How to Turn Sustainability Goals Into Project Decisions
Projectified
This episode of Projectified explores how project managers can translate sustainability goals into actionable project decisions. Featuring P
Key takeaways
- Sustainability must be integrated during requirements gathering to ensure long-term impact and stakeholder buy-in.
- Small, incremental steps are often more effective than large-scale overhauls when driving sustainability transitions.
Main topics
- Integrating sustainability into project requirements
- Adaptive management in dynamic environments
Notable quotes
"The critical moment is going to be that step of gathering requirements." – Preston Welker
Conclusion
Sustainability in project management requires early integration, adaptive thinking,
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:00) That's actually why I got into project management, because I started off in sciences. But at a certain point, I realized that the issue is not always technical. It is getting the people on board, it is getting the resources that you need in order to deliver it, and it's creating a plan and clarity that allows the team to actually execute and deliver that project the way that we intend. Speaker 1 (0:31) Today, we're diving into what it takes to build resilient projects in an uncertain world. Supply chain disruptions, resource volatility, regulatory shifts, and other external pressures can quickly change the conditions around our projects. Sustainable project delivery asks us to think beyond simply, did we finish the project? It means considering the longer-term impact. of the decisions we make, from the resources and suppliers we rely on to stakeholder needs, ongoing performance, and the value the project creates over time. That broader view can help make projects more resilient because teams are better prepared to anticipate changes, adapt when conditions shift, and make decisions with both today and the future in mind. But... There is a gap between wanting sustainability and actually making project decisions that support it. Joining us today are Preston Welker, PMP, who is the Global Climate Program and Operations Lead at the Nature Conservancy, and Eamon Zaki, a Certified Sustainable Project Professional, PMP, and PMO Project Manager at Ellis Dawn. They both work in very different environments, Preston in global climate and conservation programs and Eamon in major construction projects, but both navigate complex stakeholders, risk and trade-offs like many of us project managers. Today, we'll explore what resilience looks like in practice, how sustainability influences project decisions, and what project professionals can learn from both perspectives. I'm your host, Melissa Kahn-Blackmore, and this is Projectified. Preston and Eamon, welcome to the podcast. Speaker 2 (2:29) Thank you very much, Melissa. It's nice meeting you and nice meeting your audience as well. Speaker 3 (2:33) Melissa, thank you so much. It's a real pleasure to be here and appreciate the opportunity to share about some of the good work we're doing. Speaker 1 (2:41) I want to kick us off with talking about how sustainability strengthens project resilience. Many organizations now have sustainability goals, but we're seeing far fewer of those organizations actually build that into their projects. And so for context, PMI's latest research found that while 79 % of organizations believe sustainability positions them for long-term success, so they're bought in on sustainability, only 41 % are actually executing that, are actually doing that. So where do you most often see the gap between that strategic goal and then the actual execution of that goal for sustainability? Speaker 3 (3:25) I've actually why I got into project management because I started off in sciences, right? But at a certain point, I realized that the issue is not always technical. It's actually a social issue. Oftentimes it's getting these projects implemented. It's like a lot of people think, yeah, it's a great idea. But when it comes to actually getting things in the ground or it comes to actually doing the hard work of. creating a conservation project that will increase sustainability, it can actually be a difficult task. So that's why I switched project management. I didn't even know what the job was at first, but I learned about it and I was like, oh, this is project management. It is getting the people on board. It is getting the resources that you need in order to deliver it. And it's creating a plan and clarity that allows the team to actually execute and deliver that project the way that we intend. I think that's often the corporate actors or... governments who, yeah, they agree the idea is a good one, but they haven't actually started taking the action yet to implement the change. And I like to think of this as like, it's going to be a transition. And so the way that we at the Nutri-Conservancy often position ourselves is we will work with almost anyone who wants to do this type of transition work. And it's not going to be a black or white switch that you just flip on or off and suddenly we're doing all the sustainable work. With corporates, I often find it is providing them many different avenues to take small steps. A lot of people don't like the small steps because they want to see it right away, right? But it is actually going to be a gradual transition that we will likely see over decades. Speaker 1 (5:06) I think that's really valuable advice. And my mind went to younger project managers who are maybe interested in creating more sustainability in their projects, but they don't know where to start. You said small steps. And so I wonder if you have any tidbits of advice for a newer project manager that wants to take a small step towards sustainability. Speaker 3 (5:28) Yeah. And Melissa, I just wanted to add in like one quick thing. You know, I get a quote, which was that when we are learning and mentoring, we always have one hand forward and one hand back. That's a quote from Shia Bastida, who is a really amazing Mexican climate justice activist Speaker 2 (5:42) and indigenous rights advocate. Speaker 3 (5:45) The really the critical moment is going to be that step of gathering requirements, right? Because when you're defining a scope of work and defining what we're doing, that's... where we're deciding what's in and what's out. And afterwards, sure, you can do a scope change, but it can often be very hard. And it's a lot easier early on to start bringing in these ideas of sustainability. I worked with a community once for a different position that was creating a flood barrier, right? They were in a flood zone and they were negotiating between the city and this consultant who was building it and really advocating for themselves. And within the community, there was different opinions, right? Where it was, We just need immediate flood protection was one group of saying, we want to get this thing built. I don't want to be flooded again next year. And then there was another group of people that was like, my house is right along the street where the barrier is going to be built. I don't want to be looking at a gray wall for the rest of my life. It's going to plummet. My property values is going to make it not a great place to live. And so these people had to work together. And in that collect requirements phase where the city is going out, figuring out what they're going to build. They had to gather all of those opinions. And where they landed was actually somewhere in between. There is going to be some parts where it's like the only option given the space and the conditions for that stretch of the flood barrier are going to be a wall,