How can we apply “green” concepts to our project management discipline?

Green project management starts with establishing a culture of responsibility and sustainability in your requirements from project team members. We should use energy efficient products for our project which can reduce the consumption of energy. Like Switch to laptop computers rather than desktops as they require less energy and space. Run your laptop and other rechargeable devices on battery power as much as possible to reduce your consumption of electricity and extend the life of your batteries. So friends lets save energy and make our projects green.

Going green has become a topic that is becoming difficult to ignore because of the lack of resources. So as a project manager, maybe it’s time to think about Green Project Management (GreenPM). By recycling the materials used in our project may lead to green. For instance, when creating your project paper-based deliverables ensure that you are using recycled paper, instead of sending your waste to a landfill, try finding a recycling company and use eco-friendly packaging in products produced. So we should take the environment into account during a project rather than simply ignoring it.

Dear friend, an organization that follows GreenPM can add environment considerations into its procurement process. Since Procurement is often “larger” than a project or project manager, an organization initially needs to determine where green procurement resides. When practicing GreenPM on specific projects you should first look to see if your organization has an Environmental Management Policy (or something similar) and green procurement processes aligned to your environmental standards. If so, then you should make sure that your project aligns to these environmental policies and green procurement processes as well.

Let us plant trees where ever we can. There are NGOs who are doing it. We should lend our support to them. Planting trees alone will bring about great revolution for all living beings on earth.

Use Innovative materials for construction , Improve Architecture  , use green power & Optimise Energy Consumption.

I suggest we all should all opt for offices and homes in a Green Building, because it covers all the possible ways we can go green. To list a few

1) Green Building supports energy efficiency, reduces water usage, suports Indoor Environment and Air quality.

2) Supports reuse and recycling of material thus avoiding mining for new construction material.

3) Green Buiding supports Car Pooling and energy efficient cars by allowing special parking slots for such cars and services.

4) Improves working condition within a building thereby improving employee efficiency.

These are just some of the benefits of a Green Building apart from that we can look into carbon credits which can help us check our carbon footprints and keeps us informed of our actions.

There are many ways to GREEN concept even in our regular life just we have to implement it. I agree with pragya for her idea “power consumption” and by Khalil “go for green buildings and carbon credit concepts” in such a way every person have there own ideas just we have to implement it in our regular life. We have to care for feature also, like building the homes with more ventilation in every room so there is no need of power utilization and also gardening at home which will make green and healthy environment.

Less utilization of the motors, keeping the environment clean and green, dust free…etc will make the green concept true. So implementation in each and own individual ideas will really make the GREEN concept true.

We all would agree that there are many things in life that we do only because it is mandatory by law or it is compulsory, though there could be many people who violate it. The prominent among them are.                    1. Paying Income tax and most other taxes                                                                                          2.Observing traffic rules.                                                                                                               3.Buying Train pass or ticket                                                                                                                   4. Observing most of the laws prevalent                                                                                                   5. Paying most of the statutory charges like stamp duty etc.                                                              

                                                               Similarly to implement green concepts not just in project management discipline but in all walks of life, the government should make it compulsory and mandatory by law and make it heavily punishable with imprisonment and heavy penalty so that no one should dare to violate it. The most important among them should be made applicable to builders and developers.                                                                                                                                          1. Making it compulsory by law to install solar energy system in all the upcoming building projects be it residential or commercial or any other purpose.                                                                                        2. Incorporating Rain water harvesting system and draing water recycling system in all the upcoming building projects                                                                                                                                                3. Complete ban on manufacturing Incandescent bulbs and making it compulsory to install only flourascent tubes or CFL bulbs in any premises.                                                                                                 4. Complete ban on cutting down any tree instead, they should incorporate complete tree transplantation system where if at all any tree is to be cut down , it should rather be transplanted to some other suitable place.

5. A blanket ban on any kind of residential,commercial or social  activity in the CRZ area and forest area.                                                                                                                                                   

We can definitely get these things done provided many organization and prominent people come together on one platform to work for the common cause. And I thing this responsiblity lies on our shoulders of the younger Generation.  Any cooperation from myside is assured.          

According to me, the best way to do it is to make your project team a "Model Team" in approaching the Project in an environmental friendly way. Here is a small idea how to do it.

Remember this should be done during the entire project duration. Whats important is to DOCUMENT the entire process and let the ENTIRE WORLD know what you have done. One team does it, every other team wants to do it .. and slowing it becomes a culture.. a welcome one.

• Entire team Car pools  / uses public transport.
• Every print out taken during the entire project process should have a strong reason and the papers are reused where it can. Proper documenting is required to calculate the number of papers and the amount of prints saved.
• The entire team uses as little plastic during the duration of the project.
• The team plants a tree on every milestone reached.
• The monitors are switched off whenever the computer is not being used. The amount of power saved is calculated.

The above are only a few pointers. A comprehensive list of actionable items needs to be prepared with the inputs from entire team. Only involvement works in this case. These should not be forced, so, it better to put together a team which thinks in similar lines.

One thought is that not being green should be considered a risk in PM. What is lacking now is at the most fundamental levels.....for example for the green concept to be part of PM, it needs to be integrated at all levels from paperless office to the consideration of the impact on env. of the product you are delivering to the client. What we need is first to clear up the basics. What constitutes green project management? can some one help in coming with the list?

My contribution:

1. Environment/ecological impact analysis of the product or service being developed for the client.

2. Inculcate significantly reduced consumption of paper in any form for the project by enabling all work on line.