When it comes to projects, the health care industry is no different from other industries. There are projects in constant motion. The health care industry addresses issues of competition, time to market, new product introduction (includes new processes and procedures), and enhancements to technology, equipment or existing policies. The discipline of project management can and should be applied. Of course there is no guarantee for project success, no “silver bullet,” but a disciplined approach gives you more of a chance for project success than a random, haphazard, “seat-of-your-pants” approach. And, with the “green wave” of environmental awareness, mandates and guidelines, as well as regulatory efforts, more and more organizations, including those in health care, are adopting and having to adopt, a greener focus. Again, without some structure those approaches are hit-and-miss at best. So as more and more heath care organizations are adopting the disciple of project management, it only makes sense to couple that discipline with an Environmental Management Plan (EMP).
So what is an EMP and how can it help you, as a project manager, your project team and your enterprise?
I am making an assumption here that your organization has an environmental policy, or at the least, contained within the mission statement, is some statement of environmental commitment. If there is none, then the first job of anyone who manages the organizations projects is to suggest/implore/demand that policy. For the reasons outlines above, the “green wave,” regulations etc., is no longer an option but a necessity to have a green commitment at the organization level. Projects are where ideas become reality, and those who manage projects make those ideas real. Because managing projects is the business end of business, those who manage projects, therefore, have the duty to require that commitment. It is good for the business.
As mentioned before, the EMP is focused on the environmental and sustainability aspects of projects. Like all good plans, the EMP has some inputs and the results of the EMP will be used as inputs to other plans. Inputs to the EMP are the organizations environmental objectives, policies and the environmental risks. The plan will contain considerations for the project’s scope, stakeholders, organizational policies, and risk register. It will use tools like benchmarking and cost-benefit analysis to determine best practices, as well as using the cost of greenality for decision making. Outputs of the EMP will drive other necessary project management plans like risk, quality, communication, human resources, cost, and procurement management plans.
As an example of how you might use the information from your EMP, I’ll use procurement. If the intent of your organization is to use “green” suppliers, like Wal-Mart does, then the EMP will provide clear criteria for choosing an environmentally friendly company. Remember, the EMP is a project-guiding document, not mandate. The ultimate decision on whether or not to use one company over another, whether environmentally friendly or not, will still be an organizational decision. The EMP will have those guidelines, but there are instances, where something is prohibitively costly, where the decision will more than likely not be made in favor of the environment. This can be frustrating for you, especially if you are passionate about the environment, but you must realize that there are other factors at work. However, this should not dissuade you from putting the best EMP together that you can.
The green wave is gaining strength, and so is competition within the health care industry. An effective EMP is a way to differentiate one organization from another. I’ll talk more about how to “green up” your health care projects in my next blog.
The concept of an Environmental Management Plan (EMP)© was first offered by Rich Maltzman and me in our proposal to The Project Management Institute® for inclusion of environmental considerations for project management, in the future Fifth Edition of The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). ® The PMBOK Guide is the “bible” for project managers. Its primary function is to provide those who manage projects with a framework for application of the project management disciple. The EMP is specifically focused on the environmental and sustainability aspects of the organization’s projects. It is also tied to project activities like scope, stakeholder considerations, organizational policies, risk registers. In addition, the EMP will use measurement tools like benchmarking, cost-benefit analysis, and the cost of greenality to insure that the environmental and sustainability aspects of their projects are considered. Greenality, a new word coined in Green Project Management, CRC Press 2010, as the “degree to which an organization considers green (environmental) aspects of their projects throughout the project life cycle.” The cost of greenality therefore is divided into two categories, the cost of good greenality, audits, training, etc., and the cost of bad greenality, the cost of internal and external failures. I’ll talk more about greenality and greenality measurements in a future blog.
For more information about EarthPM®, see http://earthpm.com.
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