Consideration of Sustainability in Projects

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This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/su16031269

The instrumental role of projects in the transition of organisations, and thus society, towards sustainability affects how projects are planned, organised, executed, and managed. As a result, ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ project management is now considered one of the most critical global project management trends.

sustainable project management project management maturity project management

1. Sustainable Project Management

SPM is defined as “the planning, monitoring and controlling of project delivery and support processes, with consideration of the environmental, economic and social aspects of the life-cycle of the project’s resources, processes, deliverables and effects, aimed at realising benefits for stakeholders, and performed in a transparent, fair and ethical way that includes proactive stakeholder participation.” ^[1]. This definition highlights that SPM is about the integration of sustainability into the processes and practices of project management. Several studies identified the ‘impact areas’ where an integration of sustainability would impact the processes or practices of project management. Table 1 summarises these impact areas, as found in the literature on SPM, organised by phase of a project life cycle.

Table 1. Overview of impact areas of sustainability on project management.

Phase	Impact Area	Source
Project initiation	Setting of project objectives	Aarseth, Ahola, Aaltonen, Økland and Andersen ^[2]; Silvius and Schipper ^[1]
	Extending the scope of consideration in the project	Labuschagne and Brent ^[3]; Silvius and Schipper ^[1]
	Identification of benefits in the business case	Weninger and Huemann ^[4]; Silvius ^[5]
	Cost/benefits analysis in the business case	Silvius ^[5]
Project planning	Methods used in project planning	Carboni et al. ^[6]
	Identification and assessment of stakeholders	Eskerod and Huemann ^[7]; Sánchez ^[8]; Silvius and Schipper ^[9]
	Selection of contractors and suppliers	Molenaar et al. ^[10]; Aarseth, Ahola, Aaltonen, Økland and Andersen ^[2]
	Scheduling of the project	Taylor ^[11]
	Selection and organisation of the project team	Silvius and Schipper ^[1]
	Development of sustainability competencies	Aarseth, Ahola, Aaltonen, Økland and Andersen ^[2]
	Identification and management of project risks	Silvius ^[12]
Project execution	Monitoring of the project	Sánchez ^[8]
	Communication in and by the project	Pade et al. ^[13]; Barendsen et al. ^[14]
	Engagement with stakeholders	Eskerod and Huemann ^[7]; Sánchez ^[8]; Silvius and Schipper ^[9]
	Assessment and management of quality in the project	Silvius and Schipper ^[1]
Project closing	Evaluation and identification of lessons learned	Carboni, Duncan, Gonzalez, Milsom and Young ^[6]; Silvius and Schipper ^[1]

2. Factors Influencing the Consideration of Sustainability in Projects

The maturity of integrating sustainability considerations in project management can vary by project type or industry due to specific sustainability challenges, regulatory requirements, available resources, and stakeholder expectations.

For example, as the construction industry dramatically contributes to environmental impacts such as carbon emissions, waste generation, and resource depletion ^[15]^[16]^[17], several industry standards and regulations have been developed aimed at reducing these negative impacts through sustainable design, choice of material, construction techniques and methods, and complying with regulatory requirements. Standards such as BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) are well established and are driving the integration of sustainability in construction. Although these standards were originally mainly focused on the sustainability quality of new buildings, they have expanded their focus and today encompass the whole life cycle of buildings, from planning to in-use and refurbishment. Therefore, the maturity of sustainability considerations in building projects is expected to be quite high.

Sustainability standards can also be found for event projects. The ISO 20121 standard ^[18] describes a management system that has been designed to help organisations in the events industry improve the sustainability of their event-related activities, products, and services. The standard aims to describe the building blocks of a management system that will help any event-related organisation reduce its environmental footprint and become more socially responsible while remaining financially successful. ISO 20121 applies to all types and sizes of organisations involved in the events industry, from caterers, lighting and sound engineers, security companies, stage builders and venues to independent event organisers and corporate and public sector event teams. The maturity of sustainability considerations in event projects is, therefore, also expected to be high.

Another industry at the forefront of sustainable development is the energy industry. As this industry is critical to transitioning to renewable energy sources and reducing carbon emissions, organisations are experiencing a lot of societal and regulatory pressure to develop and implement renewable energy projects. This pressure and competitive market forces around renewable energy can also drive the maturity of project sustainability considerations.

The manufacturing industry is a significant consumer of natural resources and can generate large amounts of waste and pollution; therefore, sustainable project management must focus on reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing processes through waste reduction, energy efficiency, and sustainable material sourcing.

