In our book we talk about the Cost of Greenality.
Like the Cost of Quality, with which Project Managers should be familiar, it speaks to the idea that money spent up front to prevent problems and to be sure to meet stakeholder requirements will outweigh the savings in the medium and long run. Below is a chart that actually we were lucky enough to present today at PMI MassBay’s Professional Development Day in Waltham, Massachusetts.
BP and TransOcean are now seeing this first hand.
We’ll have much more on the Horizon Deepwater spill, but for now, have a look at these two videos from Fox News.
Environmental effects of the spill – video from Fox.
Cost of Greenality
Cost of External Failure – angry fishermen sue BP – from Fox.
Do you think BP may have been better off investing in the technology which could have prevented this incident, or are they better off dealing with the external (VERY external) failure that they’re experiencing now? And in this case, it’s not just BP, nor TransOcean. It’s the entire Gulf region, already hit hard by Katrina, and this may now start to affect people along the rest of the Atlantic and elsewhere.
Consider the Cost of Greenality.
UPDATE 4-MAY-2010
We’re now beginning to see numbers associated with the Cost of Greenality for this event – in the high single to double digits, in BILLIONS of dollars, and $34 BILLION in stock value losses, not to speak of the horrific reputation setback and lawsuits BP faces.
