We’ve all heard the buzz about alternative energy; clean coal, wind power, tidal power, solar power, and nuclear power to name a few.  Traveling around Ireland last year, there was a noticeable increase in wind farms.  The talk around the county is to try to get most, if not all, of the power from the wind.  Everyone in Ireland and those who visit know that it is a windy country, surrounded by the North Sea, in an area of constantly changing weather patterns.  Power generation by wind is still in its infancy.  It may work in a small, unique area like Ireland, and generally on a smaller scale, we need to look to other alternatives for larger applications.

In today’s article in the Wall Street Journal On-line it states that, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), “Nuclear energy is one of the key low-carbon energy technologies that can contribute, alongside energy efficiency, renewable energies and carbon capture and storage, to the decarbonization of electricity supply by 2050, said IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka. I could provide as much as 25% of world-wide energy requirements by 2050. ” That would mean that “nuclear generating capacity to more than triple over the next 40 years.”

Nuclear energy is a proven technology, unlike some of the alternatives.  Director General Luis Echavarri of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) , a specialized agency within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization of industrialized countries, based in Paris, France, says  “Nuclear is already one of the main sources of low-carbon energy today. If we can address the challenges to its further expansion, nuclear has the potential to play a larger role in cutting CO2 emissions”.

To achieve these numbers, there will be a multitude of projects throughout the world requiring project managers.  Beside the project management jobs in the nuclear power plant construction industry, there will be PM jobs in support of nuclear power like plant design, accident prevention and development of safety features.  Just like the oil industry, there will be risks.  Who better to help manage risks than a project manager?

Because we are all interested in the “next best thing” in terms of what the future job market looks like, EarthPm will continue to identify those areas, whether the projects are green by definition, project impact, product impact, or green in general.  We’re not advocating one source of power generation over another, but we do believe that you must be aware of all the alternatives and where the potential future jobs may be.

The new incentives would apply to wind and solar projects, clean coal technology, advanced nuclear technology and cogeneration ( the simultaneous production of heat and power in a single thermodynamic process) projects.  It could mean upwards of 700 new jobs in this sector. For us, that’s what it is all about, planet, projects, and putting people back to work.  700 jobs don’t seem like a lot, but multiply that by the number of states who have similar or who will have similar incentives and it is an good start toward recovery of the job market.  Couple that with the indirect benefits of a job (the multiplier) and it could mean an additional 4 or more jobs in support of those workers.  After all, we all need to purchase a pair of Earthkeepers®

Of course, the point is, that every project should have a project manager.  Project managers can keep their ears to the ground and their eyes on EarthPM to see how this “Green Wave” is affecting and will affect the future of our discipline.

One of the definitions of sustainability used in the workshop is the same Bruntland one we use in the book; “Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (United Nations 1987) The workshop was focused on the Natural Step Framework, the framework I believe “frames” the Green Wave. (For more information on the “green wave, please read our book’s introduction.)  In a nutshell, and quoting from the workshop, we need to ‘Begin to reduce what we TAKE (from the earth); Begin to reduce what we MAKE (stuff that isn’t biodegradable or recyclable); Begin to increase what we PROTECT (biodiversity); Begin to increase what we RESPECT (human rights).”

Further, following a project’s lifecycle, and using this workshop as an example, sustainability is a project and we must plan, organize and control the effort.  And as a final step, make sure that we take into consideration the long term effects of what we are doing, or as McDonough and Braungart say, consider “cradle-to-cradle”.

The workshop’s focus is on using the Natural Step Framework as a “practical approach to strategic planning” for a community’s (any community) efforts to advance sustainability.  The example used in the workshop was Portsmouth, New Hampshire, (an eco-municipality) which has made incredible strides in its sustainability efforts.  For more information go to their website.

Bottom-line, at least one of the things I took out of it, is that one person,  like a small ice ball rolling down a snow cover mountain, can unleash an avalanche of success for a project by getting more and more people involved in the project.  That ice ball, no matter what you call it, is a project manager. Using the immense arsenal of skills that project managers possess, will aid in the success of any project.  And I will say it again, projects are where ideas meet reality, and the project manager has to be and is the champion of change.  Thinking “sustainable” is one of those changes.

“Business success, for us, is defined not not only by the return we earn for our stakeholders but also by the positive impact we have on our community and environment,” said Betsy Blaisdell, Timberland’s senior manager of environmental stewardship as quoted in the article.  Further she says, “Bottom-line results are obviously critical – if we cease to be profitable, we cease to exist – but if we earn them at the expense of our values and commitment to be responsible corporate citizens, we’ve failed.”

Projects like reducing energy, chemical, and resource use at Timberland-owned and operated facilities worldwide are being executed.  Timberland’s goal is also to engage employees, the public, and even challenge competitors to do the same.  Timberland continues to grow in spite of a weak economy.  “Success for us comes from a business model in which commerce and justice are inextricably linked,” Blaisdell explained.  Learn more about Timberland’s environmental stewardship.

You’d think that the environmental protection or “Climate Bill” might be shored up (excuse the terrible pun) by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which will likely overtake the Exxon Valdez as the USA’s worst oil spill.  In fact, the latest news from the spill involves the shutdown of all fishing in the entire Gulf area (see this story from the Houston Chronicle).

