Here at EarthPM we talk about the intersection of green and project management - in fact, it’s our tagline.

So what do we mean by that?

What do we mean when we say that conserving resources is already in the “DNA” of project managers?

Well, if you really want to find out we’d have to say “read our upcoming book“.  But since [A] it’s not yet available, and [B] that’s not directly helpful, we thought we’d instead point out some examples via a posting we found on Bright Hub.

The posting, by Ronda Levine, can be found here.  We actually suggest that you read this brief article now and then come back to this entry.

We’ll wait.

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Welcome back.

OK, you read it, right?  Or at least – you skimmed it…?  We hope so.

In the article, Ronda reviews the “top 10 tools for managing project resources”.  Interestingly (and we had nothing to do with this) she uses a wind farm as the intro graphic for the article.

The listing includes: PM Software, Resource Plan, Resource Breakdown Structure, Resource Histogram, the Resource Assignment Matrix, Collaboration Software, The PMBOK® Guide, Resource Leveling, Conflict Management, and Issue Logs.

All of these tools are used to conserve wasted energy on the project.  For example, a Resource Assignment Matrix (RAM) is one of the most powerful tools at the disposal (excuse the pun) of a project manager, in terms of preventing two or more team members from working on the same task – or even worse, having those two or more people assuming that ‘the other guy’ was working it, so nobody gets it done.

How does this relate to green?  Let’s go for the obvious example – two engineers both drive out to a job site 100 miles/km away, not realizing that the other was doing so.  We’re talking about project resources, yes, but we are also talking about the impact of this waste in the larger sense.  Multiply this by the number of times this sort of thing happens – and you get the idea.

Let’s look at the software pieces of Ronda’s list.  PM Software and Collaboration Software.  Both of these (read the book for the details) contribute greatly to savings for your project in terms of concise and clear communication (and thus fewer mistakes, and a greater chance of meeting your customers’ expectations), and they have an environmental aspect as well in terms of their reducing the number of times that folks have to fly or drive to different offices when that really isn’t necessary.

All of these tools – used properly – do contribute to project success, of course.  They also make your project more efficient and thus consume fewer resources.

That’s an example of the intersection of Green and Project Management.  We’re glad you decided to spend some time at this crossroads.  Please, spend some time looking around.