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66 • Green Project Management

Green by Green by Project Green by Product Green in
Definition Impact Impact General

Focus on sustainability

Green role of PM

As the project’s focus is less and less green, the PM must assert a stronger and
stronger role in order to have a positive effect on the sustainability of the project.

Figure 4.3
Role of the PM as greenality focus changes.
can “green” their servers, and in general, the team can promote green
practices. For their product, they can increase the attractiveness of elec-
tronic downloading versus physical distribution, and in physical distribu-
tion they can improve the sustainability of the packaging. This is what we
mean by green in general.
In Section II, we will explore the tools and techniques first to help iden-
tify these opportunities, and second to take advantage of them.

a rainBoW oF green

We’ve presented examples along our “Rainbow of Green.” What’s also
important to know is that the role of the project manager changes as the
focus on green changes. In Figure 4.3, we can see that as the focus on green
goes down and the projects move from “Green by Definition” to “Green
in General,” the project manager will need to take a stronger and stronger
role in order to make a difference on these projects. The connection to
sustainability will not be as obvious and prevalent in the project, so it will
require that increased effort on the part of the project manager.

endnotes
1. The Natural Step, “4 Sustainability Principles,” http://www.naturalstep.org/.
2. The Green Project, Welcome to the Green Project; About. http://www.thegreenproject.
org/.