Page 31 -

6 • Green Project Management

PoPulation inCrease
As of July 2009, the world population was approximately 6.8 billion
people, an increase of 313 million since 2005. That is 78 million people
added to the world roll every year! Assuming that this trend will con-
tinue, expect 9.1 billion people in 2050. As Tom Friedman says in Hot,
Flat, and Crowded, the increase in population in the next 40 years is equal
to the earth’s population itself in the year 1950! So in many of our life-
times, we will add another Earth’s worth of population to our planet. And
where is this population being added? In the countries that can most easily
sustain the growth? No. The population of a majority of underdeveloped
countries—those least able to sustain the population increase—is grow-
ing at the fastest rate, 2.3% per year (see Figure 1.1). With an increase of
about 3 billion people in the next 40 years, significant projects will need to
be undertaken to provide even the basic necessities, like food, water, and
housing. Innovation will be the rule in our shrinking environment, and
it will be green innovation needed to protect an already fragile environ-
ment. Project managers will need to be skilled in identifying those green
innovations and implementing them in their projects.

World Population (in billions)
10
9 World
Population
8
Most
7 Developed
6 Countries
Less
5 Developed
4 Countries
3 Least
Developed
2 Countries
1
0
2010 2050
Figure 1.1
World population. Data from United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2008
Revision Population Database, United Nations, New York, 2009.