What is sustainability in project management?
Definition
Sustainability in the project profession is an approach to business that balances the environmental, social, economic aspects of project-based working to meet the current needs of stakeholders without compromising or overburdening future generations.
In our changing world, sustainability in projects is more important than ever. Project sustainability involves both individual and organisational responsibility to ensure that outputs, outcomes and benefits are sustainable over life cycles and during their creation, disposal and decommissioning. Building sustainability into the vision at the very start of the project – if sustainability is planned in as a key requirement from the outset, it can’t be traded or forgotten.
Sustainability is relevant across all areas of project-based working. For example, the procurement team seeking opportunities to buy from sustainable sources and to make the supply chain more efficient. Project professionals have a responsibility to ensure that their work minimises, or ideally positively affects, ongoing sustainability.
Sustainability is a challenging concept for many project based organisations but it is something project professionals are thinking about more than before. In projects, programmes and portfolios, sustainability remains significant and important; in fact it is a fundamental competence vital for improving and facilitating effective project, programme and portfolio management. As we know sustainability involves taking individual as well as organisational responsibility so it’s something all project professionals need to understand. Change initiatives must proactively alter behaviours so they can be delivered through sustainable working practices and methods. To learn about what you need to know and deliver for a project to meet sustainability standards, visit the APM Competence Framework, 3rd edition.
Sustainability involves balancing different concerns: environment, such as climate change; society, such as community; economy, such as affordability; and administration, such as health and safety. When these four elements are considered, we can build sustainability into projects.
[Diagram source] Body of Knowledge, 7th edition, 2019
Featured resources
The pandemic has shown sustainability is vital – but how can project professionals help?
Boris Johnson has vowed that Britain will build back greener as it recovers from the pandemic. Major new infrastructure projects will, he said, contribute to the UK reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.... read blog
Make climate action part of your project
The headlines around the climate emergency are inescapable. With the UN’s COP26 Climate Change Conference concluding its second week in Glasgow, the hope is that a draft agreement..... read blog
Watch: Delivering Sustainability in projects from APM Learning
Sustainable projects that make a difference
How Network Rail used recycled plastic for railway sleepers
The Furniture Recycling Group – campaigning for a circular economy
COVID-19 cannot slow the pace of tackling climate change
Sustainable project management: how we transformed fishing through data
Sustainable project management through project control in infrastructure projects
Practical advice for project managers and teams
Climate change and projects: how can we stay on track for net zero?
How to bake sustainability into your projects
Five strategies for projects to become more sustainable
Six building blocks to raise your sustainability game
Recognising the importance of sustainability
What can project managers do as the climate emergency intensifies?
Climate change and the project profession: can we help deliver the 2050 net zero target
A model for applying responsible project management: the doughnut
Flattening the climate curve? Lessons from lockdown for tackling climate change
25 years of ‘sustainable projects’. What we know and what the literature says
New research: Storytelling for sustainable development
The Sustainable Development Goals were established for individuals, teams, projects, organisations, and industries. There remains little empirical research exploring the ways in which sustainability is interpreted and practiced by sustainability practitioners, including those whose job title infers direct responsibility. This research explores that understanding sustainability as a form of inclusive storytelling to which individuals and firms respond through their work-related identities, practices and actions opens up an opportunity for a better understanding of the meaning of sustainability for practitioners. It also has important implications for constructing individual and collective identities.
Featured podcasts
From the Frontline: Fast and furious at net-zero Formula E
Meet Gemma Roura Serra, strategic planning director at ABB Formula E, the world’s first all-electric single-seater car racing series, conceived to accelerate electric vehicle adoption and demonstrate leadership in the sports world by becoming the only sport to be net-zero carbon since inception.
Why sustainability should be on every project professional's agenda
Sustainability presents an opportunity for them to demonstrate their value in aligning with corporate strategic objectives around net zero. Hear from experts in sustainability to find out more about embedding sustainability within every aspect of project and how this can make a huge difference.
Dynamic conditions for project success
Did you know that 69 per cent of project professionals consider sustainability an important factor in project success in the Dynamic Conditions for Project Success?
This research highlights opportunities for project management organisations and professionals to improve project success and project outcomes.
Learn more about the conditions that enable better project outcomes here.
APM Body of Knowledge 7th edition
The APM Body of Knowledge 7th edition is a foundational resource providing the concepts, functions and activities that make up professional project management. It reflects the developing profession, recognising project-based working at all levels, and across all sectors for influencers, decision makers, project professionals and their teams.
The seventh edition continues in the spirit of previous editions, collaborating with the project community to create a foundation for the successful delivery of projects, programmes and portfolios.
APM Body of Knowledge Download free for members
Not a member? View benefits and join today
Watch: The future of sustainability
Watch: Responsible project management
Projecting the Future, climate change, clean growth and sustainability:
Climate change, clean growth and sustainability have been thrust into the limelight. Amid rising public concern, the government has set in law a target for the UK to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Achieving that will require big changes across the economy, in every major sector. It will be a significant factor in every project professionals’ work in the years ahead.
The effects of climate change are both global in reach, and local in impact. They could spell disaster for millions of people in the decades ahead. Building a ‘clean’ and sustainable carbon-free economy will be far from simple.
Download the challenge paper now
Paper/Long read Climate Change and what the project profession should be doing about it: a UK perspective
You can find more information about projecting the future, climate change, clean growth and sustainability here.
