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Foreword • xiii

• Learn the steps to move toward GPM
• Identify useful tools and techniques

Case studies are compelling ways to shift people’s thinking (humans are
hard-wired for storytelling). Green Project Management contains numer-
ous case studies and illustrations to demonstrate how successful compa-
nies and organizations have effectively approached GPM. Mixed in is very
practical step-by-step guidance on how to proceed.
An effective sustainable product index must go beyond the facility
walls. Project managers must learn how to simultaneously consider a
broad spectrum of potential impacts (energy and climate, nature and
resources, material efficiency, people and communities) throughout
the life cycle of their products and services. Take for example Apple’s
new iPad (http://www.earthpm.com/2010/01/apple-ipads-greenality/).
Apple’s environmental program considers select life cycle impacts across
the cradle-to-grave stages of their products. The environmental goals
that they have established include decreasing contributions to climate
change, reduced use of toxic substances, energy and material efficiency,
and end-of-life recycling. So then, how green is the iPad? According to
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the iPad is arsenic-free, brominated flame retar-
dants (BFR)-free, mercury-free, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-free, and
is highly recyclable.
Progress in the next generation of GPM will depend on dealing success-
fully with several upcoming future challenges. Looking ahead, biotechnol-
ogy and nanotechnology offer multiple benefits as they make major shifts
in many of the products we make and sell. But they also promise new
sources of environmental problems that will require new thinking and
new solutions. GPM will be an essential element as these fields evolve.
GPM is a key component in the sustainability agenda. In the end, it’s the
choices that we make on a daily basis that affect our environment now and
for generations to come. Remember, it’s about the planet, projects, profits,
and people.

Mary Ann curran, PhD
Life Cycle Assessment Research Program Manager
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cincinnati, Ohio