Green Project Management

Going green has become a topic that is becoming difficult to ignore. You see it every day in the news, in commercials and just about anywhere else you look. So as a manager, maybe it’s time to think about Green Project Management (GreenPM).

While it may not be necessary to make every decision based on whether or not it is environmentally friendly, we should take the environment into account during a project rather than simply ignoring it. There are a few steps that can easily be taken to get your project on the way to becoming a “green” one.

1. Make the switch to recycled paper. When creating your project paper-based deliverables, ensure that you are using recycled paper. Doing this could have a large impact over hundreds or thousands of projects.
2. Dump the dumpster. Instead of sending your waste to a landfill, try finding a recycling company. The minimal cost of paying to have old equipment recycled can, over time, have a huge impact on the environment.
3. Use eco-friendly packaging in products produced. Face it, the packaging ends up in the trash anyway.
4. Decide if those late-night work sessions are really worth it. Extra heating/air conditioning, lighting, water, etc. use dollars and negatively impact the environment. It might seem small, but if millions of others are making that same decision it could add up to substantial environmental savings.

These ideas are just a first step in the process of moving to GreenPM. In the future, it will become even more important to structure your organization’s environmental policies and goals to meet the needs of an ever-changing world.