How to become a sustainable project manager

The role of the project manager is changing. As sustainability becomes more critical – not only to the organisations we work within, but to our planet – the project and change management community must adapt to meet these evolving needs. As a community, we hold a pivotal role in ensuring that what is delivered in a project is viewed from all perspectives: as sustainability becomes more vital to our organisations, we will need to put on our ‘green tinted glasses’ to understand and share these perspectives.

You may have heard of ‘rose tinted glasses’, the concept of people unrealistically seeing only the good points of a subject. While the colour green can, indeed, represent many good things – life, nature, growth, harmony, vitality, hope and prosperity – our green tinted glasses must also be able to see the challenges our projects face. Global problems: affordable energy, clean water and responsible resource consumption, as well as inequalities in education, food and health, will need to be considered from a green viewpoint to meet the planet’s sustainability goals.

Taking action for future generations

As project managers, we are skilled in planning for the future: skills our organisations will need, to help them identify and implement the environmental, social and governance (ESG) solutions they must deliver for a sustainable future.

In addition to supporting our organisations to future-proof their assets and business models, we must also enable them to comply with current and future legislation around net zero and social value. More questions are being asked of projects to support reporting, different types of projects are being delivered, and the needs and expectations of stakeholders are changing. Project managers will need to change too, to meet these needs.

Many projects are already being delivered which have sustainability at their heart. Our own portfolio includes work helping councils to introduce clean air zones, which aim to drive a reduction in the many thousands of deaths caused by air pollution. The diversity of sustainable projects is vast: from partnerships reintroducing beavers to mitigate flooding; to those developing world scale low hydrogen plant; to those identifying materials that can be recovered from wastewater and sewage sludge for reuse. Project managers are supporting, and must continue to drive, positive change.

Delivering the sustainability vision

Knowing what sustainability is, how can project managers deliver it? Firstly, by delivering their projects through sustainable working practices and methods, including considering the carbon impact of a project’s travel, communications and procurement, as well as those of its supply chain. Each project manager will need to understand their organisation’s procurement policy, and the processes that need to be followed to ensure that contracts list carbon management within their key requirements.

Project managers will also need to understand their organisation’s sustainability agenda and change initiatives will need to have sustainability embedded in their vision and objectives. This means they must understand how their project contributes to, or aligns with, these organisational objectives; what the implications are of these objectives upon the project’s business case; and how this will be evaluated. This may require the use of new tools, metrics and measures – for example carbon data baselining and reporting, and community impact.

Sustainability across the project lifecycle

But sustainability isn’t just a ‘one and done’, it must be considered across the project lifecycle: from the concept stage, through planning, development and control, to handover and closure. At concept stage, the project manager must know why sustainability is important to the organisation or client, and what frameworks, expectations, and overarching objectives apply to the project. During the planning stage, project goals should be formulated so they include sustainability considerations and connect with their underpinning sustainability objectives.

Throughout the development and control stage, the project manager must ensure that their team and stakeholders understand the project’s sustainability goals and must continue to review and challenge existing objectives across the review process. They can take their stakeholders on the journey, leading by example through sharing challenges, successes, and lessons learned with other projects. Radical collaboration is key – sustainability issues won’t be solved by one person alone, but by working in unison, crowd-sourcing ideas from both the project team and broader stakeholders. Finally, in the handover and closure stage, the project manager should evaluate the project’s sustainability impact, sharing the results; and should consider the residual sustainability goals that need to be driven longer term.

Making a difference

In supporting their organisations to achieve their sustainable goals, project managers have the opportunity to make a real difference, reducing the impact upon the planet’s natural resources. They are perfectly positioned to do so – sitting at the epicentre of projects, they ensure that what is being delivered meets both the organisation’s purpose and the ever-changing external environment. Through their contribution, project managers can help to minimise the environmental and social impact of project delivery and, longer term, contribute to designing in resilience and social value, and designing out carbon and negative effects upon their communities.

The landscape is continually changing, with industry regulations and trends driving organisational requirements. In response to this, we are seeing unprecedented levels of sustainability considerations asked for in standard projects: from social value, to support to decarbonise projects, to supply chain transformation. Individual project managers will need to embrace continuous learning, staying up to date with industry regulation and trends, and growing their skills and knowledge to deliver sustainability initiatives. Because sustainability and project management belong together. As project managers, we are in a position to influence: it’s time for us to take off those rose tinted glasses and replace them for green tinted glasses.