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Project Ideation • 85

1. The project charter should include a commitment statement from
management and the project sponsor: for example, “[The named
project manager], as project manager, shall take all measures avail-
able to ensure that the project product as well as the processes used
to manage the project meet or exceed the greenality standards estab-
lished by the environment policy statement of the organization and
in particular for this project.”
2. The project charter may also include, in the high-level budget, a
monetary commitment to greenality: for example, “The organiza-
tion commits 10% of the total project budget to offset the cost of any
greenality efforts.”
3. Follow the SMARTeR objectives.

greenality oF ProjeCt CommuniCations
Project communications is one area where the project manager has direct
influence. Marshall McLuhan, best known for his phrase turned into a
book, “The medium is the message,” is said to have meant that the message
is greatly impacted by the medium. Whether or not that is truly what he
meant, we project managers know that the actual words are only a small
fraction of the message to be conveyed. The way the message is conveyed is
much more important that the words themselves. We believe that the old
adage “It’s not what you say, but how you say it,” holds true when it comes
to the greenality of communications. We approach the greenality of com-
munications in two ways: the “spirit” of the way the message is conveyed
and the physical medium of the message.

the sPirit oF the CommuniCation
We are not sure which is most important, but we certainly understand that
if the message is conveyed in a spirit that is not acceptable to the receiver,
the message is lost. This can be especially true with project greenality
communications. The subject of “green” can be polarizing, so it is up to
the project manager to communicate in ways that allow the message to
be heard. What we are saying is because of the sensitivity surrounding