Future focus

Project professionals need to adopt sustainable ways of working to ensure their organisation’s long-term survival, says Tertius Beneke head of sustainable development, infrastructure projects at Network Rail.

The world around us is changing. A recent report by the Royal Society states that it is ‘more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that humans are changing Earth’s climate’. Sea levels are rising and the weather is becoming more erratic. The five wettest and seven warmest years on record in the UK have happened since 2000 and the UK government estimates that the annual damages from flooding alone could rise from £1.3bn today to as much as £12bn by the 2080s. Few have forgotten the spells of extreme weather in January and February 2014 that ruined the railway line at Dawlish in Devon (the rebuild was an APM Project of the Year, see Project, November 2014) and put parts of the UK underwater. This will become the new normal. Humans will have to adapt.

Even without the mounting evidence that humans are causing climate change, the case for sustainability is stronger than ever before. Aside from the obvious environmental benefits, there are numerous economic and social gains.

The old myth that sustainable business models are costly and time-intensive is disappearing as adopters find that they yield bottom-line and top-line returns instead. This is true for all professionals, not least project managers. Lower costs, improved morale and stakeholder satisfaction are just some of the benefits offered by a solid sustainability policy.

So what exactly is sustainability? At it’s most basic, it’s about leaving the planet in a fit state for the next generation. It’s as simple as that. No generation should have to inherit the problems of the previous one. Demystifying sustainability is the first step to its implementation – it’s nothing like as complicated as people think and it can be broken down into three basic parts: environment, society and economy.

Green fingers
The environmental aspect will be the first thing many people think of when they hear the word ‘sustainability’ and no business can be truly sustainable unless it engages with environmental issues. It’s about limiting the impact humans have on communities and the natural world, reducing waste, lowering energy consumption and preserving natural habitats, among other things.

For Network Rail, that means trying to minimise the impact our work has on the world around us in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural A airs. For example, as part of the £4.6bn Thameslink rail improvement programme, Network Rail is helping to restore the Great North Wood, an area of ancient forest that once covered much of south London. There’s been a general decline in the biodiversity and range of ecology in the UK over the past 10 years and we want to reverse that.

Safety, well-being, diversity and inclusion are all part of the social pillar of sustainability, which encompasses a business’s workforce and stakeholders as well as the community it’s working in. Network Rail has introduced 10 ‘life-saving’ rules to ensure employees are well looked after. These include everything from checking the required plan and permits are in place before work starts, to not using a handheld device or hands-free phone while driving. We’re also investing £350m each year to deliver obstacle-free, accessible routes to, and between, platforms at priority stations.

Readers of this journal will already realise the benefi ts of projects that run on time and to budget, and that’s a key aspect of the economic side of sustainability. The aim is to create an economy that improves human well-being without harming the natural world. That means cutting down the money and resources we waste. Network Rail’s links to the UK government and Secretary of State for Transport mean that we’re very conscious of trying to reduce costs for taxpayers, funders and rail users. That’s why we’ve made every e ort to become more economically sustainable – our operating costs measured per train mile were 46 per cent lower in 2013-14 than they were in 2003-04.

The good news for project managers is that sustainability is highly compatible with many of the pre-existing practices of their trade. Indeed, many sustainable policies may already be in place without individuals necessarily recognising their value. The methodologies that pin project management together, such as ‘Plan, Do, Check, Review’ are similar to those used in sustainable development. The two disciplines speak the same language, so fully realising the benefi ts of sustainability shouldn’t be di cult for project managers. Businesses are already aware of the economic and social gains – after all, the benefi ts of an e cient, happy workforce are obvious – but the environmental aspect remains the poorer cousin. The next step is to venture further into environmental management.

Thankfully, sustainability is now fundamental to the way business skills are being taught, and young people are taking it as a given way of life. The next step is for leaders at the top of every company to embrace it – including project professionals. The UK floods in 2014 were a bleak reminder that sustainability is more important than ever before if we want to ensure the long-term survival of our planet – and our businesses.