Consideration of Sustainability in Projects and Project Management

Abstract

The relevance of integrating the concepts of sustainability into project management shows from the growing number of studies on this topic. These studies approach the topic mostly from a conceptual, logical, or moral point of view. Given the fact that the relationship between sustainability and project management is still an emerging field of study, these approaches make sense. However, they do not diminish the need for more empirical studies to understand how the concepts of sustainable development are implemented in practice. This chapter reports an analysis of 56 case studies on the integration of the concepts of sustainability in the way organizations initiate, develop, and manage projects. The research question of the study was: To what extent do organizations consider the concepts of sustainability in the initiation, development, and management of projects? The study found an overall average level of sustainability consideration in the actual situation of 25.9%. For the desired situation, this score is almost 10 percent higher, showing an ambition to take sustainability more into consideration. The study also showed that the way sustainability currently is considered in projects should be categorized as the traditional “making things less bad” approach to sustainability integration and not as a more modern “how can we contribute to making things good” approach. However, the scores of the desired situation indicate that the modern approach to corporate responsibility is certainly the ambition of the participating organizations.

25 years of ‘sustainable projects’. What we know and what the literature says

“…Consideration of sustainability in the implementation of projects leads to improved economic performance. With this argument, researchers aim to persuade even the most sceptical of managers of the importance of sustainability beyond the moral imperative or the purely ethical considerations (Silvius et al, 2013a). Gareis et al (2011) note that benefits of SPM are better exploited when change happens at the level of the 'core' processes of an organization (also Dalcher, 2012).…”

“…It comes as no surprise, given the strong practitioner focus in project management research, that much of the reviewed research takes a normative stance and reflects a rationalist perspective on project management, reflecting the observation that "research into projects and project management remains heavily reliant on a functionalist, instrumental view of projects and organisations" (Cicmil & Hodgson, 2006: 111). Thus, the 'why' narrative is typically couched in terms of ultimate economic imperatives and the business benefits that derive from a sustainability focus, notwithstanding the occasional appeal to the 'moral imperative' (Silvius et al, 2013a). The 'what' narrative reflects adjustments needed within the pre-existing rationalist framework of project management and actions that enable a conventional business case to be made.…”

Does the form of the enterprise matter? Preferences of EU and African customers when choosing the company type for a purchase

“…Nonetheless, SME type business, largely formed by family businesses, are considered to be significant tools for economic development. Nevertheless, the generally rising competition increases offer over demand and pushes price reductions that these companies can frequently only handle at the cost of decreased quality of their own products (Müller, 2014;Silvius & Schipper, 2010). In case that even despite higher prices these companies would be preferred by customers, they would have higher chances of survival and could thus continue to contribute to further development of economy.…”

Incorporating sustainability into IT project management

“…Various statistical methods were employed, making it necessary to express data in numerical form. Research already undertaken in this area by Silvius, Schipper, and Nedeski (2013) followed the quantitative approach, which supports following a quantitative approach in this current research.…”