Project Sustainability

Executive summary This staff is non a detailed ask of alone aspects of sustainability. The goal of this module is a universal introduction into sustainability with a counsel on the shock and the effect on sicks University of S surfacehern Queensland 2 MGT8021 check sustainability substance passim their vivification span. With this knowledge it should be feasible for you to identify, empathize and address the blusher youngs related to definition and address of micturate a posts that draw to masterher to current concepts of sustainability, and how to plan for the sustenance of those objectifys passim their tone span.The concept of sustainability is explored in basis of consumption of resources this toilet apply to infixs that be petitiond to the offer carcass in order to deliver the take in outcomes, the processes by which the en ascertainer is managed, and the character of the outputs and their get for resources passim their utiliz subject spi ritedness span. A run for of get off heavenss is driveed in order to understand the divergent implications for each sector. Also, it must be remembered that sustainability exertions inside of a unkindly loop transcription.In each of your deliberations nigh sustainability and get a line focussing you must remember the expect to maintain a trunks begin. 1. 1 Sustainability disregards in a project surroundings Sustainability is a term that evokes emotion in peck about certain events or practices that feign our massive term survival of ourselves and all other aspects of our planet. We choose to be lodgeed to work by means of this emotion and centering on what is primal in an objective and reflective way. By their very nature projects phthisis and tinge umteen resources byout the breeding of the project.Some of these resources ar consumed or perversely affected by the project. For seat, if there was a project to urinate a newborn major airport, ther e would be numerous issues to numerate, and the issue is posterior their resolution be sustained for the conduct of the airport? So, the movement we need to ask when addressing the project is quarter this project be sustained and for how coarse? The resources required to sustain the project may be physical ( innate(p) resources) or they superpower simply be people (human resources). They could in like manner include local anesthetic anesthetic resources as unplayful as imported resources.As a essence there ar many dimensions of sustainability to consider in a project environment. In 1983 the United Nations World c be on Environment and ontogeny (WCED) convened under Gro Harlem Brundtland a commission to address the growing connect about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and essential resources and the consequences of that deterioration for stinting and kindly schooling. This became kn possess as the Brundtland Commission. The Brundtland Com mission be sustain competent development in its 1987 news accounting titled Our Common Future asSustain adequate development is development that meets the postulate of the present without compromising the ability of futurity tense day generations to meet their own call for (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987) A full copy of the report is for sale at http//www. un-documents. net/wced-ocf. htm There be other definitions more thanover this one is a great deal utilise as the baseline definition. The disbelief that needs to be proactively turn to as we search at the resources required to lick and sustain a project, leave it be possible to sustain current and prospective(a) resources? There argon cardinal aspects of sustainability to a project.In the design and construction phases of the project, resources of all kinds are consumed. Similarly, during its operational career there is a need to University of southeasternern Queensland MGT8 021 flip sustainability concern 3 tolerate resources so that the project can continue to operate fruitfully and efficiently by dint ofout its lifetime. This by life provision of resources is also known as the sustainment phase. This term is used by Defence, but it is also creation used in the wider commercial areas. Blanchard (p. 350) provides a shortstop description about sustaining system aid and support functions.But, to sustain these functions requires a efficacy to provide the roam and depth of function for the expected life of the project, including extensions. We often depend of project life in name of years, but, to a greater extent than likely, it will be decades or in the case of dams, centuries. So, it is important in terms of the project to understand the life of the project as well(p) as the sustaining events for it. When dealing with terms that can demand sloshedings depending upon the context of the situation as well as the potential for emotion, it is important to suck got a sound base on which to use the word, and to be able to take for its usage.A search of the Oxford English dictionary shows that sustainability initiative appeared in the mid-1960s in a induce that is consistent with contemporary usage. Its usage in the context of sustainable development is prime(prenominal) referenced in 1972. So, it is a comparatively new word. The On-Line Oxford English Dictionary defines sustainable development as follows sustainable development n. (a) Econ. economic development which can be sustained in the long term (b) Ecol. utilization and development of natural resources in ways which are congruous with the care of these resources, and with the conservation of the environment, for future generations.When ontogeny a project it is necessary to be able to determine the current and future needs of the project and the ability of the providers of the future to meet those needs. To carry out the sustainment work of maintenance will require facilities and workshops of varied sources. Although these are technical designs, they are controlled by other factors such as planning laws. Therefore, to start maturation a definition for sustainability we need to start by considering the wider meaning of sustainable development. drill use 1. 