One of the most prevalent themes in our soon-to-be-released book, and really what inspired the cover art for the book, is that project managers stand to benefit from the “green wave”, and that although it’s the right thing to do – altruistically – it’s also the right thing to do from a business perspective.
That said, we provide this update from GreenBiz which shows a much rosier picture of the ‘green economy’.
Here’s an extract (note the embedded link directly to the survey data):
“There’s good news this week on the green business front: Budgets and hiring in corporate environmental departments are on the rise. Those are core findings of the twice-annual “Green and the Economy” survey conducted by our GreenBiz Intelligence unit. While the overall economy still seems shaky, corporate environmental and sustainability departments seem to be on much more solid ground.
One big finding of our mid-year 2010 survey is that “the economic downturn is no longer driving most large companies’ environmental strategy,” as my colleague, John Davies, vice president of GreenBiz Intelligence, writes this week. That means environmental initiatives are being driven more on the basis of strategic business decisions, as they should be. Chief among them, Davies found, is that “the economic downturn has taken a backseat to growing customer requirements as the principal driver of corporate environmental strategy.”
Hiring is up, too. Large companies, in particular, are increasing headcounts for environmental and sustainability roles. In early 2009, 27 percent of large companies reported hiring freezes and only 8 percent planned to increase headcount for environmental departments. Today, only 11 percent report hiring freezes and more than 28 percent plan to increase headcount, a major swing.”
You’ll see more from us soon on this topic as we provide some references to Pamela Gordon’s excellent book on this topic, Lean and Green.
You are a business end
Let that soak for a minute. Roll it around up there in your head.
If this will help you, here is the definition of the first use of the term business end, as an expression: “The part of a tool or other similar item, that is physically used for its operation, rather than the part which is held”. The second reference to a business end is that of a business objective.
So back to that first definition – the business end, like the hammerhead in this photo. It’s the point of impact. It’s where the rubber hits the road (or the hammerhead hits the nail). It’s where sparks fly. It’s where things get done.
And that’s you, Mr. Project Manager. It’s you, Ms. Project Manager.
So if we are the business end of business ends – we had better know what those business ends are, hadn’t we?
It’s for that reason we direct your attention to the State of the Green Business Report (link below), which was released today.
It helps for us to increase our greenality – our vocabulary in all things green, about sustainability, and whether we like it or not, how our enterprises are showing their “earthy” face to the world.
Here are some examples from the report:
Of course – on top of the fact that knowing these tidbits helps you improve your knowledge of sustainable business, you also must, by now, recognize that any one of those bullets is the trigger for at least ONE program or project!