Of course we are interested in bloggers blogging about project management. Even though we are about the “intersection of Green and Project Management,” we are also project managers, teachers of project management methodologies (green included), and consultants in the field. And, we were very proud and excited to read “the-best-project-management-blogs” from Business Computing World. Heather Buckley, Director and co-founder of IT and business training providers Silicon Beach Training, writes about earthpm.com, “This blog is a recent discovery of mine and it’s quite distinctive, claiming to be devoted to “the intersection of Green and Project Management”. These two areas are surprisingly compatible, with over-lapping themes of saving money by using less resources and getting things done efficiently and effectively. This blog is a great place to head if you get bored of the same old – and somewhat trite – project management subjects and fancy something more stimulating.” Thank you Heather, we’re working hard to provide that “stimulating” connection between green and project management and we are very happy to be number one on your list. EarthPm, our proposal to PMI and our book are our green projects and as you know, every project needs metrics. Acknowledgment like this is certainly one of those success measures. Let us know how you feel about anything on the site, especially our proposal to PMI. We’re always looking for ways to make our projects better.
Tag Archive: Project Managers
This week I spent a very worthwhile 4 hours in the above titled workshop. It was hosted by Heidi Spinella, a sustainability consultant, and Bert Cohen, an adjunct professor at the University of New Hampshire, teaching Sustainable Living and Systems Thinking for Sustainable Living. Heidi is also a PMP so naturally, excuse the pun, my interpretation leaned more toward projects and how a project manager can lead sustainability efforts by using the tools we have available, one focus of our new book. I certainly wasn’t far off, as a matter of fact, I think my interpretation was right-on.
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.
That was the tit
le of a recent article in our local paper (The Portsmouth Herald). It was subtitled “Timberland (one of the companies featured in Top of their Game in our new book) achieves profits while helping the environment.” It is a good news environmental story for a change and it points out what we are saying, green projects make cents. According to Timberland sources, “broad corporate social responsibility is the essence of good business.” We can’t agree more.
“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.
Money Makes the World Go ‘Round
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.