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The Climate Emergency
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, released its Sixth Assessment Report in 2023. It reported human activities, primarily through emission of greenhouse gases, has undoubtedly caused the global surface temperature to reach 1.1°C above 1850–1900 in 2011–2020.
Continued greenhouse gas emissions will lead to increasing global warming, reaching 1.5°C global temperature above pre-industrial levels. But the IPCC confidently asserts that deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a discernible slowdown in global warming within around two decades.
Trends and Legislations
Market trends have emerged from organisations taking action to do their part in reducing the threat of global warming. We are seeing sustainable focused businesses have greater access to favourable investment opportunities. There is increasing recognition of efficiency and financial gains that are realised from sustainability driven innovations. Sustainability focused companies are more attractive to employees, with 75% of graduates looking at the sustainability and social profiles of companies.
Australia will see the implementation of climate related financial disclosures starting 1st January 2025 imposed by the federal government. This new mandatory reporting is to include information relating to governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets to maintain transparency about an entity’s climate-change related risks and opportunities.
Role of the Project Manager
The project management profession is presented with climate and sustainability opportunities to step up and deploy their skills and experience to address the climate emergency. The project manager plays a pivotal role as the leader of project teams to act as accelerators in addressing climate change. To seize the opportunity to embed sustainability ‘anchor points’ within project, program, portfolio delivery. The project inception stage is key to consult, review, set sustainability roadmap and targets for the project.
Challenges that project managers will face in proactively delivering sustainability through their project can be met with three shifts in focus.
For clients and project sponsors to embrace a strategic and long-term perspective in their consideration of sustainability and gaining their commitment to its overall lifetime cost and benefits. The project sponsor plays a significant role in taking the time upfront to set up a ‘strategic sustainable mandate’ as the guiding beacon through implementation.
For the project manager to leverage their core expertise and engage with impacted stakeholders and decision makers to influence for sustainability. They set the clear expectation to implement projects ethically and deliver social value.
For the project manager to adopt flexible and tailored approaches and techniques to integrate sustainability for the specific needs of the project. There should be a strong alignment between sustainability KPIs such as UN SDGs and benefits management. Ready to use frameworks to embed sustainability into project delivery are Green Project Management Standard and PRISM methodology.
Project managers don’t need to have all the answers, but they need to ask the question as their position gives them the influence to deliver along paths that address climate emergency.
At PMLogic, we believe project managers have the power to drive sustainable change. Ready to embed sustainability into your projects but unsure where to start? As a certified B Corp, PMLogic can help you integrate climate-focused strategies into your project delivery, ensuring long-term impact and success. Let’s shape the future, one project at a time. 🌱
References
Core Writing Team. (2023, March 19). AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023. IPCC. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/
Robson, R. (2024, October). Project-programme-portfolio management for sustainable development. AIPM Conference 2024, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
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