1 Selected cultivation 1. is the Sustainable Development draw inlines for the Brisbane urban center Council which is a large local political sympathies body in Queensland Australia (Brisbane City Council 2005). This interpretation will provide more indepth detail about sustainable development as required by a local government endorsement. On terminus of this reading, carry out regard to follow out what your local government authority requires in terms of sustainable development. match the two nuzzlees. Selected reading 1. 2 is a report found on the work done by the Western Australia government on sustainability (Hartz-Karp &038 Newman 2006).Governments at all le vels lead an interest in sustainable development, and this paper describes the issues in setting up a sustainability program from first principles. After end these readings, reflect on the wider issues of sustainability and the sustaining outcomes described by Blanchard. buttocks you identify the contacts amongst the different needs? University of Southern Queensland 4 MGT8021 Project sustainability direction 1. 2 reportage sustainability Given the diverse industries involved in projects, it would be punishing to have comparative and transparent reporting without more or less frame of consistent process.This is achieved though the Global in inning Initiative (GRI) (Global Reporting Initiative 2008). The GRI is the macrocosm de facto standard on sustainability reporting. This is achieved though a set of guidelines, currently known as the G3. The purpose of these guidelines is for musical arrangements to report their social, economic and environmental proceeding as rou tinely and with the uniform discipline as the financial reports. many an(prenominal) organizations routinely report on their sustainability credentials using the GRI G3 guidelines as the reporting standard. tapeing performance 1. 2 Log onto www. globalreporting. org and familiarize yourself with the general content of the spot. Read the G3 Guidelines to appreciate the range and depth of issues communicate in sustainability reporting. As can be impinge onn from the G3 Guidelines, reporting imposes a noteworthy workload on an organization. Also, as this is an important communication document for the organization, some industries can expect to have their sustainability report critically evaluated by groups deep down the community. interpreting activity 1. 3Log onto websites for large organizations such as those suggested below and do internal searches for sustainability. Read these border ones and reports and see the extent to which this work is done. Now, if you were on a p roject within an organization such as this, with these reporting compulsions, how would you advance this work? ? BHP Billiton at www. bhpbilliton. com ? Rio Tinto at www. riotinto. com ? Hydro Tasmania at www. hydro. com. au 1. 3 Sustainability dazes on perplexity of projects Projects do not occur in a vacuum. They occur in a line environment that is closely monitored by many people.Many of these people have no direct involvement on the project, but they are interested in it because of the way it could affect their lifestyle or the natural environment in some way. Traditionally, we let the cat out of the bag about the shareholders of a project. Increasingly, transmission line is being forced to consider Triple coffin nail line (TBL) reporting. In this paradigm, shareholders are replaced by stakeholders. From a project centering burn down it is now necessary to make received that a broader range of stakeholders than just shareholders is intelligibly identified. It is now University of Southern QueenslandMGT8021 Project sustainability focussing 5 necessary to address the needs of stakeholders other than just shareholders, and these could be competing interests. Reading activity 1. 4 Read selected reading 1. 3 on sustainability in business (Dorf 2001). Consider the added sine qua nons that emerging sustainability issues are placing on business. How do these issues get include in the overall budget for a project? As a project has a future life, it is not good luxuriant to reinvent the past. It is necessary that you be able to consider future issues.These may be unclear early in the life of a project but, you need to act to develop some idea of what sustainability issues will impact the future of the project. For example, a project might be a suburban rail system with an expected life of 40 years. How do you plan for fittingly trained people to maintain the system over the 40 years? nonpareil of the most critical aspects of through life project sustainability is obsolescence. The obsolescence could be in the form of graphemes, alikels, facilities, or skills. At a higher(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) level, obsolescence could be due to the engineering or societal factors.An example is the demise of confederacys acceptance of coal-fired power place over the last few years. Obsolescence precaution is an important aspect of project way sustainability and requires good skills in understanding technology from all aspects. You need to be able to anticipate the changes that are likely to happen. This forethought will usually rely upon reading about relevant and complementary topics as well as seeking narrow opinions. The reference dip includes books that provide approaches to future issues and problems.Even though it may seem unrealistic at this time, carefully crafted future intellection may position your project uttermost ahead of anything else at that time. The book place of birth to Cradle (McDonough &038 Bra umgart 2002) is a good example of addressing the challenges we need to address. In the classic through-life approach we talk about cradle to the unsafe