Environmental sustainability in projects: built‑in, not bolt‑on

New chief executive of APM, Adam Boddison, on why project professionals are perfectly poised to accelerate environmental sustainability.

In my first few weeks and months at APM I have found the organisation bursting with energy and innovation. There is an emerging alignment of supply and demand in relation to environmental sustainability within the workforce of project professionals, and APM is well placed to nurture and accelerate this.

There is significant global demand for the projects of the future to be sustainable and to support the wider climate change challenge of achieving net‑zero carbon emissions. Ordinarily this would put pressure on professional bodies such as APM to reposition their approach and their membership proposition to ensure it remains relevant. However, the reality is that we are already on the case, having recognised and prioritised environmental sustainability within our work.

Our support for sustainability

In June 2020 we published a blog by APM member Richard Samworth, who argued that project professionals could take five steps to support environmental sustainability: define sustainability as a project tolerance; embed sustainability in the business case; configure project management tools to measure and manage sustainability tolerances; roll up sustainability tolerances through programmes and portfolios; and make small changes to the way you work.

A year earlier, we published a series of challenge papers, including Climate Change, Clean Growth and Sustainability. There is also an excellent essay on the APM website from the late Professor Peter Morris, who makes the point that APM, as the chartered body for the project profession, is central to providing a platform for debating the role of project management in tackling climate change.

Even as far back as the 2015 Paris Agreement, APM’s professional community was making the case that projects are central to the solution. Indeed, in 2016, the project manager Marc de Graaf and the author Gilbert Silvius were clear that sustainability must be on the agenda for the project profession (Put sustainability on the agenda).

COP26, held in Glasgow last month, represented an opportunity for governments to make a clear statement on their commitments to tackling climate change and supporting environmental sustainability. However, even the most dirigiste of governments cannot achieve success without collaboration and partnership. As a pan‑sector profession, it is project professionals who are exceptionally well placed to support governments around the globe in achieving their carbon‑neutral ambitions.

Through our diverse membership and network of corporate partners, we will continue to emphasise the urgency of optimising the sustainability of projects and innovating for the future.

Sustaining sustainability

In the longer term, it is essential that environmental sustainability becomes built in to what routinely happens in projects. To achieve this, project professionals need to have a clear understanding of how sustainability benefits individual projects, not just the bigger picture. We must play a leading role in building the evidence base, so that those project professionals with the most agency become more likely to make the most environmentally sustainable choices. Project professionals may be loyal to their traditional ways of working, but it is clear that they also understand the importance of contextualisation. Navigating an appropriate balance of fidelity and flexibility will be essential for a sustainable future.

The role of collaboration

It is vital that APM members, Fellows and chartered professionals play their part. The power of collaboration between project professionals cannot be underestimated, so I would encourage anybody reading this to consider how they might contribute to the project community. This might be through their own direct channels or through communities of practice, such as the APM Hub.

In summary, a significant number of projects already make a difference, as they are designed with environmental sustainability as a central expectation. While governments will come and go, project professionals are a constant in society. It is in the gift of our profession to make a difference – what will you do to move us forwards?