Today we are interviewing Rich Maltzman, PMP® and David Shirley, PMP® of EarthPM about green project management.
Please visit their bios on the Authors page to learn more about their background.
The Interview
I’d like to ask you both a few questions so we can better understand green project management in general and your vision for EarthPM.
1. Explain to us what is meant by “green project management?” How would you define that term?
First of all we want your readers to know that green project management goes well beyond projects which involve wind farms or biofuel production, and is in no way limited to project managers who are “tree-huggers”. Our key assertion is that project managers have “conserving resources” in their DNA, and should be thinking about lifecycle costs – in the larger sense – based on their interest in serving their organizations and their stakeholders. So to define the term, green project management is indeed about sustainability, efficiency, and environmental concerns in the literal sense but it is also about an effective and holistic management of the project to conserve resources and make for a more effective project and project outcome. We stress that word – the project’s outcome.
2. I’ve also heard the term “greenality.” A very interesting word – what is your definition?
Greenality is the degree to which a project has considered environmental (green) factors that affect a project during the entire project life cycle. It contains two project management aspects; (1) consideration and planning to minimize the environmental impacts of a project, and (2) the monitoring and controlling of the environmental impacts of the product of the project. Similar in nature to quality (and thus the similar ending of the word) it must be planned in and not ‘sprayed on’ at the end.
We actually have this definition up on Urban Dictionary and it has received 95.2% thumbs up so far! (Note from Gina: I agree! Definitely a “thumbs up!”)
3. How did you get involved in green project management?
The two of us have many years in project management – over 60 years combined – and one day we were discussing efficiency and conservation of project resources and realized that we had really been “green” for a long time in that respect and saw how much this related to the “green wave” now rolling out in front of us. So it really just came down to a ‘realization’.
4. What is your vision for EarthPM?
Our vision is that project managers adopt our 5 assertions as a way of managing projects day-to-day and especially in the initiation and planning process groups. As far as our vision as an organization, we want to be recognized as a pioneering – and the leading – training and consulting firm in this unique intersection of green and project management.
5. What are some ways that project managers and others can join the “green project management wave?”
Start by working with some facts. We’ve always thought that project management is a microcosm of general business. Don’t get us wrong, it deserves all of the respect and focus it’s getting as a discipline, we just see PM as being a core sample and special case of general business. That said, there is a lot of excellent reading available on “green” in general business that can be applied to PM. So, for example, you could curl up with Green to Gold by Esty and Winston, or The Truth about Green Business by Gil Friend, and learn about the wave. In fact, we aren’t saying that anyone has to “join” anything, but one should, at a minimum, be aware of the green wave and what it means to business, projects, and in particular, your project and its outcome/deliverable.
6. What else do you want to share about your company and yourselves?
We would invite them to connect with us – and there are many ways of doing this: our EarthPM groups on LinkedIn and Gantthead, following us on Twitter and of course just by staying up to date with our website, http://www.earthpm.com which features interviews and a blog about green PM. We are always looking for good ideas in this ever-changing intersection of two ever-changing concerns, and would certainly entertain sponsors or interviews for our web page. See also our LinkedIn group, Gween (for Green Writer’s Ever Evolving Network).We also would direct you to look at the training opportunities we provide, up to and including certification in green PM.
Rich and David would be more than pleased to talk further about green project management – it is obviously their passion!
