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146 • Green Project Management

“Think about it: you may be referred to as a consumer, but there is very
little you actually consume—some food, some liquids. Everything else is
designed for you to throw away when you are finished with it. But where is
“away”? Of course, “away” does not exist. “Away” has gone away. 2
—William McDonough and Michael Braungart (2002)

But although we do that out of necessity (focus on getting to the steady
state), the product of the project does not stop when we hand it over. The
wind farm, or bridge, or even the software release, was made from mate-
rials from the earth, has a life, and has an end of life. Its creation has an
impact on our surroundings, it has a useful period of operation (during
which there are side effects such as consumables and waste), and the final
disposal of the product itself has to be considered as well. We assert that
the project manager, though not traditionally tasked with doing so, should
also be thinking about the last two of Harry Mulisch’s chunks: the begin-
ning of the end and the end of the end.

liFe CyCle thinking BasiCs

One man’s floor is another man’s ceiling …
Figure 9.1 (EPA, 1993) will help get us oriented. In fact, to project manag-
ers this chart should look strikingly familiar. It is reflected in the PMBOK
Guide diagram for any of its 42 processes—inputs, tools and techniques,
and outputs. In this case, inputs are raw materials and energy; tools and
techniques are the acquisition of those items, manufacturing processes,
use/reuse and maintenance, and recycle and waste management. Outputs
(other than the product itself, of course) are atmospheric emissions, water-
borne and solid wastes, coproducts, and other releases. Perhaps the most
important part of this drawing is at the bottom: the system boundary. This
will be discussed later when we get into the details of a life cycle assess-
ment (LCA).
At times, there is confusion between LCA and other approaches that are
life cycle based (but that someone may also be calling LCA). Simplifications
to LCA have been necessary mainly due to the lack of readily available life
cycle inventory data, which is needed to model the entire product system.
Sometimes it is driven by specific interests.