In the two decades since the Earth Summit in 1992, an increasing number of projects have built sustainability considerations into project design and implementation. Project managers without knowledge and guidance on sustainability assessment would find it difficult to drive projects and programs contributing towards a sustainable society. The purpose of this chapter is to devise an assessment tool for project managers incorporating the concept of pillar-based and principles-based sustainability approaches as well as the EIA-driven and objectives-led assessment methodologies. The definitions of sustainability in project management and program management are discussed as basis for the establishment of sustainability evaluation framework. The views of project management community regarding the role of project manager in handling project related sustainability activities are discussed. This chapter contributes to devising a practical assessment tool for project managers in managing project sustainability.
TopIntroduction
Apart from the threat of hostilities and terrorism, it seems certain that climate change and the exhaustion of natural fossil fuel resources will provide the biggest challenges in the future. We shall need effective project managers to deal with these challenges if humankind is to survive (Lock, 2007, p. 5).
Lock raises concern about sustainability of humankind (Lock, 2007). He is well aware that project managers need to face the kind of challenges like climate change and lack of fossil fuel in the days to come. Project managers are becoming part of the solution to human survival or sustainable development – a popular term after Gro Harlem Brundtland releasing the well-known “Brundtland Report” in 1987. She puts down the definition of sustainable development as “the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987). Her basic emphases are on long-term aspects of the concept of sustainability and equity between the present and future generations. The context in which Brundtland’s definition is embedded indicates that ‘needs’ include a sound environment, a just society and a healthy economy (Diesendorf, 2000). It links to what people perceive for a change in behavior, attitudes, and consumption patterns, etc. towards sustainability and equity, and how society perceives and values the environment. In the eyes of Diesendorf, ‘Development’ covers social and economic improvement in a broad sense and which may or may not involve economic growth. The emphasis is on ‘qualitative improvement in human-being’ or ‘unfolding of human potential’ as discussed by the ecological economist, Herman Daly (Diesendorf, 2000).
The Agenda 21, which is a comprehensive blueprint of action as adopted by more than 178 governments at the United Nations in the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, called for global partnership and drove governments, business and industry for sustainable development (UNCED, 1992). While most discussions on sustainability and sustainable development focus on political or policy level issues and global concerns, a research supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the University of Minnesota addressed the equally important focus at the project level – how to conduct project for better performing sustainable development. Gregersen, Lundgren and White (1994) in their policy brief suggested changing the project approach to assure more sustainable benefit flows through project activities for the sake of improving the contribution of projects to sustainable development and avoiding unsustainability (Gregersen, Lundgren, & White, 1994).
Munier (2005, p. 21) in his book “Introduction to Sustainability: Road to a Better Future” mentions that “Sustainability as a process often involves making an analysis to determine the best course of action when several projects, plans, programs, and options are considered” (Munier, 2005). Project exists in a relatively turbulent environment and change is the purpose of the project itself and uncertainty is inherent in the objectives of that project. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMBoK (4th edition) published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) recognizes “… Projects can also have social, economic, and environmental impacts that far outlast the projects themselves” (PMI, 2008). Since project management is becoming a common way of managing business (Bredillet, 2000; Turner, 2009), the awareness of project manager and his/her team members to meeting the challenges of sustainability in project delivery would have made contributions to mankind.