We focus on projects, project management, the connection between sustainability and project management, projects, and most importantly, YOU – the project manager.

That focus includes ecological but also economic and social continuity and success – in other words, running projects that consider the long term effects of the project’s product on the enterprise financially, for its employees and customers, and for the long-term health of the planet.

We are not tree-huggers, even though the picture on the cover of our award-winning book is of a tree.

But some of our rationale for taking on our work is rooted (pun intended) in caring for our home – Earth.

And we know that there are many of you out there who are justifiably skeptics – even cynics, and deniers, when it comes to climate change.  That’s fine with us.  We are left-brained, engineer/scientist types and we like that type of questioning.  It’s what keeps innovation going.

Still, we think it’s important to keep the project managers out there up-t0-date with news and recent findings with respect to climate change.

The most recent news, unfortunately, isn’t good.  It’s downright scary.

In this article, based on findings from the UN (I can almost hear the groan from some of you, but that’s okay, too), indicates that “heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are building up so high, so fast, that some scientists now think the world can no longer limit global warming to the level world leaders have agreed upon as safe”.

And in this story, World Meteorological Deputy Secretary-General Jeremiah Lengoasa said,  “With this picture in mind, even if emissions were stopped overnight globally, the atmospheric concentrations would continue for decades because of the long lifetime of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”.

Our book has tips on how you can bring these facts to bear on your projects.

No, the sky isn’t falling.  But “the sky” is over, under, around, and inside your project.  So you should know about how it affects your project and its project – and vice-verse.

We’ve tend to stay neutral when it comes to the global climate change debate, although we have tried to arm you with the information we believed you, as project managers, need to make sure you can take advantage of any projects that may arise as a result of any mitigation strategies.  Today, we heard about a couple of disturbing reports due out over the next several months.  Their titles were pretty ominous so we decided to dig a little deeper.

Take a look at some of these headlines and reports to be released and see if you don’t agree that they are unnerving;

NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According to Scientists in 48 Countries 

Earth has been growing warmer for more than 50 years.

And this one a report that is indicative of what is to come.

The Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation.

The title says that those extreme events we have been experiencing, a major snow storm in the northeast in October 2011 for instance, are going to continue and we need a risk mitigation process to address them.  Further, we will need to “adapt” to these changes.

Another report coming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC);

Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation

And finally, an interview from a scientist who has not only been one of the questioners of global climate change, but also his study was partially funded by an organization made up of climate change skeptics.  Dr. Richard Muller, professor of physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and founder of the Berkley Earth Surface Temperature Foundation, undertook an independent two year study of global climate change.

It was not that he himself was a sceptic, he just didn’t believe the likes of Tom Friedman and Al Gore because Dr. Muller believes their contentions were not truly science based.  Here is part of the interview between Dr. Muller and Eleanor Hall with Bronwyn Herbert from the Australian Broadcast Network (ABC).  You can hear the entire interview here.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Richard Muller says he wasn’t convinced the earth was warming, and set out two years ago to find out if mainstream climate scientists were wrong.

RICHARD MULLER: Sceptics had raised legitimate questions. Many of the thermometers were of very poor quality and poorly placed. There were  djustments being made to discontinuities in the data. There was perhaps undue influence from warming of cities, which was warm, but that’s not global warming.

BRONWYN HERBERT: He says he was particularly surprised that his results so closely correlated with previously published data from other teams in the US and the UK.

RICHARD MULLER: Somewhat to my amazement, none of the effects changed the answer. We wound up getting the same answer that the other groups had previously gotten for the amount of warming. It’s about 0.9 degrees Celsius over the last 50 years. The poor temperature quality data, even though it was at bad locations, the change in temperature I recorded was accurate. The urban heat island, just not that much area of the earth is urban. The temperature adjustments that people made, well those adjustments were made with more care than we could know, and in the end the adjustments didn’t bias the data. We picked five times as many stations as they did. Their selection of stations was sufficiently representative that it didn’t change the answer. So, in the end, the amount of global warming is what they said it was.

BRONWYN HERBERT: So do you now believe that global warming on earth is occurring?

RICHARD MULLER: Oh yes. I certainly believe that now.

And finally, from a report Agence France-Presse (AFP) states that a draft UN report three years in the making concludes that man-made climate change has boosted the frequency or intensity of heat waves, wildfires, floods and cyclones and that such disasters are likely to increase in the future.

