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Developing the Project • 103

as much research as possible on the products and services needed to be
procured prior to generating any cost figures can save rework and the back-
and-forth that sometimes accompanies requests for money, saving time
and effort on the project and further reducing limited resource usage.

greening ProjeCt Quality
In Joseph Juran’s book Leadership for Quality, he talked about “life behind
4
the quality dikes.” Among other quality drivers Juran was talking about
behind the dikes was a growing concern about damage to the environ-
ment and fear of major disasters. This book was published in March 1989
and was a prophecy of what concerns were growing. Frederick Taylor’s
management system emphasizes a pure science approach to quality,
including scientific selection and education of workers. However, today
we have a world that, while it is still somewhat science driven, is trying
a softer view, giving workers more self-control, self-inspection, and self-
directing teams. Much of this can be exemplified by the “Toyota Way” (see
Table 6.2). Perhaps not coincidentally, Toyota consistently shows up at or
near the top of environmentally minded companies.
This is an advantage to the green project manager who is trying to use
the more unempirical approach, like the Natural Step method, as well
as the more scientific approach. And, unlike the quality efforts of the
1950s–1990s, the United States can lead rather than follow green quality
efforts. To help us understand the future, we need to look at the past.
While the United States led the development of quality control and
improvement, most of the quality gurus did not have an audience in the
United States. Both Juran and Deming spent considerable time in Japan
where their efforts were not only accepted, but rewarded. The Deming
Prize for quality excellence was established in Japan in 1951. In contrast,
the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was established in 1987.
The easiest way to explain green quality is to use Deming’s 14 points as a
starting place (see Table 6.3).
Again, using another one of the quality guru’s approaches, we’ll define
green quality. David Garvin, in his 1988 book Managing Quality: The
Strategic and Competitive Edge, defines quality in five dimensions; tran-
scendent, product based, user based, manufacturing based, and value
based. We’ll use those same criteria to define green quality.