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.

While we at EarthPm assert that “a project run with green intent is the right thing to do”, we are also realists.  Businesses cannot stay in business if they constantly lose money on their ventures.  If businesses are to be encouraged to do that right thing, a noble effort, they will also need to “justify” the   bottom-line.  That is why we, along with a lot of other people, say that it is not only the right thing to do, but going green makes cents.

A couple of weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal included a section on the environment, ECO:nomics – Creating Environmental Capital.  In this EarthPM post, we’d like to highlight a couple of the “Best Practices” outlined in the section.  It not only included what works, but also contrasted with what doesn’t work according to some “green leaders”.  For instance, from Steve Fludder, VP Ecomagination, GE (one of the companies featured in our upcoming book), on businesses addressing climate change, a business should “continue to focus on improving your company’s own energy efficiency” (feeds the bottom-line), and “don’t let the current uncertainty over government action become an excuse to stop innovating”.  For financing green projects (of particular interest to us as project managers), Richard Cohen, Managing Director, Environmental Strategic Investment Group, Bank of America, says “create new training and education programs to train the energy work force”, and the current government and regulatory environment “are Byzantine and bureaucratic, and that discourages financing”.  There is much more in this Wall Street Journal section that we find very interesting, including a view from “big oil”, and a top ten ranking of “clean-tech” companies.  Look to future posts for some more information on these and other topics.

Once in a while we will take the opportunity to send you to a meaningful and/or content-rich website or blog with intriguing resources for project managers.

Such is the case with the blog Green Flow.

The blog is part of Common Current, and is authored by Warren Karlenzig.

Karlenzig, Common Current founder and president, has worked with the federal government; the nation of South Korea (”New Cities Green Metrics”); The European Union (”Green and Connected Cities Initiative”); the State of California (”Comprehensive Recycling Communities” and “Sustainable Community Plans”); major cities; and the world’s largest corporations developing policy, strategy, financing and critical operational capacities for 20 years.

Since the focus of the blog is new trends and economic news related to sustainability, project managers can go here to help predict where the ‘action’ will be in terms of new programs and projects.  You can see this in the most recent posting about the US Green Economy.

Visit Green Flow – and keep current.

Well, we’ve been saying it for months.

And now the Project Management Institute’s  PM Network magazine features it in their January 2010 issue.

Let’s set the stage:

• • • The global  market for environmental products and services will reach US$27.4 trillion (yes that is Trillion, with a T) by 2020 (that’s only 10 years from now, folks).
    • Global companies plan to invest US$500 billion in low carbon projects.
    • 29% of over 1,000 IT decision makers surveyed in September 2009 listed energy-efficient and green IT is their top technical priority in 2010.

And all of that adds up to lots of projects and lots of jobs.  In fact, see the nearly simultaneous posting below, regarding the announcement by US President Obama.

That’s the green wave we’ve been talking about.  And that’s why, wherever you stand on the environmental issues, you need to pay attention to this stuff – it’s going to eventually have an effect on your career path.  So stick with us as we guide you through this intersection of Green and PM.

We suggest you read the article.  If you’re a PMI Member, you can get the article online or via your subscription to PM Network.  If not, we’ll be seeking permission to provide it right here on EarthPM soon.  We’re also seeking interviews with the people featured in the article to get even more insight on this topic, and of course our upcoming book will go very much into detail on the opportunities for project managers as this wave arrives and continues.

In the meantime, as another person with a one-two punch used to say, “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”.