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Tag Archive: eco


greenmoney

In our upcoming book, we make several assertions, which seem to prove themselves over and over again with real stories from the news.

Assertion 3 is that an environmental strategy for a project provides added opportunity for success of both the project and the product of the project.

In the book we also express our opinion that projects are really a microcosm (and the “business end”) of business.

So it’s not really a surprise to us that private equity firm KKR (owners of brands such as Sealy mattresses), which put several of its companies into a “Green Portfolio”, avoided 345,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, 8,500 tons of paper, and 1.2 million tons of waste, and, oh-by-the-way, in addition also saved $160 million in reduced operating costs.

Don’t take our word for it.  Have a look at the video below from The Deal.

You can also read more about it here.

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visualize

If you have had doubts about this intersection of Project Management and green that we assert, check this out.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has created a transformational document called Vision 2050. In this February 2010 report (so we’re talking brand-new) they identify something they call a critical pathway to success.  Hmmm.  I have heard that term… critical pathway…somewhere before, haven’t you?

Under the Vision 2050 project of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), 29 WBCSD member companies developed a vision of a world well on the way to sustainability by 2050, and a pathway leading to that world – a pathway that will require fundamental changes in governance structures, economic frameworks,
business and human behavior.  It emerged that these changes are necessary, feasible and offer
tremendous business opportunities for companies that turn sustainability into strategy.

The Vision 2050 project addresses three questions:

  • What does a sustainable world look like?
  • How can we realize it?
  • What are the roles business can play in ensuring more rapid progress toward that world?

To skip to the end of the report, and we quote, “In a nutshell, that outcome would be a planet of around 9 billion people, all living well – with enough food, clean water, sanitation, shelter, mobility, education and health to make for wellness – within the limits of what this small, fragile planet can supply and renew, every day.”

Sounds good to us.  Like most project managers, we’re skeptical but interested in this whole concept of sustainability, what it means, and what we as business leaders (and make no mistake, as PMs, we are business leaders) can and should do to get to that outcome.

Oh, so on to that critical pathway.  Here it is (from the report):
• Addressing the development needs of billions of people, enabling education and economic empowerment, particularly of women, and developing radically more eco-efficient solutions, lifestyles and behavior

• Incorporating the cost of externalities, starting with carbon, ecosystem services and water

• Doubling of agricultural output without increasing the amount of land or water used

• Halting deforestation and increasing yields from planted forests

• Halving carbon emissions worldwide (based on 2005 levels) by 2050, with greenhouse gas emissions peaking around 2020 through a shift to low-carbon energy systems and highly improved demand-side energy efficiency

• Providing universal access to low carbon mobility

• Delivering a four-to-tenfold improvement in the use of resources and materials

Now, we’re not sure of all of the subtasks and dependencies, nor do they provide a full Work Breakdown Structure, detailed schedule, and/or Earned Value Technique metrics… but this does indeed illustrate the connection we’ve been discussing here at Earth PM.

To see either a summary or the entire report (no charge) in PDF format, visit these handy links:

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