Given the functional ability of information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) to improve, change and reinvent business processes, IT/IS is considered to be an important contributor to more sustainable business practices ^[19]. However, IT/IS is also recognised as having a significant negative impact on the environment, as the IT industry is responsible for 2% of global CO₂ emissions, which is equivalent to the amount generated by the aviation industry ^[20]. It is for this reason that sustainability should be an important consideration in IT/IS projects. For this reason, sustainability should be an important consideration in IT/IS projects. Despite the environmental impacts of IT/IS, both positive and negative, Watson et al. ^[21] conclude that the IS community is largely unaware of these impacts. More recently, Asadi et al. ^[22] concluded that current knowledge about the sustainability impacts of IT/IS is still limited and that there is a need for a “better understanding of the multifaceted nature of green IT and the strategies and approaches that organisations can follow to green their IT” ^[22]. These indications suggest that the maturity of sustainability considerations in IT/IS projects may not be that high.

The evidence discussed above suggests that the consideration of sustainability may be more prominent in certain types of projects, most likely construction, energy, and events projects, than in other types, such as IT/IS projects. In addition to expectations about the extent to which sustainability is taken into account, it can also be expected that the diversity of projects will influence the materiality of different sustainability aspects. Moreover, particular industries and project types will, therefore, consider certain sustainability aspects more prominently than other industries or projects.

In addition to the type of project or industry, other situational variables may also influence the consideration of project sustainability. For example, the size of the project or the number of organisations or stakeholders involved. Small projects tend to be less complex than larger projects and may have fewer stakeholders. Sustainable project management for small projects may focus on identifying and mitigating potential negative environmental, social, and economic impacts of the project. It may depend highly on the resources available for sustainability initiatives, such as financial, human, and technological resources. Average-sized projects may have a moderate level of complexity; sustainable project management may focus on developing and implementing stakeholder engagement plans, sustainability goals, and sustainability reporting frameworks influenced by project team support. Large projects can typically be highly complex, with multiple stakeholders and sustainability challenges. These include integrating sustainability into project management processes and practices, such as risk and impact assessment and monitoring, while ensuring adequate levels of leadership commitment, stakeholder engagement and resource availability for sustainability initiatives. Therefore, it is expected that the size and number of partners involved in the project will influence the maturity of sustainable project management.

3. Assessing Sustainability in Project Management

The “maturity” of sustainability considerations in a project can be assessed using the Sustainable Project Management Maturity Model (SPM3) developed by Silvius and Schipper ^[23]. SPM3 is one of the few sustainability assessment tools developed specifically for projects ^[24], and its application has been reported in several studies—for example, Esezobor ^[25], Simionescu and Silvius ^[26], Clinning and Marnewick ^[27], and Marnewick ^[28]. SPM3 provides a descriptive maturity model with which organisations can assess their level of sustainability integration in a given project and develop insights on how to improve this consideration of sustainability in projects.

SPM3 structures the assessment of various sustainability impacts into 22 indicators of different aspects of sustainability, as shown in Table 2. The indicators are organised from the triple bottom-line perspective of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Table 2. SPM3 indicators of sustainability based on Silvius and Schipper ^[23].

Indicator	Description
Indicators of economic sustainability
Return on Investment	The creation and distribution of economic value as a basic indication of how the project creates wealth for all stakeholders.
Business Agility	The ability to be flexible or agile in strategies, objectives, requirements, decision making, processes, projects, and resources.
Competitive potential	Acquisition or development (through projects) of attribute or combination of attributes that allows the organisation to outperform its competitors.
(Business) Continuity	Ensuring that an organisation’s critical business functions will continue to operate despite incidents or developments. Business continuity includes the ability to change or adapt business functions and the business model.
Motivation and incentives	Motivations and incentives that influence behaviour of individuals in the organisation. Personal incentives should be motivational but responsible with respect to stakeholder’s interests and the society in general.
Risk reduction	The potential of losing something of (potential) value. Risk assessment should include also long term, social and environmental effects. Risk acceptance strategies should take a prudent approach.
Indicators of environmental sustainability
Transport	The movement of physical objects from one place to another.
Energy	Use of energy for business resources and processes. Energy use is related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to scarcity of their origins (e.g., oil). The environmental footprint of a project (organisation) is shaped in part by its choice of energy sources.
Water	Use of clean water for business resources and processes. Withdrawals from a water system can affect the environment by lowering the water table, reducing the volume of water available for use, or otherwise altering the ability of an ecosystem to perform its functions.
Eco system	The community of living organisms (plants, animals, and microbes) in conjunction with the non-living components of their environment (things like air, water, and mineral soil), interacting as a system.
Waste and Packaging	Wastes are substances or objects, which are disposed of or are intended/required to be disposed of. Packaging is the enclosing or protecting objects (products) for distribution, storage, sale, and use.
Materials and resources	From an environmental perspective some attributes of materials and resources are important: for example, the extent to which materials used for the project are or become toxic during the project, the scarcity of the material, the extent to which fossil (or non-replaceable) materials are used by the project, the reusability of the material after their use, the origin of the material and the incorporated energy of the materials during sourcing or production or use by the project.
Emissions	Emissions of fluids or gasses resulting from an organisation’s processes or resources on land, on water or in the air.
Spatial planning	Regional/spatial planning gives geographical expression to the economic, social, cultural, and ecological policies of society. Several aspects influence this: the use and quality of space, the social relevance and welfare related to the space, reachability, and investment climate to business and inhabitants.
Nuisance	Nuisance describes an activity or condition that is harmful or annoying to others (e.g., loud noises, vibrations, dust, dirt). Nuisance is relevant to project, while during execution nuisance levels of noise, vibrations, dust, or dirt) commonly rise above aesthetic levels and can be annoying to the community.
(Business) Continuity	Ensuring that an organisation’s critical business functions will continue to operate despite incidents or developments. Business continuity includes the ability to change or adapt business functions and the business model.
Indicators of social sustainability
Labour practices and decent work	Fair labour practices and decent work are the availability of employment in conditions of freedom, equity, human security, and dignity.
Human rights	The extent to which processes have been implemented to safeguard stakeholders’ ability to enjoy and exercise their human rights. Among the human rights issues included are non-discrimination, gender equality, freedom of association, collective bargaining, child labour, forced or compulsory labour, and Indigenous rights.
Ethical behaviour	Ethical behaviour, consisting of anti-competitive behaviour, anti-trust, and monopoly practices must ensure a level playing field for customers (and supplier) regarding consumer choice, pricing, and other factors that are essential to efficient markets.
Society, customer, and product responsibility	Society, customer, and product responsibility concerns with impacts caused by project activities, project results and their effects on customers, society, local communities, and other stakeholders.
Participation	Participation is about the proactive involvement of stakeholders, suppliers, and customers with respect to the project’s development, design, processes, deliverables, and effects.
Human capital development	The development of the organisations or individual’s intellectual capital (competencies, knowledge, and skills).
Corporate governance	Governance broadly refers to the mechanisms, processes, and relations by which corporations and projects are monitored, evaluated, and directed. Sustainability aspects should be covered and integrated in the areas of documentation, reporting and decision making and strategy formulation.

