Grabbing the opportunity for a greener future

As we come to discern what the ‘new normal’ might look like, there is a feeling that government and business should capitalise on this enforced pause to move towards greater sustainability.

“After the 2008 financial crash, governments spent too much money on ‘shovel-ready’ infrastructure projects. As a result just $1 out of every $6 was spent on sustainable infrastructure [globally],” wrote the Financial Times in its editorial of 15 May. “The opportunity today is greater. The cost of renewable energy has fallen significantly. The sector today provides many jobs, employing 11m people worldwide in 2018.”

Yet ‘greening’ a project is much more difficult than ‘greening’ a business, because projects typically involve multiple supply chains and temporary organisational structures. In a statement earlier this year, APM said that it agrees there is an urgent need for coordinated action by project professionals across all sectors to address and minimise the impacts of both the climate-change and biodiversity emergencies. Amid rising public concern, the UK government has set in law a target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (or sooner, as in Scotland). APM itself has made a commitment to be a carbon-neutral organisation consistent with the UK government’s own target date, if not sooner.

Confronting climate change

APM calls for projects of every size and purpose to minimise their environmental impact and adapt to the future climate. It is developing an action plan based on five objectives (see box, page 10) and is working on plans to reflect its statement on climate change, both to reduce its own carbon emissions and to provide thought leadership and resources for the profession.

Its Projecting the Future: Climate change, clean growth and sustainability challenge paper, published in September 2019, asks project professionals to “confront the implications of our projects for the climate. We have to consider the responsibility of the profession – and the individual professional – to drive change within individual projects and organisations”. Project managers now need to develop new competencies to deliver projects informed by knowledge of sustainability issues and the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Letting go of the old ways

Gwyn Jones, director of the Association of Sustainability Practitioners, told Project that now could be “a great opportunity” to let go of behaviours such as the use of coal, regional flights, car ownership and fast-fashion that have been directly and indirectly responsible for industrial-scale environmental, social and personal harm. “This isn’t a blame game: it means let’s invest in those ideas and industries that will contribute to that sustainable goal. Across the EU in particular, and here in the UK, business leaders and politicians are lobbying governments to do just that. If we go back to the old ways and travel the same path that got us here, we will end up back here.”

Jones points out that in cities around the world roads are being converted to multi-modal corridors with cycle lanes, broader footpaths and more bus lanes, to cope with social-distancing measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“But look at how they are doing it. Not elaborate (re)construction projects, but with bollards, tape and paint. They are experimenting and rapidly prototyping – seeing what works, adapting or abandoning those that fail and eventually setting in concrete those that work.

“Letting bikes, pedestrians, buses, trams and trains in solves congestion and stimulates more footfall in town centres and thus economic growth – and improves air quality. These plans, ideas and visions have been around for decades, but the inertia of ‘that’s how it’s always been’ stifled them. This shows how creative, imaginative and inventive our project managers can be when given the freedom to be so – and the freedom to fail.”

Jones says that, to commit to a more sustainable future, project managers should think differently. “Be aware that we are facing complex global problems that need new thinking: replace ‘ego-centric’ thinking with ‘eco-centric’ thinking. In other words, be really conscious of the interconnectedness and interdependence of the systems in which your project lives.” He advises project managers to consider both the positive and negative impacts of their project on all their stakeholders, from the local community and investors to the team, clients, sub-contractors and the planet.

Responsible PM

The campaign for Responsible Project Management (RPM) was launched in 2018, and is a call to action that aims to change the narrative of project management by focusing on the competencies and knowledge that project professionals will need to develop to act responsibly. The UN’s SDGs integrate social and environmental concerns and were chosen as a framework to underpin RPM.

The RPM manifesto, launched in 2019, and to which APM was an early signatory, calls for “project professionals to expand their roles by advocating for beneficial change”. It aims to facilitate conversations that value conscious awareness over ignorance of project impacts; regenerative and circular approaches over consumption, damage and waste; and collaboration and engagement over competition and control. Signatories are developing and applying ways of managing projects that deliver social, environmental and economic value.

Dr Karen Thompson, a lead campaigner for RPM, and senior academic in the people and organisations department at Bournemouth University, tells Project that: “The period of lockdown has provided plenty of opportunity for new thinking and behaviour. Many projects have been delivered in seemingly impossible time frames, from the mobile apps to monitor the virus to transport infrastructure projects taking advantage of the quiet time and digital transformations that have changed organisational behaviour. Post-pandemic it seems likely that the expectations for project delivery will be high, and my hope is that sustainability will be high on the agenda.”

Dr Thompson argues that, before the pandemic, climate change was highlighting the dependencies between economics, society and the natural world and making project delivery increasingly challenging, but that the COVID-19 crisis has further emphasised these dependencies. “Post-pandemic, in a rush to rebuild the economy, tensions between people, planet and profit are likely to play out in projects,” she says. “This will be an opportunity to create a better future, but it will not be easy.”

Strong foundations

She says that project managers already possess many of the skills needed to balance the needs of different stakeholders and to negotiate for beneficial change, although many will need to develop new competencies if they are to successfully deliver projects in the changed landscape. With her colleague Dr Nigel Williams, Dr Thompson recently gave an APM webinar on RPM, during which a poll on the extent of reporting of environmental and social project impacts was run, with 52 per cent of respondents indicating they are already regularly reporting on both. This gives an indication of some good foundations for future sustainability, Dr Thompson says.

Climate change: worse than a pandemic

“Climate change will cause more death, hardship and disruption than any pandemic,” Tom Taylor, past chairman and president of APM, principal of consultancy Dashdot and sustainability advocate, tells Project. “Pandemics do come to an end. Climate change will just continue to worsen and accelerate. Similar to pandemics, the effects of climate change cannot be eliminated or totally avoided – but as we have seen with COVID-19, they can be addressed and tackled.

“Perhaps now, working together, people and governments will be able to address ever-advancing climate change with the same focus as a pressing pandemic.”

To further the cause of sustainability right now, Taylor advises project managers and teams to undertake risk assessments and management for climate change within their business continuity and disaster recovery plans and provisions, as well as for fire, flooding, terrorism, asteroid collisions – and pandemics.

APM’s Action Plan on Climate Change

1 Raise awareness and encourage debate about the consequences of climate change and how individuals and organisations can make a difference now and in the future.

2 Guide, advocate and promote the need for investment in climate change adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development. We will do this by working in collaboration with public bodies, professional bodies and other stakeholders, as well as our corporate partners and individual members.

3 Encourage, identify and celebrate good practice within the project profession that responds to the climate change challenge.

4 Share and disseminate knowledge and research to encourage the take-up of project innovations that are responsive to both climate change and sustainability challenges.

5 Promote education, training and professional development opportunities to help members gain the knowledge and skills to respond effectively to climate change.