Green project management starts with establishing a culture of responsibility and sustainability in your requirements from project team members. Try these green project management tips and lead by example as you incorporate your own green management techniques.
1. Consider working toward ISO14000 Environmental Management compliance. Volunteer to lead your company's establishment of environmental policy manuals and procedures.
2. Schedule projects appropriately and build your team adequately so that you minimize overtime and its added energy consumption.
3. Consider enlisting freelancers and sub-contractors who work from home for project tasks, reducing the need for energy consumption during transit and at the office.
4. Add a section for environmental impact to your project management boilerplate project prospectuses or charters, risk management evaluations, plans of action, and vendor RFPs.
5. Include recycling quotas in your team incentive program.
6. Incorporate minimizing the project's environmental impact as a criterion for project solutions.
7. Hire a part-time student or intern specifically for errands both in and out of the office. One person running out and about is more efficient and environmentally friendly than several team members.
8. Require project management status reports and paperwork to be submitted digitally, reducing paper consumption.
9. Ask the environmental and sustainability questions at every stage of the project management process. Work toward applying green thinking to all aspects of the project itself as well as to the project management techniques.
Once you incorporate green project management and workflow tips into general project management techniques, consider ways to make specific project management resources, supplies, and processes more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Follow these project management tips for practical ways to apply green thinking to the project management details.
