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24 • Green Project Management

business. We just see project management as being a core sample and
special case of general business. That special case includes a certain ethi-
cal and moral consideration that may not necessarily be a driving force
behind general business decisions. Driving forces behind general business
decisions are usually bottom line driven. In a lot of cases, leadership does
balance the need to make a profit with the need to demonstrate CSR. But
business is project driven. No matter how you think about it, business is
providing something to a stakeholder or group of stakeholders, whether
it is sustainable energy, legal services, or any number of other things.
Everything that is not steady-state operation is a project, and the project
is managed by someone, whether or not the person has the specific title
of “project manager.” Because everything is a project and every project
is managed “somehow” (well or badly), those people (and for the sake of
argument we will call them project managers) are the leading edge of the
change. So, who better to emphasize CSR, particularly if it isn’t in the cor-
poration’s DNA? Every corporation should be accountable to lead in a way
that models responsible behavior.
What does CSR look like? It comes in many forms. It could be Timberland
Corporation’s support of City Year. It is not enough to adopt the “do no
harm” mentality. So, CSR may look like Starbucks’ commitment to ethi-
cal coffee sourcing. According to the Howard Schultz, chairman, presi-
8
dent, and CEO of Starbucks, “In fiscal 2007, 65 percent of our coffee was
purchased from C.A.F.E. (Coffee and Farmer Equity) Practices–approved
suppliers who are integrating our rigorous standards for sustainabil-
ity throughout the coffee supply chain. Our goal is to be purchasing 80
percent of our coffee through C.A.F.E. practices by 2013, and extending
the program’s reach to areas in Africa and Asia.” In addition, CSR could
come in the form of DESERTEC as detailed in Chapter 4, or any number
of corporations supporting their own energy-reducing efforts. Of course
some of those projects may be self-serving, but they are conserving not
only their energy, but ours as well, which makes them CSR. The key to
remember is that each and every effort undertaken is a project, and each
and every project will need someone to manage it. Wouldn’t it be better to
have a person (project manager) who is the most familiar with CSR and
the greenality effort?

City Year was founded in 1988 on the belief that young people can
change the world.