny State, May 2006) and self-righteousness. But environmentalism is simply a desire to protect nature and our health and to preserve resources for future generations (our emphasis).  What’s so bad about that? What’s wrong with trying to invent technologies (projects) that are less polluting than oil? Is it unreasonable to want fewer pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals dumped into waterways (projects)? Are people who recycle newspapers, buy organic foods or carry reusable grocery bags all part of a vast left-wing conspiracy?”

Sometimes, with all that is going on, and plenty of fodder for our posts, we need to revisit the real reason we became involved in our projects, the book and the website.  As a project managers, and founders of the website you are connected to right now, this quote speaks to us.  It says that the founding principles, or “assertions,” of EarthPm are relevant, important, sound, or whatever positive adjective you want to use.

We won’t reiterate our assertions here; you can see them by going to the “Mission” area of this site for full details.  To capture them all in one statement, it is “simply a desire to protect nature and our health and to preserve resources for future generations”. One of the assertions we make during our presentations in that we are not tree huggers, or nannyists.    And, we are not trying to make you that way, either.  However, we do strongly believe that projects are where ideas become real and that by running a project with green intent is the right thing to do, and every project can benefit from green intent.  Project managers are the “resource police”.  To “protect and serve” project resources is in our DNA, so who better to advocate for preserving resources, including environmental resources, than a project manager?  We’ve proposed some changes to the next edition of the PMBOK and are getting lots of support.  Check out our proposal in the “Community” section of this site and we welcome your comments.  Soon we will post an update incorporating comments we’ve received so far.

As is our modus operandi, we provide this tongue-in-cheek look at:

The Nanny Zone

In our book, we were lucky enough to work with an EPA scientist on our chapter on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and put projects in the broader sense of their outcomes and the longer-term operation of the project’s product.

But…you can read our book to get more about that…

What we’re writing about today is a resource we think you’ll like.

It’s free.

It’s simple.

It’s educational.

It’s from Sustainable Minds, creators of software which helps designers kick off their projects with the long-term thinking that we discuss in our book.

We got to see their software in action as applied by students at the Rhode Island School of Design, in very nice presentation by Craig Provost of that school.

Co-founders Dave and Rich attended an educator’s conference this week at Sustainable Minds’ headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

And so…on to the resource.  Sustainable Minds is providing a free webinar on the subject of the Life Cycle Assessment and how their software works in this area.  We think that as project managers you should avail yourself of the opportunity to learn about this.

Here’s a description:

Through this orientation and software demonstration, learn about EcoDesign and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and see what’s inside the software.

The webinar is scheduled for 27-July, 2PM to 3PM Eastern US time, and will have live participation from experts at Sustainable Minds.  It will be repeated each Tuesday.

Here is the link:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/985394193

Enjoy!