“The document being discussed by the world’s Nobel-winning panel of climate scientists says the severity of the impacts vary, and some regions are more vulnerable than others. Hundreds of scientists working under the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) will vet the phonebook-sized draft at a meeting in Kampala of the 194-nation body later this month.

“This is the largest effort that has even been made to assess how extremes are changing,” said Neville Nicholls, a professor at Monash University in  Melbourne, Australia, and a coordinating lead author of one of the review’s key chapters. Mindful of an outcry by climate skeptics over flaws in an earlier IPCC text, those working on the document stress that the level of “confidence” in the findings depends on the quantity and quality of data available.

But the overall picture that emerges is one of enhanced volatility and frequency of dangerous weather, leading in turn to a sharply increased risk for large swathes of humanity in coming decades.”

“Its publication coincides with a series of natural catastrophes around the world that have boosted the need to determine whether such events are freaks of the weather or part of a long-term shift in climate. In 2010, record temperatures fuelled devastating forest fires across Siberia, while parts of Pakistan and India reeled from unprecedented flooding. This year, the United States has suffered from a record number of billion-dollar disasters ranging from flooding in the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to Hurricane Irene to the ongoing Texas drought. Large swathes of China are suffering from intense drought as well, even as central America and Thailand count their dead from recent diluvian rains.

Most of these events match predicted impacts of manmade global warming, which has raised temperatures, increased the amount of water in the atmosphere and warmed ocean surface temperatures — all drivers of extreme weather.

- It is “virtually certain” — 99-100% sure — that the frequency and magnitude of warm daily temperature extremes will increase over the 21st century on a global scale;

- It is “very likely” (90-100% certainty) that the length, frequency and/or intensity of warm spells, including heat waves, will continue to increase over most land areas;

- Peak temperatures are “likely” (66-100% certainty) to increase — compared to the late 20th century — up to 3.0 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2050, and 5.0 C (9.0 F) by 2100;

- Heavy rain and snowfall is likely to increase over the next century over many regions, especially in the tropics and at high latitudes;

- At the same time, droughts will likely intensify in other areas, notably the Mediterranean region, central Europe, North America, northeastern Brazil and southern Africa.” © 2011 AFP

It’s Stanley Cup Finals time.

Hockey is a rough game, and hits and checking are part of the game.  In this posting you see a photo of the Bruins’ Nathan Horton, who took a vicious blind-side hit knocking him unconscious and jeopardizing his career and taking this important clutch player out of the Stanley Cup finals.  His opponent, Aaron Rome, is also suspended for the rest of the year (and perhaps into next year if the Finals end early).

Not a good thing for sports fans – at least real sports fans.  Play hockey, gentlemen.

So what could this possibly have to do with projects, project management, or the triple bottom line?

As you know, one aspect of the triple bottom line is the environment, and one aspect of the environment has got to be concern for climate change.

In the same Boston Globe that is covering the hockey games mentioned above, there is an editorial in today’s paper called “Playing Rough”.  And there’s the link.  The article talks about the hits that climate scientists take when their research points to climate changes caused by humans.  They get hit blindsided just as did Nathan Horton.

In particular, the editorial covers the “hits” put on (generally) well-respected climate scientist Raymond Bradley, and with another connection to the Stanley Cup, his “hockey stick” graph that shows increases in global temperature that can be connected with industrial activity.  Bradley, who had had enough bullying by politicians, recently wrote a book on the topic, and his experiences, “Global Warming and Political Intimidation: How Politicians Cracked Down as the Earth Heated Up”

With this posting we don’t mean to take sides as much as to request that we as business people do not act like Aaron Rome.  Wait a moment before the attack.  Is it worth jeopardizing TWO careers because you are dead-set against a conclusion, pre-disposed to be in disagreement with it?  Or should you open your mind a bit and consider the analysis provided by a respected scientist?  We vote for the latter.

Have a look at the editorial from today’s Globe, but you can see right there in the 50-ish comments that immediately the discussion becomes polarized, even violent and certainly non-productive.  Let’s stay above the fray.

No biting, no pulling hair, and no blind-side dangerous hits. Okay?

Check.

So, they tell us today is “Pi Day“, in honor of the constant Π which represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, which works out to be approximately 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375.  Approximately.

Then they tell me that tomorrow is the “Ides of March”, the 15th day of March, and the date that, in 44 BC, was not such a good one for Julius Caesar, in that he was stabbed a number of times.  23 times in fact.  Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, and stab.  Yep.  A bummer of a day for Julius.

