in driving sustainability across industries
Implementing BS202002: Benefits management on
portfolios, programmes and projects
SERIES ARTICLE
By Dr. Hugo Minney
United Kingdom
In this series expanding on the British standard BS 202002:2023 (Benefits Management for Portfolios, Programmes and Projects) [1], we’ve covered benefits management across the portfolio, and the key stages of benefits management in programmes, projects and other related work.
As we face climate and environmental crisis after crisis, and breakdowns in community cohesion and mental health, sustainability has to be front and centre in most of our major projects, and the benefits of sustainability need to be quantified and justified.
The project leadership – the project manager, benefits manager and sponsor – has a big part to play. Project leadership can adjust the objectives so they take into account sustainability, adjust outcomes (changes) so they deliver sustainability, and adjust activities so they not only are sustainable of themselves, but also that they change the way workers and suppliers work towards more sustainable practices.
In all of this, the golden thread is governance. Governance ensures that policies are followed, and policies that include sustainable outcomes in developing the benefits, and sustainable processes in developing the delivery, will ensure sustainable projects.
The importance of the project manager
Figure 1 The three pillars of sustainability and
the importance of governance
Project managers in the project leadership team play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the initial vision of a project in its successful completion. Their importance is magnified in projects aiming at sustainability goals, where they must balance technical requirements, stakeholder expectations, and environmental impacts. These professionals not only manage timelines and budgets but are also responsible for integrating sustainable practices into core project activities, and understanding the use case and opportunities to improve on that too. As the primary decision-makers and coordinators, project managers are in a unique position to drive sustainability initiatives across various industries [2].
Their responsibilities include:
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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, Co-Chair of APM’s Benefits and Value SIG, and committee member of PMI UK’s Sustainability Community of Action. For more, see his author profile at the end of this article.
How to cite this work: Minney, H. (2024). The role of Project Managers in driving sustainability across industries, Implementing BS202002: Benefits management on portfolios, programmes and projects, series article, PM World Journal, Volume XIII, Issue V, May. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/pmwj141-May2024-Minney-The-role-of-project-managers-in-driving-sustainability.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/