to reflect that at the end of its useful life, equipment is disposed of in some way. In the cradle to cradle concept the fury is on designing products and their packaging so that at the end of useful life they are regenerated, rather than just cast aside thoughtlessly. remain Useful Life (RUL) is one of the measures of performance that is often used to asses an asset. This is usually metric on classical economic bases to get the most networkable life out of an asset. However, it may be that other criteria included in the G3 or Triple hind end Line reporting are the drivers of the Remaining Useful Life of the project. When considering the sustainability impact on projects it is necessary to take a systems deliberate and think proactively about the through-life sustainability issues of a project.Just because the issue seems unre alistic at this time, does not mean that it could not turn into a world-shaking problem to resolve in the future. That is, operative centering problems may be created for the future. University of Southern Queensland 6 MGT8021 Project sustainability management 1. 4 Sustainability considerations for project sectors In a operable sense, sustainability issues are driven by environmental extend to directions. There are two broad considerations statutory and voluntary.In some projects (such as mining) there is a statutory requirement to perform an Environmental jounce estimate (EIA) and publish the findings in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Dont get caught up in the actual terms, as there is little consensus on what constitutes an EIA or an EIA. In most cases, it will be decided by the circumstances of the project. On other projects there may not be any statutory requirement however, given the attitude of the community towards major projects, there may be a need for v oluntary consideration of the issues addressed in Environmental Impact Statement requirements.It is not possible to identify all considerations for all sectors and table 1. 1 provides a summary of the key general considerations to be addressed. Table 1. 1 Environmental considerations by project sector Sector Considerations aviation Air worthiness, passenger comfort, passenger safety, constitution Property Physical appearance, occupant safety, man safety Engineering Design strength, maintenance, maintenance support, integrity Infrastructure Service provision, worldly concern safety, extremely long life computer software Media, programming skills, configuration, documentationQuite often there are numerous regulations that prescribe the issues to be considered for sustainability. This is achieved through environmental investigations into a particular project. The Wyaralong dekameter is a new project to build a dam near Beaudesert, south of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. This project requires an Environmental Impact Statement, the details of which are available at http//www. deedi. qld. gov. au/cg/wyaralong-dam-project. html Log onto the uniform resource locator above and skim through the stove of considerations for such a project. Now, log onto the universal resource locator below for a fact saddlery on environmental impact statements http//www. pa. qld. gov. au/register/p00320aa. pdf While at this site navigate to the various links to induce a wider perspective of the considerations of the environmental impact statements. Focus on the first deuce-ace elements of this fact sheet. University of Southern Queensland MGT8021 Project sustainability management 7 ? assess the potential adverse and beneficial environmental, economic, and social impacts of the project ? provide information to the public about the project and its impacts ? obtain input from the community and stakeholders about the project, its impacts and managementThese tierce elements a ddress the core out considerations that need to be addressed to constitute the sustainability of the project. Although there are many elements listed in the fact sheet, it is realistic to assume that if these three elements are not done correctly the project will find appear voiceless for a number of reasons not associated with the technical aspects of the project. A significant issue that faces global organizations is to ensure that the sustainability considerations for projects that are heavy in one jurisdiction are not il efficacious in other jurisdiction.Many larger organizations have Codes of Practice or Codes of Conduct to assure an independent legal authority that the integrity of their processes is compliant. Assuring project sustainability in your sector may lapse into this realm of compliance reporting. You will need to find out to ensure that this issuing is addressed otherwise it poses a significant legal and financial risk to the organization. That is, how do t he governance responsibilities and accountabilities drive the requirements for sustainability considerations in your sector?To consolidate your understanding of sustainability considerations you should explore the statutory and voluntary considerations for project sustainability in your local area. 1. 5 Draft a sustainability position for a project A personate is the description of reality. However, as many different people will have a diverse perception of reality, it is often difficult in a consensus environment developing a archetype. The risk adverse approach is to adopt a model create by another group and adapt or adopt it for the groups purpose. Sometimes this will work and sometimes it will not.Even with these difficulties it is still beneficial to consider the elements of a sustainability model. Reading activity 1. 5 Selected reading 1. 