It’s almost time for New Year’s Resolutions, and we start with best New Year’s wishes for all of our readers and followers.  Happy New Year!

What will motivate you and your organizations as you move into this new year and set strategy?

In terms of setting projects and programs to become leaner, more efficient, and to reduce your impact on the environment, will you be pushed into this by regulation, legislation, laws, and limits?  Or will incentives from government, or better economics of doing things the right way have a pull on you and your projects?  Or, perhaps, it’s about image – an image that your advertising is projecting, which needs to match your actual way of behaving and performing?

Resolutions are set at the end of December, looking forward towards January.  Just as January is based on the Roman god Janus, with a forward and backward-looking face, the Pushmi-Pullyu, a creature from Dr. Dolittle, is the inspiration for this posting.

This is a good time to think about these forces which pull and push your organization – and thus your projects – in different directions.  Your PMO sits at a key point in the organization’s ability to execute portfolios, programs and projects, all of which should be tied firmly to the enterprise’s mission and values.  In our book (“Green Project Management“, CRC Press) we explore Interface Carpet and the way in which Ray Anderson made environmental commitments and how that in turn drove programs and projects for his enterprise – yielding tremendous savings in reduced waste, improvements in employee morale, and a better product.

Those of you who are sharp-eyed readers will have noted that the word “limits” above is a hyperlink.  And, in typical PM, Type A Personality fashion, you may have already clicked on that link and noticed that it was from a story in today’s Boston Globe.  This was another inspiration for today’s posting – the PUSH side of the equation.  But even in this story, the PULL comes out.  Let’s break it down for you, using some pull quotes from the story:

PUSH:

“Over the next decade, the plan aims to bring greenhouse gas emissions to levels that are 25 percent below those in 1990, the maximum possible limit allowed under the state Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008. That legislation mandates an 80 percent reduction in statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”

PULL:

“Under the new plan, the state would cut at least an additional 7 percent through new initiatives and incentives, including a pilot program to make auto insurance cheaper for people who drive fewer miles.”

This story is interesting enough to read separately from the blog posting and we suggest you do just that by clicking here.

However we also – as is our habit – would like to share a a couple of  resources with you that resonate to this same theme – Pushmi-Pullyu.

Below is a chart from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change‘s Climate Change 101:

Note the large number of “PULL” aspects to this chart – reasons to move towards acting with greenality, based on logic and necessity rather than mandate.  We think 2011 may be a key year for enterprises to realize this pull, and for governments to do whatever they can to accentuate and incentivize based on these pulls, while bringing out the mandates and limits – the pushes - where necessary.

As usual – it’s all about balance.

May 2011 be a very balanced year for all of you.
Cheers!

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!

The following excerpt comes from today’s Sunday Boston Globe.

NEWMAN, Australia – Here in this land of searing heat, scrub, and eucalyptus, a land so vast that road signs warn the next gas station is 600 miles away, Mount Whaleback was once 1,500 feet high. Today it’s a hole, the biggest open-pit iron ore mine in the world – an entire mountain crushed, sold, and shipped to China.

Trucks with tires twice the height of a grown man cart thousands of tons of raw ore to a processing plant, where it is separated and poured into the longest and heaviest train in the world – 336 freight cars pulled by six locomotives. It chugs 300 miles to Port Hedland, where it is loaded onto ships bound for the unquenchable steel mills of the People’s Republic.

The grey arrows indicate the trend is worse year-to-year.
For some local flavor about the mining operations, we suggest these links.

http://www.kiwihyde.com/?p=68

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtA0p09SE6o&feature=related

We’re interested in hearing from you about the environmental impacts of this type of mining, especially considering the numbers above.
Comments?  Enlightenment?  We’re listening…