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Taking the Watch (Monitoring and Controlling) • 131

weekends? Have motion-sensing lights been installed in common areas,
turning off desk lighting when not needed? Has the office been using natu-
ral light when available? Have programmable thermostats been installed
in offices (home offices included)?
To do this, one must start somewhere—and that somewhere is an estab-
lished baseline. If you do nothing else in this area of greenality, at least
take the opportunity to baseline a typical project (assuming that there is
some kind of vague theme from project to project in your programs and
portfolios). We need to have a basis for comparison, so this idea of baselin-
ing is extremely important. From that baseline, you can look at your orga-
nization’s environmental management plan (EMP) or other benchmark
and target improvements. You will at least be able to say that you have
achieved energy savings of X%, for example, because you can compare it
to this baseline.

Controlling the issues

Should issues arise, and it is inevitable that they will, there has to be some
way to control them. It is all about reducing the differences between what
is actually occurring with the project and that which has been planned
for the project. As outlined previously, there are methods for evaluating
the greenality of the project at any one point in time, as well as establish-
ing progress and trends. Some of the issues that will arise can be catego-
rized as being related to the human resources (including effort and hope
creep), supplier and equipment needed, costs and budgets, and changes to
the project, whether planned scope changes or unplanned scope changes
(scope creep and feature creep). All must be identified and controlled in a
way to minimize the impact on the project.
Because of the sensitivity of greenality efforts, being new and for the
most part sailing in uncharted waters, the project manager must be careful
to work to correct the errors in the project, and to avoid going on a “witch
hunt.” It is very easy for a project manager who is emotionally invested in
the greenality of the project to try to single out individuals who are not as
invested. This may inadvertently cause problems. By doing this, the focus
of correcting issues in a process-oriented way, so they do not occur again,
is diminished. Also, singling out individuals (or organizations for that
matter) will divert from the real issues involved. People have a tendency