Leading Sustainability and Regeneration in Projects
SERIES ARTICLE
By Dr. Hugo Minney
United Kingdom
Figure 1 prosperity is the result of careful planning and community engagement
Abstract
Traditional project management metrics are short-term (the “iron triangle” of time, cost, and quality) and frequently overlook long-term economic legacies which are the real definition of project success. This article defines the “Prosperity Pillar” as enduring economic sustainability characterized by productivity, inclusivity, and resilience. The author argues that projects can be platforms for inclusive prosperity. By analysing UK regulations since the Social Value Act 2012 and international case studies from Finland, Scotland, and Kenya, the article demonstrates how deliberate design choices (such as “non-use” values, local sourcing, and skills development) can generate economic resilience. It introduces a Value Maturity Model that illustrates the transition from basic Return on Investment (ROI) toward Total Value Contribution (TVC) and regenerative value. The article concludes that project professionals can ensure long-term prosperity by making the more nuanced consequences of the project visible, quantifiable and defensible against short-term financial pressures.
Keywords: Sustainability, Prosperity, Project Management, Social Value, PPN 06/20, Economic Sustainability, SROI, Regenerative Value.
Introduction: prosperity as economic sustainability
In earlier articles in this Sustainability series, we established the project manager’s mandate to lead sustainability and regeneration (Minney 2025g), introduced the five Ps of sustainability (people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership) and at the same time discussed some aspects suitable to use as lead measures for managing projects (the environment, return on investment, Social License to Operate and worker welfare) (Minney 2025h, 2025k, 2025l). We established that continuous economic growth is often the wrong measure of success (Minney 2025i), and challenged a common assumption by showing that environmental regulations can act as a catalyst for long-term value rather (Minney 2025j).
This article turns to the prosperity pillar. Prosperity is used as a synonym for economic sustainability: not short-term profitability, and not aggregate GDP growth alone, but the conditions that enable economies large and small to remain productive, inclusive, and resilient across time.
Continuous economic growth can result in inequality, and this has a tendency to consume the very foundations it’s built upon: businesses need customers and customers need money; if wages are eroded then the customer base collapses too (Minney 2025a). Therefore project managers should consider how our projects affect: continuity and stability (what industry sectors can grow without damaging their own foundations and what industry sectors need to pay their way for example by paying their own cleanup costs?), access (who benefits, and who is excluded?), and capacity/capability (are the means to production strengthened such as by training, or depleted such as by sickness over time (Stiglitz, Fitoussi, and Durand 2018; Bizikova and Atiq 2025).
For the project manager, prosperity is not an abstract macroeconomic concept, even though we might not get into the detailed calculations. Projects shape local labour markets, supply chains, skills, and infrastructure. A project may make only a marginal contribution to GDP, yet still create transformative systemic value. The phrase attributed to Anne Isabella Thackaray Ritchie “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” comes to mind.
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Editor’s note: The author Dr. Hugo Minney is a Fellow of APM (Association for Project Management), a Member of PMI and PMI UK, Chair of APM’s Benefits and Value IN and Sustainability IN, founder of APM Nuclear Industries IN and AI & Data Analytics IN, and chair of BSI’s Working Group on Benefits Management. Minney Org Ltd offers consultancy on ROI and SROI. For more, see his author profile at the end of this article
How to cite this work: Minney, H. (2025). Projects as catalysts for local prosperity, Leading Sustainability and Regeneration in Projects, series article, PM World Journal, Volume XV, Issue I, January. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/pmwj160-Jan2026-Minney-Prosperity-series-article-7.pdf
About the Author
Dr Hugo Minney
London, UK
Dr. Hugo Minney is a Fellow of APM (Association for Project Management), a Member of PMI and PMI UK, Co-Chair of APM’s Benefits and Value SIG and committee member of PMI UK’s Sustainability Community of Action (none of which are paid).
Minney set out to become a farmer but was defeated by bureaucracy. He sold high ticket computer systems and specialist software for workforce planning; joined the National Health Service for 18 years (and as a Chief Executive for the last 7 of these) and is now a project management consultant with a sideline chairing a charity restoring the sense of community for young people.
Minney works in project management, and in particular benefits management, motivating team members by reporting what they are achieving together and changing the community and culture to want to achieve – together. At present, he’s more involved on the governance side, accredited as a Social Value practitioner and Chartered Project Professional, and reviewing the balance of projects and contribution to objectives and benefits across portfolios.
Dr. Minney can be contacted at hugo.minney@thesocialreturnco.org
To view previous works by Hugo Minney, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/dr-hugo-minney/
