Environmental Aspects of Project Management

Abstract

The primary challenge in project management is to achieve all of the defined project goals and objectives while adhering to typical constraints which are usually scope, quality, time, and budget. Often, the basic flaw in project planning and design is the complete neglect or minimal consideration of environmental and social costs and dependence only on economic analysis for project preparation and investment. A failure to understand and internalize adverse or negative impacts on environment during project preparation could lead to several undesirable consequences, which may ultimately jeopardize the very objectives of growth and development for which the project was proposed. In this paper, the author stresses upon the need for environmental management for successful project completion and discusses the challenges of addressing the key environmental issues. Environmental management is not just about the ‘trees and bees’ but also about health, safety, profits, quality assurance, reduced risks to reputation, and increased global competitiveness, states the author. Overall, it is about efficiency and reducing environmental and legal liabilities. It is argued that sound environment management reduces the unforeseen obstacles and bottlenecks that may otherwise hamper the delivery of project objectives while helping to improve the environmental performance of project operations. The key environmental issues resulting from agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and urban operations include: severe degradation of air quality due to industrial and vehicular pollution contamination of land and water resources due to pesticides, fertilizers, and dumping of hazardous wastes depletion of raw material reserves contamination of surface and ground water sources due to discharge of sewage and industrial effluents deforestation. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) study is suggested as a tool for formulating an environment management plan. EIA should, however, not be treated just as a tool for regulatory compliance but as an instrument for improving project management per se with proper expertise, time, and budget allocations made for the purpose. In environmental management, the moot question is: How to get started? The author's advice is to start small and simple and gradually turn them into action plans for a worksite and subsequently up-scale them for the entire company. It is ultimately the actions taken at personal or community level or as a project manager that matters the most when it comes to environmental sustainability. Policies and plans merely show the way. It is becoming increasingly important to make environmental management an economic driver that would serve to minimize environmental damages and promote resource efficiency and cost savings to businesses.