Um, so evidently there’s quite a bit of counting that takes place this time of year.  In fact, many of those in the northern hemisphere are counting the days until Spring.

What does this have to do with project management, or sustainability, or that intersection?

Well, one of the aspects of green project management that we’ve been describing and trying to convey to our (growing) audience (yet another thing we could count), is the fact that the company you are working for is most likely advertising to the world that they are becoming increasingly sustainable.  Whether you agree with the reasoning as to why they are becoming sustainable, and whether or not you agree that they should is rather a moot point.  They are making the claims, and there are people out there checking – and perhaps counting.

People, and organizations like Climate Counts.   We suggest you have a look at their site.

What are they about?  From their site:

Climate Counts is a collaborative effort to bring consumers and companies together in the fight against global climate change.

What you’ll find there is a rating system that determines how the companies stack up in terms of not only what they are saying, but what they are doing in the area of sustainability.

They use these criteria:

Has the company being analyzed…

• MEASURED their climate “footprint”
• REDUCED their impact on global warming
• SUPPORTED (or suggest intent to block) progressive climate legislation
• Publicly DISCLOSED their climate actions clearly and comprehensively

Explore your industry.  Check out your own company.  Who are the slackers, who are the leaders in this area?  Who, as they would say, are “Striding” (green icon), “Starting” (yellow), or “Stuck” (red).  Studies show that employees are motivated by their organization’s reputation.  What color is your company?  And also… know that  you aren’t the only one poking around at this site.  It’s extremely well-visited.  That means your customers are looking.  Your vendors are looking.  Your friends and family…  All kinds of stakeholders are looking.

Please take a moment and explore the site.  You will understand.

So why did we call this post, “Counting on you…”? Well, we think that your company leaders are counting on you, Mr. or Ms. Project Manager, to bring those scores up, and to have your company walk the talk – and in some cases, even start to talk the talk.  You are managing change.  You are driving the business objectives from the enterprise level with the execution of portfolios, programs, and projects.  We’ve written extensively on how you can do this, even if your project is what we call “Green in General” – that is, not directly related to energy, biodiversity, or conservation.  In fact, your project could be as unrelated as developing a new training program for a new payroll system.  There are still things you can do within that project and dealing with its product and steady-state that can help the organization along in the area of sustainability.  Our book has much more detail.  Buy a copy.  We are counting.

You may have often heard said that the Project Manager is like the CEO of their project.

You may also have heard that a President is like the CEO of the country.

So, it doesn’t take too much linking logic to combine those assertions to come up with the ‘conclusion’ that President Bill Clinton is at least ‘like’ a Project Manager.

And in fact, Clinton recently addressed the North American PMI Congress in Washington, DC.  One nice part was that he kept his prepared remarks to a minimum.  Attendees were given a little card in their conference materials to facilitate asking him a question.   So, President Clinton had those questions somewhat before he got up on stage.  Acknowledging the quality of the questions posed by PMI Congress attendees, Clinton said (to applause) that he would not talk too long, and would instead devote more time to a question and answer session – an “Oprah-esque” interview by Greg Balestrero, CEO of PMI.  We were in attendance and listened carefully, taking some copious notes.

You don’t have to agree with Bill Clinton to know that he’s a good speaker.  And here he proved that he’s also a pretty darn good interviewee, ready with a quick wit and a great handle on a whole range of facts and knowledge.  Clinton answered a set of far-ranging questions from the audience.  Here we will focus on Clinton’s comments from his prepared talk as well as his response to the questions, which deal with climate change and project management.  And yes, that topic – and our foundation – the intersection of green and project management – was a major thread (perhaps even a rope!) of the conversation.  There were times when we couldn’t help saying to ourselves: “he really gets it!”.

During his prepared speech, Clinton identified three areas in which Project Management needs to play an increased role.

Those three areas are:

1. Global instability
2. Growing economic inequality between rich and poor countries
3. The need for change in the way energy is produced and consumed in the world

We will focus, of course, on the third item.  However, you can get a perspective on all three and the entire event by reading this recent PMI.org blog entry.

On this topic, President Clinton said, “I happen to believe changing the way we produce and consume energy is the greatest single economic opportunity that the developed nations have had, at least since there was mass mobilization for World War II, and this time, we don’t have to kill anybody….I have a climate change project, and I work in at least 25 countries, 40 cities, on six continents, proving that it is good business to change the way you produce and consume energy.”

