Integrating Sustainability Into Major Projects

CHAPTER 1Introduction

Sustainability books typically start with dire warnings about the future of the planet and a “call to arms” to fix all of the world's problems. In considering a book about sustainability for major projects, we have purposefully decided to take a pragmatic project management view of sustainable development and provide a set of processes and tools that can help project teams create better, more sustainable projects: projects with a smaller environmental footprint, projects that maintain support from the local community, and projects that achieve financial goals now and in the future. And, over time, a collection of better projects around the world can help to ensure a more sustainable future for the planet.

Integrating sustainability into major projects is still an emerging field of practice. No two projects are the same, so using scorecards and checklists can only get you so far. Project teams need to explore all the sustainability tools and tricks of the trade to create custom solutions that fit the location, the technology, the industry, owners of the project, and the groups of people who have a vested interest in the project.

We have tried to provide a logical and structured approach for integrating sustainability into project delivery that can be used to build alignment across an entire project team. In addition to the typical goal of getting government approvals for the project, good sustainability programs can help ensure that budgets and schedules ...