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28 • Green Project Management

triPle Bottom line
Triple bottom line can be simply defined as the business connection
between people, planet, and profit. Not so simple is the balance between
those three elements. However, the project manager is no stranger to bal-
ance. For a long time it was cost, time, and quality. Most recently it has
become balancing all of the project “risks.” If we think about the past,
wasn’t it all about profit? What makes you think that it still isn’t about
profit? People, planet, and profit are not necessarily mutually exclu-
sive. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. By using the techniques
of greening a project’s processes and product, there should be a positive
effect on the planet. By saving energy, for instance, fewer resources are
consumed, meaning a cost savings—increased profit. Saving resources
can translate into saving “human resources,” making people more effi-
cient. Managing that triple bottom line makes sense going forward, and it
is not any different from what the project manager has been doing. That’s
why we believe that project managers should and will lead future green
efforts. (See Figure 2.2 for a representation of the triple bottom line called
“the triple-P.”)

eCo audit

The term eco audit is particularly interesting in that it is very ambiguous.
The way we see it is that it is application based. The industry you are in will
dictate the standards against which you are judged during an eco audit.
At this point those standards seem to be moving targets, and there cer-
tainly isn’t one standard that we can point to that is everything to every-
body. What we’ve been able to ascertain is that most eco audit offerings are
really about carbon dioxide usage analysis. The carbon footprint calcula-
tor can be defined as a personal eco audit, at least at the carbon footprint
level. However, to take a personal eco audit, extensive survey information
must be collected relative to your reduce, reuse, and redesign efforts. We
believe that just as a personal eco audit is more than just calculating a
carbon footprint, industry-wide eco audits will have to include more than
carbon dioxide usage.