Speaking of the Kyoto agreement and the effect it had had on four major economies – those of Sweden, Denmark, Germany,and the UK, Clinton said that after they took the agreement seriously, “those countries had lower unemployment rates, less income inequality, more small business formation, and more job formation, given the size of their economy than we did, and the only conceivable explanation, if you look at all the economic variables, is because they made a very serious attempt to either change the way they consume energy or change the way they produce it or a combination of the two.”

Our favorite quote – perhaps because of the way he introduces it, is this one:

“Deutsche Bank, not Greenpeace, but Deutsche Bank recently did a study on the German subsidies of this last decade, during which Germany leap‑frogged the U.S. and Japan to become the number one producer and user of solar power in a country where the average sunlight is what it is in London, England.

So they had to heavily subsidize it.  Deutsche Bank said, even accounting for the drag of the subsidy, Germany netted 500,000 jobs, which, if we had the German program, we would net 1.2 million, since, if we had the same sunlight, since we have twice the capacity, just implementing that would give us 2 1/2 million jobs, at a time when we desperately need them.  So I think we need to make an economic case, a national security case, and a climate change case together.  People are smart enough to figure this out.”

We like the quote, because:

• Like us, Clinton is stating that the evidence pointing to the ‘good logic’ (of initiating green projects and putting more green into projects) is not a radical ‘tree-hugger’ idea, but a sound business principle
• He realizes that people have different ‘channels’ for being convinced of the need to work on sustainability issues.  He combines three biggies here: money, security, and survival.  Pretty basic on the Maslow pyramid, right?  Not too shabby.
• He uses a reference country – Germany – which has implemented solar power despite its not being a model for sunniness.  Project managers and other intelligent people can do the extrapolation that in areas like the southern USA, Australian outback and the Sahara, the justification should be that much easier

So what do you think?  Were you there?  Did you react positively?

If you weren’t there, based on our reflections and recollections above, what do you think of these connections to our profession that President Clinton made?  And, in particular, what do you think of the very specific connection Mr. Clinton made to the intersection of green and project management?

At last week’s PMI North America Congress, we were lucky enough to be at sponsor DeVry (Keller) University’s booth signing our new book and getting to chat with many project managers about Green Project Management.  Between that experience, getting to meet many of the really outstanding contributors – you know who you are – with whom we had only previously communicated electronically, and having President Bill Clinton not only address us as Project Managers, but to specifically challenge PMs to take on climate change, it was a fantastic week.

In conversations during the book signing, many of you reflected on situations in which you work in IT and so, you say, have “no effect” on the environment.  Also many of you said that there was nothing besides ‘altruistic’ reasons for trying to change your projects and your companies to do more to work towards sustainability.

We beg to differ.  On both counts.

And lo, upon our return, we were greeted with a great feature in Thursday’s Boston Globe business section called, “Taking a Different Measure”, a story about Akamai Technologies’ command center.  In the article is a great quote from Akamai’s chief executive, Paul Sagan, when asked:

“I’d say half of my rationale was altruistic, but I was also thinking that the day was going to come when our customers were going to expect us to report our carbon footprint, and their carbon footprint, on our network.’’

That’s funny because we responded to some of you with a very similar answer.  We said that half our rationale to create this site and write the book was altruistic, but we also know that this is an area that needs and deserves attention and we want to be there to (successfully) serve the needs of this market.  That’s precisely – almost to the word – what Paul Sagan is saying.  And the irony is that he really knows serving – after all, Akamai operates about 70,000 servers.  Their servers handle peak internet traffic for big name companies – such as Best Buy and ESPN.

The article features a description of how Akamai now includes carbon emissions as a core part of how they measure their performance.  And they are actively reporting to the Carbon Disclosure Project – which maintains corporate climate change information.

We suggest you read the article, and think again about how you can serve this cause – even if only for 50% altruistic reasons.  That’s the reason our book has a tree on the cover – a tree sprouting money.  As we assert – it’s the right thing to do, and it will help you do things right.

According to today’s Portsmouth Herald, in an article by Rich Beuchesne headlined “Chief: Go Green”, Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui, of the Surui tribe indigenous to the Amazon Rain Forest, is on a high tech quest to help stop climate change and global warming by protecting the rain forest.  “A green economy, we believe, can bring great benefit, clean air and water, and it can also deliver the food we need.”  He further states, “So we’re not saying that the forest has to be untouchable, but it needs to be used sustainably to bring a better future for our people.”  That is what we are saying about project management, and this effort is certainly a project; we’re not saying that greening projects is a must, but what is a must is that sustainability be considered all along a project’s journey.

