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Green Project Terminology: The Language of the Green Wave • 21

produces and in effect has zero emissions, zero waste. This may be impos-
sible to achieve to perfection, but nature comes very close. Consider the
earthworm for instance. Its sole purpose or raison d’être (unless you are a
fisherman or a bird, that is) is to process dirt. Dirt goes in one end and comes
out the other, improved from its entry point. The worm’s unique anatomy
allows for mixing of organic material (dirt) with its own secretions, creat-
ing a much richer soil after it passes out of the worm. So the cycle would
be dirt, through worm, better dirt, and nothing is wasted.

And of course, not all trash even makes it to the landfill. The Great
Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a swirling vortex of waste and debris in
the Pacific Ocean, covers an area twice the size of the continental U.S.
and is believed to hold almost 100 million tons of garbage.

—treehugger.com

There are many examples in nature of cycles of sustainability, some sim-
ple, some more complex. The real challenge for the project manager comes
when he or she has to determine the cycle of sustainability for a project.
How are they going to show that there will be little or no waste, that every-
thing that can be utilized will be utilized? Further, how will they show
that the project (including the product and the process) considered all the
possibilities when constructing the cycle of sustainability? They will do it
with a new thinking paradigm. That paradigm includes viewing the proj-
ect through the environmental lens, being aware of the project’s impacts
as well as how to mitigate those impacts, whether by design, or when nec-
essary through offsets. It is “green thinking,” and it becomes easier as you
gain experience with the new paradigm.

Cradle to Cradle

Part of green thinking is the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) concept. It used to
be that we thought of projects as cradle to grave. William McDonough
and Michael Braungart argue that the conflict between industry and
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the environment is not an indictment of commerce but an outgrowth