Integrating Sustainability Into Major Projects. Wayne McPhee

as a team sport.

The diagram in Figure 1.3 shows how sustainability can fit into the entire project. Each department can influence sustainability issues and have a positive effect on the project. The diagram is by no means complete and will change from project to project but shows how sustainability is truly a team sport and not just the responsibility of the sustainability team.

      It is also important to remember that sustainability issues are not specific to one group or department. In many cases, more than one group across the project team may need to be involved to have an influence on activities and issues. Take, for instance, providing training and skills development to the local community in order to increase the opportunity to hire as many local workers as possible. This objective can be influenced by:

       Human resources, which develops training programs

       Construction management, which runs the job training

       Health and safety, which gets involved in improved health or safety training

       Procurement, which incorporates training requirements into contractor Request for Proposals (RFPs) and contracts

       Indigenous affairs, which ensures local indigenous communities get training in transferable skills that create benefits for the community

       Project controls, which would be tasked with tracking training metrics as part of project key performance indicators (KPIs)

      One effective way to create the sustainable team sport diagram for your project team is to hold a series of meetings with each of the departments or groups to discuss the basic concept and overall project sustainability objectives. Each group is then encouraged to find creative ways that they can contribute to the sustainability of the project.

1.5 Who Is This Book For?

      With the rapidly changing social and environmental responsibilities that major projects are facing, project teams need to have the background knowledge, strategic insights, and skills to ensure that their organization is proactively managing sustainability.

      This book is intended for the project leadership team responsible for all aspects of the project, the sustainability team responsible for managing the project's sustainability program, and for the entire project team involved in delivering aspects of the sustainability program.

      This book will help everyone involved in the delivery of major projects, including:

       Project owners who want to manage risks and optimize project value

       Project directors and managers responsible for creating a successful project that meets budget, schedule, and sustainability objectives

       Engineering discipline leads and teams tasked with creating designs

       Procurement teams responsible for bringing the best contractors and suppliers to the project

       Construction management teams that want to ensure their workforce is engaged and that there are no unexpected delays in their schedule

       Sustainability, environment, and communications teams that want to improve their engagement with the entire project team

       Financing agencies that want to ensure the projects they invest in can manage risks, achieve institutional requirements, and deliver projects that will not make the news and damage the financial institute's brand

       Consultants and contractors who need to understand how their work can support the project team with delivering a successful project

       Government regulators who want to understand the challenges of delivering major projects

       Students who are looking for careers in project management and project delivery

Although this book is intended for major development projects, many of the processes and tools are also helpful for smaller projects. For example, the decision support tools are useful for upgrades to operating facilities and corporate decision making.

1.6 How to Use This Book

      This book is divided into four parts and follows project development from concept to commissioning. Part 1 (Chapters 1 and 2) provides an overview of managing sustainability on major projects and outlines the importance of managing sustainability and how sustainability fits into the structure of major projects.

      In Part 2 (Chapters 3 and 4), we show how each project is unique and how sustainability programs need to be customized to reflect the challenges and goals for each project. This part provides an overview of the numerous sustainability guidelines and systems that are available, as well as tools and processes to focus the sustainability program on material issues and opportunities.

      As managing sustainability on major projects becomes more complex, it is critical to integrate sustainability into project management rather than have a separate group or program that is stuck on the side of the project. Part 3 (Chapters 5 to 9) provides concepts, tools, and processes that help sustainability to be integrated directly into project management and project execution plans, risk management, stakeholder and community engagement, and managing commitments and regulatory requirements.

      Part 4 (Chapters 10 to 14) explores tools and processes to integrate sustainability into each of the main components of project delivery: engineering design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and eventual closure.

      Project teams might not need all the tools and processes provided in the book. However, it is important to review the available tools and decide which are required for your project and which can help to capture opportunities to create a better project.

      We acknowledge that this book is not a complete solution to sustainability challenges of major projects. Many components of sustainability management are well-developed fields of practice on their own, such as health and safety, risk management, impact assessments, skills development training, and environmental management systems. We will show how these fields fit into the overall sustainability management process but will not provide details on how each of these fields should be managed.

      The book also provides additional resources for the project team, including models, sustainability diagrams, and sample tools. A website has been developed that provides useful templates and tools for readers, to reduce the level of effort required to get started with integrating sustainability into your project. As more major projects are executed with integrated sustainability programs, the tools and processes will continue to evolve and improve. We welcome your experiences, your lessons learned, and advice on your favorite tools and processes. Please visit our website (www.integratingsustainability.com) to get updates and share your experiences to help others create better projects.

      We have based this book our own practical experiences, as well as drawing on the wisdom and experience from professionals we have had the privilege of working with on project teams. We hope this book will provide a solid foundation and starting point for individuals and project teams and look forward to hearing your experiences and insights that can help all of us develop better, more sustainable major projects.

Endnotes

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