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36 • Green Project Management

starred funnyman Don Adams. Smart (played by Adams) was the name of
the protagonist agent, and the bad guys were always trying to “get” (as in
capture) Smart. But it was of course also a reference to getting smarter—
as in “gaining intelligence or wisdom.” And most of us in the wonder-
ful world of management will recognize the acronym SMART for dealing
with goals and objectives. Remember?

S—specific, significant, stretching
M—measurable, meaningful, motivational
A—agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action oriented
R—realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results oriented
t—time based, tangible, trackable

The time for getting SMART has passed. It’s gone. It’s fizzled. It’s deceased.
Would you believe that it is at least getting old? Instead of getting SMART
these days, we think we need to be SMARTeR. How, you ask, can we be
SMARTER? Glad you asked.
We can be SMARTeR by adding two more letters to SMART. Of course,
those two letters are e and R.

e—Environmentally
R—Responsible

In other words, it’s not just enough to set our project goals and objec-
tives as we said earlier; we also have to consider the effectiveness of the
processes of the project itself, its own waste and inefficiencies, and the end
product and its disposal or reuse.
Remember, it is not only the project manager who should be asking these
questions, but the entire set of human resources available throughout the
project should be asking these questions.
When the reduce/redesign possibilities have been explored, the next step
is to ascertain whether or not there is anything in the process or product
that could benefit from reuse. Is there anything from an existing proj-
ect process or product that can be utilized in the new project process or
product? The entire focus here is to avoid recycling as much as possible.
Recycling, although a nice thought, poses its own set of problems. One only
has to look to China and their increasing, and illegal, “recycling” stockpile
of electronic devices such as CRT screens, old televisions, and computers.
Attempts to remove precious metals and other valuable components are