The SPM3 assessment assesses the consideration of the various aspects of sustainability on a four-level maturity scale: (1) compliant—projects at this stage have little consideration of sustainability and are focused only on meeting requirements; (2) Reactive—projects’ sustainability practices are ad hoc; at this stage, projects are beginning to consider sustainability but have yet to integrate it thoroughly and consistently into project management; (3) Proactive—projects have established sustainability objectives, policies, and procedures and are integrating them into project management; and (4) Purposeful—projects have embedded sustainability into project management practices and are monitoring sustainability performance; sustainability practices are consistent and well documented, and projects are striving to measure and optimise sustainability impacts.

SPM3 covers both the sustainability by the project and the sustainability of the project, as identified by Huemann and Silvius ^[29] and Sabini et al. ^[30]. Sustainability by the project refers to the sustainability of the project’s outputs or outcomes. In contrast, the sustainability of the project refers to the sustainability of the project’s planning, management, and implementation processes, as shown in Table 1. The reporting format of SPM3 (Figure 1) shows the assessment of the consideration of the 22 different aspects of sustainability separately for the project process, expressing the sustainability of the project perspective, and for the project product, expressing the sustainability by the project perspective. Both assessments are expressed in the four maturity levels mentioned earlier.

Figure 1. SPM3 reporting format—example ^[26].

Since SPM3, like most maturity models, is designed as a tool to support the development of the consideration of sustainability, it is suggested that each individual aspect of sustainability be assessed twice: once as an assessment of the “actual” situation in the project (indicated in black in Figure 1) and the second time as an assessment of the “desired” situation in the project (indicated in middle grey in Figure 1).

References

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Aarseth, W.; Ahola, T.; Aaltonen, K.; Økland, A.; Andersen, B. Project sustainability strategies: A systematic literature review. Int. J. Proj. Manag. 2017, 35, 1071–1083.
Labuschagne, C.; Brent, A.C. Sustainable project life cycle management: The need to integrate life cycles in the manufacturing sector. Int. J. Proj. Manag. 2005, 23, 159–168.
Weninger, C.; Huemann, M. Project initiation: Investment analysis for sustainable development. In Banking, Finance, and Accounting: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications; IGI Global: Hershey, PA, USA, 2015; pp. 1–17.
Silvius, G. Considering sustainability in project management processes. In Handbook of Research on Sustainable Development and Economics; Thomas, K.D., Ed.; IGI Global: Hershey, PA, USA, 2015; pp. 311–334.
Carboni, J.; Duncan, W.; Gonzalez, M.; Milsom, P.; Young, M. Sustainable Project Management: The GPM Reference Guide; GPM Global: Novi, MI, USA, 2018.
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José Magano

Gilbert Silvius

Teresa Nogueira

Farzad Hamed

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1. Sustainable Project Management

2. Factors Influencing the Consideration of Sustainability in Projects

3. Assessing Sustainability in Project Management

References