The Amazon leader has teamed up with Google (Earth), one of the companies we deem “At the Top of Their Game” in our new book.  Google Earth is  mapping  the tribe’s sacred and cultural sites where tribe members hunt and fish as a “way to show the world my culture.  Information is power” says the chief.  The philosophy is spreading to other tribes in the region, too.  The chief also teamed up with Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) to create an economy based on sustainability practices”, something else we at EarthPM strongly believe in.  “Three years ago, my people began discussing carbon credits as part of this sustainability message,” said Chief Almir. “Many people believe this will not work, but I see it as an opportunity to better manage our forest and, by extension, to manage the world.”  Exactly!

A couple of more things he said that particularly resonate with us, “There’s been a lot of deforestation in the name of development of our country,” he said. “When we sat down and talked about our future, we saw how important it was to bring our knowledge to the rest of the world.”

Many people “do not believe in the message of sustainability, so we bring scientific research to prove it can bring a healthy economy and well-being to the world.”

Chief Almir’s 1,300 tribe members are all vested in a green future, he said.  “We get courage and strength to do what we do in the belief that in the long run, we are right in what we are fighting for,” he said, “to create that green consciousness for our future. Resistance can be done through armed struggle, but we believe it works better through awareness.”

We’ll be listening and watching for more information coming out of the region.  You can also check out ATC’s website, and here’s more information on Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui, including a video.

As engineers (and project managers), we’re naturally attracted to the practical use – and conveyance – of good information.  Systems that take complicated or disparate information and “promote” it into knowledge and wisdom are, well, it sounds goofy, but they’re beautiful things.  There’s actually a whole science dedicated to the advancement of data to wisdom – see this link on the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom pyramid. That’s why we like a book like “The Back of the Napkin“, by Dan Roam.  He has a knack for taking an idea and illustrating it – and if you read the book he can show you how to do that yourself.

Microsoft Project and some of its add-in programs have this same effect on us.  If software can take a 500-component Work Breakdown Structure and generate a chart that shows us when resources will be short – we like that.  Alot.

So it’s no wonder that we had a sense of wonder when we came across a site called informationisbeautiful.net .  And we liked it even more when it featured several images – or rather diagrams – on “climate”.  We of course want to direct you to those but we also encourage you to spend a moment drifting though this site and gazing at the way in which they show how information can be presented in a form that is striking.  And it’s not only visual – one of their more recent posting has a music box (complete with music) represented by the planets’ orbits around our sun.   Creative, engaging stuff.

We’d like to direct your attention to one particular climate image regarding the skeptic and consensus view of climate change.  We don’t want to steer you to either side, we just want to have you look at the way in which the information is presented – balanced, with the data in the center and the opinions on the appropriate “side” of the “argument”.  Project managers can take a tip from this style of arbitration.  Get the facts on the table.  Put the information in perspective.

Now – we realize you won’t be able to read this tiny version of the chart, and that’s why we gave you this link to the image (click here).

We also provide you with a link to the main site (click here).

And, for completeness, the source of the consensus view (click here).

link to video is below in the post

One Degree Matters follows social and business leaders as they travel to Greenland and experience for themselves the dramatic effects of the melting of the ice cap and come to understand the planetary effects of climate change and the impacts these will have on society and the economy. The film brings to the screen the latest science from the Arctic and shows why a further rise in global temperature of one degree matters for the future of humankind.

This video was posted 11 days ago by the European Environmental Agency.

Why do we call this a “challenge video“?

One simple reason.  We know that some of you out there are – fair enough – cynics about climate change.  We know that others of you may believe that this is a problem but still are cynical about making the connection to Project Management.

So the video you are about to watch – or at least we hope you will watch – will challenge you to think in terms of opportunity.  Enjoy the photographic beauty of the video, the breadth of backgrounds of the business and social leaders who are interviewed, and in particular, focus in on the many, many times the word project is used in the dialogue.

We challenge you to watch this with an impartial eye – the eye of the facilitator that you need to use as a PM – and notice what the “green wave”  may have to offer you (individually), you (organizationally) and you (as a resident of Earth).  And – we challenge you to respond to this post with your views after you’ve taken the challenge.

Here is the link to the video:

http://vimeo.com/8119882