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Sustainable Project Management
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Sustainable Project Management

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2020) | Viewed by 30094

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gilbert Silvius

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Research group Project Management, LOI University of Applied Sciences, Leidsedreef 2, 2352 BA Leiderdorp, The Netherlands
2. College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Avenue, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa
Interests: Sustainability in Project Management
Prof. Dr. Carl Marnewick

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Business and Economics, Department of Applied Information Systems, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa
Interests: Sustainability in Project Management, Benefits Realisation Management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

When the late sustainability icon Ray Anderson was asked about the role of project management in sustainability, his answer was “It’s the role of implementing new strategies, it’s the role of making it happen, it’s the role of turning ideas and aspirations into reality.” (Anderson, 2009). With those words, he highlighted the relationship between project management and sustainability. Projects are “instruments of change” (Silvius et al., 2012; Clinning and Marnewick, 2017) that implement new strategies and ambitions in organizations. When organizations adopt a more sustainable strategy, projects inevitably play a key role in the transition to a sustainable enterprise. Quite literally, projects and their management are “the way to sustainability” (Marcelino-Sádaba et al., 2015).

This relationship between sustainability and project management, however, is surrounded by challenges. Projects are defined by their temporary nature (Lundin and Söderholm, 1995; Turner and Müller, 2003) and the resulting short-term, task-oriented perspective of project management does not seem to be compatible with the long-term perspective of sustainability (Gareis et al., 2013). Projects and sustainable development are therefore not “natural friends” (Silvius et al., 2012). Nevertheless, it can be observed that the integration of sustainability into project management is “picking up momentum” (Silvius and Tharp, 2013: xix). ‘Sustainable’ project management is considered one of the most important global project management trends today (Alvarez-Dionisi et al., 2016; Gemünden, 2016; Marnewick, 2017) and the number of academic publications on the topic is steadily growing (Aarseth et al., 2017; Silvius and Schipper, 2014).

From this emerging literature on sustainability and project management, it appears that the relationship between sustainability and project management can be interpreted in two ways (Silvius and Schipper, 2015; Kivilä et al., 2017): the sustainability of the project’s product (the deliverable that the project realizes) and the sustainability of the project’s process (the delivery and management of the project). Although process and product influence each other (Labuschagne and Brent, 2005), the authors aim to devote this Special Issue to the consideration of sustainability in the processes and practices of project management: ‘sustainable project management’.

The current state of research on sustainable project management mainly focuses on the translation of concepts of sustainability—such as the triple bottom line (Elkington, 1997), life cycle thinking, and the circular economy—to project management processes and/or themes. However, sustainable project management in the end revolves around the behaviour of the project manager. Despite the growing attention to sustainability in project management, Økland (2015) still observes a gap between the literature on sustainability in project management and what is carried out in practice. The editors of this Special Issue would therefore especially welcome contributions that highlight the practical, behavioural and instrumental aspects of sustainable project management.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Theoretical development of sustainable project management
  • Behavioural aspects of and perspectives on sustainable project management
  • Instruments and methods of sustainable project management
  • Effects and benefits of sustainable project management
  • Cases of practices of sustainable project management

References:

A list of ‘reference papers’ that are relevant for the SI topic from other authors/publishers.

References in the summary text above:

Aarseth, W., Ahola, T., Aaltonen, K., Økland, A. and Andersen, B. (2017), Project sustainability strategies: A systematic literature review, International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), 1071–1083.

Alvarez-Dionisi, L.E., Turner, R. and Mittra, M. (2016). "Global Project Management Trends", International Journal of Information Technology Project Management, 7(3), 54-73.

Anderson, R. (2009), “Ray Anderson on Project Managers and Sustainability”, Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnUbuginMGE.

Clinning, G. & Marnewick, C. (2017). Incorporating sustainability into IT project management in South Africa. South African Computer Journal 29, 1-26.

Elkington, J. (1997) Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, Capstone Publishing Ltc. Oxford.

Gareis, R., Huemann, M., Martinuzzi, R-A., with the assistance of Weninger, C. and Sedlacko, M. (2013), Project Management & Sustainable Development Principles, Project Management Institute, Newton Square, PA.

Gemünden, H. G. (2016), “From the Editor: Project Governance and Sustainability—Two Major Themes in Project Management Research and Practice”, Project Management Journal, 47(6), 3-6.

Kivilä, J., Martinsuo, M. and Vuorinen, L. (2017), “Sustainable project management through project control in infrastructure projects”, International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), 1167-1183.

Labuschagne, C. and Brent, A. C. (2005), "Sustainable Project Life Cycle Management: the need to integrate life cycles in the manufacturing sector.", International Journal of Project Management, 23(2), 159-168.

Lundin R.A. and Söderholm A. (1995) “A theory of the temporary organization”, in Scandinavian Journal of Management, 11, 437–455.

Marcelino-Sádaba, S., Pérez-Ezcurdia, A., González-Jaen, L.F. (2015), “Using Project Management as a way to sustainability. From a comprehensive review to a framework definition”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 99, 1–16.

Marnewick, C. 2017. Information system project's sustainability capability levels. International Journal of Project Management 35: 1151-1166.

Økland, A. (2015), “Gap analysis for incorporating sustainability in project management”, Procedia Computer Science, 64, 103 – 109.

Silvius, A.J.G. and Schipper, R. (2014), “Sustainability in project management: A literature review and impact analysis”, Social Business, 4(1), 63-96.

Silvius, A.J.G. and Schipper, R. (2015), “Developing a Maturity Model for Assessing Sustainable Project Management”, Journal of Modern Project Management, 3(1): 16-27.