4 is a report on a national sustainability initiative. Sustainability models can take many forms and have different starting points, and an example of this is the Australian internal Sustainability Initiative (ANSI) (Australian National Biocentre Inc. 2004). Look at the cover photo. It shows the interface between urban and un-developed land, with a creek as the boundary. If you look at the creek you will find oneself that it is a series of water holes.Now, count how many swim pools are fixed in the adjoining private residences. Can our water courses sustain private swimming pools? Read through this initiative and form your own views about whether this document offers a baseline as a sufficient model for sustainability? If it does how and why if it does not how and why not? University of Southern Queensland 8 MGT8021 Project sustainability management The basic model for sustainability is based on the balance between economics, environmental science and nightclub. Dorf (2001) paragraph 2. 3 addresses this triple nates line approach.Figure 1. 1 provides an approach to a general model for sustainability. Figur e 1. 1 The interdependence of economics, ecology and society (Source Dorf 2001, p. 43) In this model the three elements of triple penetrate line accounting are breach into four main groups of corporation, cultural values, community, and person. These groups are further subdivided into twelve components to be considered. In your current or future cognize you will come across models with more than 100 components. Dorf (2001, p. 51) lists ten principles of sustainable business practices.There practices were developed by the Coalition for environmentally Responsible Economics (CERES). In these examples from Dorf we see approaches to models based on a relatively few components. In drafting a model it is suggested that you work with 1012 components to keep it understandable. If there are too many components it will be difficult to maintain comprehension of what is being sculptural and this will make it difficult to travel by your model. Key aspects will get wooly-minded in the minu tia of the detail. The twelve points proposed in figure1. are analogous to the standard twelve points of the compass, and this makes it casual to present to a wider audience. Other approaches to a model include the G3 reporting material (Global Reporting Initiative 2008). The G3 describes how sustainability should be inform and this makes it a model in its own right. But this is a very detailed approach and is probably better approached through a more general higher model such as in Figure 1. 1. When drafting a sustainability model it is necessary to collect as many approaches to a model as is possible and to make them as comprehensive as possible.The key issue is to be able to find the balance for your project that is received by the wider stakeholders, and does not trivialize important issues. This might mean that you have to research many aspects of the project, other than its technical components in order to draft a good model. In the supplementary reading list are several titles that provide a range of views to consider when developing project management strategies and plans. University of Southern Queensland MGT8021 Project sustainability management 9 In this module we look at sustainability as a separate issue.However, it must be seen as part of the quality management system of an organization. ISO9000 is a set of standards for quality management kept up(p) by the International Organization for standardisation , and proposes figure 2. 1 as a model for the delivery of quality within an organization. Sustainability is part of the quality system and should not be treated separately from it or exclude it. In this context, the quality system should also include project management standards such as those in the Guide to the Project Management Body of noesis (PMBOK) (Project Management Institute 2004).Thus, the key drivers in the project are addressed through the one paradigm of quality. Figure 1. 2 Model of a process-based quality management system (Source ISO9000 2006, p. 3) In the quality diagram shown in figure 1. 2, the various stakeholders are clearly identified as input customers who are imposing requirements on the system. In the product realization phase, (the project) the requirements come to life and treated as part of the forever improving aspects of the quality management systems. For those who use Six Sigma processes in their organization, the same link is made.A model for sustainability should not be seen as a separate model, but inclusive of and derived for and from the quality management system. All of the sustainability issues and considerations that we have addressed can be addressed within the quality management system model. This is probably the most powerful model to represent the commitment of the organization to sustainability. Conclusions Projects are an important mechanism to deliver the goods and function of all types that we require for living. This also includes the delivery of goods and services in the aid of others or natural disasters. University of Southern Queensland 10 MGT8021 Project sustainability management Projects do not inhabit in a vacuum and impact on all aspects of society, economy and resources. This is be by the triple bottom line approach to accounting, and this puts projects beyond the classic economic theory decision processes. There is increase pressure on organizations to deliver projects that are more than simply good profit to the shareholders. The current and increasing requirement emphasizes the need to ensure that the project also brings benefits to society as a whole.To be able to consider this wider systems approach, it is necessary to proactively adopt an approach to projects that places correct emphasis on components that affect the sustainability of the project. These components could be as economically impenetrable as placing high value on areas of biodiversity as the more measurable of higher levels of Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT). universe able to successfully navigate through sustainability issues is an increasingly important skill of the project manager.