Finding harmony is about more than going green

Last Novem­ber, the World Bank pub­lished a report some­what alarm­ing­ly enti­tled Turn Down the Heat. By the end of this cen­tu­ry, it says, we’ll see the globe warm up by 4C unless pol­i­cy­mak­ers inter­vene. The stage will be set for wide­spread envi­ron­men­tal chaos. This is get­ting seri­ous.

For busi­ness­es involved in large projects, the respon­si­bil­i­ty has nev­er been so great. The case for sus­tain­abil­i­ty is mor­ph­ing from a box-tick­ing exer­cise into a mean­ing­ful com­mit­ment. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty must now be incor­po­rat­ed into project plan­ning as well as organ­i­sa­tion­al cul­ture to stay ahead of the game.

Con­struc­tion and indus­try are his­tor­i­cal­ly the bad guys in this are­na, but in recent years the key play­ers have start­ed to step up. The cor­po­rate con­struc­tion race gained momen­tum in 2011 when two of the world’s biggest account­ing firms, PwC and KPMG, went head to head to deliv­er flag­ship sus­tain­able office builds.

Solu­tions includ­ed not just the usu­al sus­pects, such as solar pow­er, but also some clever and more unusu­al solu­tions, includ­ing pow­er gen­er­a­tion through recy­cled bio­fu­el and green roofs that attract and pro­tect wildlife. The bar has been well and tru­ly set for oth­er firms to fol­low suit.

In response project man­agers are deploy­ing new tools to assess the envi­ron­men­tal impact of con­struc­tion. Con­crete mix­es, for exam­ple, can now be analysed to pre­dict the envi­ron­men­tal impact at each stage of a building’s life cycle.

Pre­serv­ing local resources, pro­tect­ing human rights and rein­vest­ing into local com­mu­ni­ties are embed­ded in project plan­ning

Busi­ness infor­ma­tion mod­el­ling tech­nol­o­gy – the newest kid on the con­struc­tion block – is trans­form­ing the abil­i­ty to analyse the future impact of a build­ing even at the plan­ning stages. Not only does this help busi­ness­es to achieve those all-impor­tant green cre­den­tials, it also helps to antic­i­pate risks and plan future-proof­ing mea­sures to ensure that today’s green builds are up to tomorrow’s chal­lenges.

For those oper­at­ing on the glob­al stage, sus­tain­abil­i­ty now goes way beyond the nuts and bolts. Pre­serv­ing local resources, pro­tect­ing human rights and rein­vest­ing into local com­mu­ni­ties are embed­ded in project plan­ning.

Par­tic­u­lar­ly in con­tro­ver­sial indus­tries, such as oil and gas, busi­ness lead­ers them­selves are being held more account­able for their prac­tices. A spate of news­wor­thy con­tro­ver­sies – pri­va­cy inva­sions, tax eva­sions and man-made dis­as­ters – has focused the media and gov­ern­ment spot­light firm­ly on those at the top. This means boards must have their fin­ger on the pulse at every stage of a project and, as a result, the sup­port­ing tech­nol­o­gy is evolv­ing to facil­i­tate project-wide com­mu­ni­ca­tion at a high­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed lev­el.

For mod­ern busi­ness­es com­mit­ted to sus­tain­abil­i­ty though, it’s not just about where we work and live any more. It’s about how we work and live. Busi­ness lead­ers are increas­ing­ly recog­nis­ing that per­for­mance and staff reten­tion are key to sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, not just envi­ron­men­tal­ly, but finan­cial­ly and social­ly as well.

In 2012, PwC pub­lished a report which found that 80 per cent of busi­ness lead­ers believe inno­va­tion dri­ves effi­cien­cy, which in turn dri­ves com­mer­cial growth. Approach­es like serendip­i­ty the­o­ry and social cap­i­tal embrace the notion that inno­va­tion comes from peo­ple, there­fore peo­ple should be nur­tured with­in a work­ing envi­ron­ment that enables flex­i­ble, imag­i­na­tive inter­ac­tion.

Inno­va­tion cham­pi­ons Nes­ta, for exam­ple, has intro­duced ran­domised cof­fee tri­als. Staff who would nev­er oth­er­wise meet are ran­dom­ly con­nect­ed and encour­aged to chat in infor­mal one-to-one meet­ings. The result? Hun­dreds of new con­nec­tions in just a few months, each one poten­tial­ly gen­er­at­ing new con­ver­sa­tions and new ideas.

This is just one way in which project man­agers are adapt­ing to mod­ern times and cre­at­ing a cul­ture where peo­ple are seen not as expend­able resources, but as the beat­ing heart of busi­ness growth.

Pro­fes­sor Her­bert Girardet, co-founder of the World Future Coun­cil, recent­ly sug­gest­ed that we should throw the sus­tain­abil­i­ty con­cept out alto­geth­er. Bet­ter, he argues, to focus on regen­er­at­ing our nat­ur­al resources – soil, forests and water – than to flog finite resources that are already in a sor­ry state. Ven­tures into this area can be seen in projects, includ­ing Cross­rail, where 4.5 mil­lion tonnes of exca­vat­ed clean earth are being rein­ject­ed into an RSPB nature reserve at Wal­lasea Island, Essex.

Admit­ted­ly that’s a love­ly pub­lic rela­tions sto­ry for Cross­rail. But it’s also a sol­id regen­er­a­tion step, tipped to com­bat ris­ing sea lev­els and pro­tect the very envi­ron­ment that Cross­rail will serve. In addi­tion, Cross­rail has inject­ed finan­cial plan­ning into the project to ensure that envi­ron­men­tal risks, such as the dis­cov­ery of pro­tect­ed sites dur­ing exca­va­tion, are antic­i­pat­ed before they hap­pen and can be dealt with in a sen­si­tive way.

There’s a long way to go to find gen­uine har­mo­ny with our plan­et. But the signs are encour­ag­ing. One thing’s for sure: today’s green expec­ta­tions mean that the project manager’s respon­si­bil­i­ties will nev­er be quite the same again.