Silvius, A.J.G., Schipper, R., Planko, J., Brink, J. van der and Köhler, A. (2012) Sustainability in Project Management, Gower Publishing, Farnham.

Silvius A.J.G. and Tharp, J. (Eds.) (2013), Sustainability Integration for Effective Project Management, IGI Global Publishing.

Turner, J.R. and Müller, R. (2003) “On the nature of the project as a temporary organization”, in International Journal of Project Management, 21(3), 1–8.

Dr. Gilbert Silvius
Prof. Dr. Carl Marnewick
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Sustainability
  • Project management
  • Project manager
  • Project stakeholder management
  • Project risk management
  • Project decision making
  • Benefits realisation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 749 KiB  
Article
Integration, Application and Importance of Collaboration in Sustainable Project Management
by Johan Larsson and Lisa Larsson
Sustainability 2020, 12(2), 585; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020585 - 13 Jan 2020
Cited by 41 | Viewed by 18835
Abstract
The need to consider sustainability has substantially increased the complexity of implementing construction and infrastructure projects and new management practices have emerged during the past decade to tackle the global sustainability challenges, where the engagement and coordination of broader competences from stakeholders throughout [...] Read more.
The need to consider sustainability has substantially increased the complexity of implementing construction and infrastructure projects and new management practices have emerged during the past decade to tackle the global sustainability challenges, where the engagement and coordination of broader competences from stakeholders throughout the supply chain is required. This new project management paradigm has been accompanied by greater attention to the concept of collaborative business arrangements, often called partnering, that has emerged in construction and infrastructure projects to improve project deliveries. However, there are uncertainties about the optimal strategy to foster, integrate and maintain the required collaboration, particularly in sustainable management practices in infrastructure maintenance projects. This paper addresses these uncertainties, based on a single case study of an infrastructure maintenance contract involving an extensive collaborative business arrangement. The findings reveal that different collaborative practices affect diverse aspects of sustainable project management. Further, the extensive collaborative business arrangement has promoted sustainable deliveries based upon organizational learning and continuous improvements. Thus, this study offers an encouraging example of how extensive collaboration can be fostered and play a key role in sustainable project management practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Project Management)
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18 pages, 1329 KiB  
Article
Integrating Sustainability into Major Infrastructure Projects: Four Perspectives on Sustainable Tunnel Development
by Darinde Gijzel, Marian Bosch-Rekveldt, Daan Schraven and Marcel Hertogh
Sustainability 2020, 12(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010006 - 18 Dec 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5552
Abstract
Although sustainability is on the agenda of many countries and agencies, it is still a great challenge to properly integrate sustainability into major infrastructure projects, like tunnels. This is remarkable, as it is commonly accepted that the construction and operation of these civil [...] Read more.
Although sustainability is on the agenda of many countries and agencies, it is still a great challenge to properly integrate sustainability into major infrastructure projects, like tunnels. This is remarkable, as it is commonly accepted that the construction and operation of these civil infrastructures have a heavy impact on environmental, economic and social sustainability. In academia, the foregone conclusion seems to point to a lack of vision about sustainability with respect to tunnels. This article presents an empirical study that investigates sustainability ideas amongst tunnel practitioners in the Netherlands. The case was used as a practical environment to get access to tunnel practitioners, to explicitly define the meaning of a sustainable tunnel in its development phase. Perceptions of sustainable tunnels were extracted by means of a commonly accepted research methodology called Q-methodology. By applying this method, four perspectives were obtained: perspectives with a focus on energy, resilience, social or a transitional focus. Each perspective highlights distinct focal points on how to operationalize sustainability for tunnel projects. Each perspective is also accompanied by an anti-focus; how sustainability should not be approached, sometimes contrary to other perspectives. These insights help project practitioners in creating awareness for the existence of different perspectives, and subsequently help to focus project management efforts to implement sustainability in specific projects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Project Management)
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17 pages, 3207 KiB  
Article
Exploring Patterns of Sustainability Stimuli of Project Managers
by Carl Marnewick, Gilbert Silvius and Ron Schipper
Sustainability 2019, 11(18), 5016; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185016 - 13 Sep 2019
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4421
Abstract
Sustainable project management is becoming important and the sustainability concepts of people, the planet and profit needs to be incorporated into any type of project. This article focuses on the behavior of the project manager per se and the stimuli patterns that motivate [...] Read more.
Sustainable project management is becoming important and the sustainability concepts of people, the planet and profit needs to be incorporated into any type of project. This article focuses on the behavior of the project manager per se and the stimuli patterns that motivate them to adhere to sustainable project management. Three stimuli patterns are used i.e., intrinsically motivated, pragmatic and task driven. To determine which of these patterns influence a project manager, a quantitative pair-wise comparison was used. Twelve statements were used in a pair-wise comparison resulting in a combination of 66 questions. A sample of 101 project managers was analyzed to determine the stimuli patterns. The results indicate that the most prevalent stimulus pattern is the intrinsically motivated pattern with the other two patterns equally important. The results are consistent across gender, age and types of projects as well as industries. It can be concluded that for this study, project managers incorporate sustainability because they feel that it is something they should do. The motivation to consider sustainability is dominated by their behavioral beliefs and the characteristics of the project, or the opinion of others, do not play a large role. This research contributes to the larger body of knowledge with regards to sustainable project management and specifically to the human behavior of project managers. This research addresses the gap that currently exists in current literature where the focus is on the product’s sustainability and sustainable processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Project Management)
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