“More than 6,800 square miles of federal fishing areas, from the mouth of the Mississippi to Florida’s Pensacola Bay were closed for at least 10 days on Sunday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco says government scientists are taking samples from the waters near the spill to determine whether there is any danger.”

So…all of this should help pass the Climate Bill, right?  After all, the Climate Bill is about alternative energy, right?  And after all, the Climate Bill is about protecting the environment, right?

Think again.

As it turns out – and this is politics, folks – the bill calls for new offshore drilling; this was one of the concessions made to help build consensus for the bill.  Project managers know that a hybrid of compromise and collaboration often are what’s needed to get things done – and that’s what happened here.

But in this case, the inclusion of new offshore drilling in the light of this catastrophe will probably end up killing the bill, which is already stalled, puttering, and nearly dead anyway.

A good story on this situation appeared in the wire services (AP) and you can find that full story here.

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*** FLASH *** Update 14-MAY-2010

May 14, 2010 – news story broken by NPR – see full story here.

The amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico is far greater than official estimates suggest, according to an exclusive NPR analysis.

At NPR’s request, experts analyzed video that BP released Wednesday. Their findings suggest the BP spill is already far larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, which spilled at least 250,000 barrels of oil.

[Editor's comment: this means the Gulf oil spill is like one Exxon Valdez every four days]

Steven Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, analyzed videotape of the seafloor gusher using a technique called particle image velocimetry.

A computer program simply tracks particles and calculates how fast they are moving. Wereley put the BP video of the gusher into his computer. He made a few simple calculations and came up with an astonishing value for the rate of the oil spill: 70,000 barrels a day — much higher than the official estimate of 5,000 barrels a day.

The method is accurate to a degree of plus or minus 20 percent.

UPDATE 21-MAY:

The update above still was too conservative; the estimates are much larger.  BP has been forced to admit that the 5,000 gallon-per-day rate was far off, because they are siphoning 5,000 gallons per day and the camera still shows huge plumes billowing out.

There is now a “SpillCam” on the US Government DOE site:

http://globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam

However, it’s been down almost since inception because of bandwidth problems (seems like a lot of people have an interest in this!)  You can still get a view of what’s going on down there from Senator Bill Nelson’s site, which captured some of the video and put it up on his site.

We wondered how UNH will pay for the project.  The answer is from an article by the EcoLine Partnership.  UNH will sell the renewable energy certificates (RECs) generated by using landfill gas to help finance the overall cost of the project and to invest in additional energy efficiency projects on campus. In addition, UNH will sell power in excess of campus needs back to the electric grid. “By selling the RECs from EcoLine™, UNH will further fund its aggressive plan toward climate neutrality,” says Tom Kelly, UNH chief sustainability officer and director of the office of sustainability. “With this climate action plan, called WildCAP, UNH has committed to lowering its emissions by 50 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2080.”

Of course, WM cannot simply tap the landfill and send it down the pipeline.  The naturally occurring by-product of landfill decomposition is collected via a state-of-the-art collection system consisting of more than 300 extraction wells and miles of collection pipes.  The gas is purified and compressed at a new UNH processing plant at the Waste Management’s Turnkey Recycling and Environmental Enterprise (TREE) in Rochester, N.H.  It then travels through a 12.7-mile-pipeline from the landfill to UNH’s cogeneration plant, where it will replace commercial natural gas as the primary fuel source.

Just in these few paragraphs alone, there were three major projects identified; collection of the methane, the pipeline, power generation conversion at UNH.  While UNH is the first in the nation to do this, we are sure that more and more universities (and business/municipal complexes) will follow, especially those within close proximity to a landfill.  And these days, who isn’t!

Given that confluence of color and holiday, here at EarthPM we’re taking the opportunity to announce something brand-new and exciting related to Green Project Management, and we’ve chosen t’ do it on the eve of March 17th – St. Patrick’s day, or in Gaelic, Lá Fhéile Pádraig.

That “something” is The Shamrock 7 – a (soon-to-be-prestigious) recognition award for the 7 most influential people in green project management.  It will honor the top 7 (with no ranking amongst the seven) people from around the world for their contributions and importance to this nascent field.

The details are still forming, but we know the intent and basic criteria for the award.

Nominations will be accepted after July when detailed criteria are available.

Judging will be done by a panel here at EarthPM, and the winners will be featured on our site, and will receive a complimentary one-year advertisement on our sponsor page, which they could use to promote their business or a charitable cause of their choice.

Stay tuned for details.  We’ll have more for you between now and July when nominations are due, and we’ll be using social media such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to get the word out.  Between now and then, be thinking of who you think should be considered.  Who do you think to be influential in the greening of project management?  It could be someone involved as the PM of a clean tech project, or a project manager who has become somewhat of a thought leader in environmentally conscious PM…. the field is relatively open – although we do want the person to be a professional in the discipline of project management.

So be on the lookout for leprechauns and more announcements about this award.  And happy St. Patrick’s Day to ye!

This is a whole feature on Project Management and the “Green Sector”.  Very good and recommended reading whether you’re interested in our interview or not!

Check it out HERE.