The heat is on
With COP26 and the UN’s Race to Net Zero global campaign to accelerate action on carbon emissions, minds are focusing on the climate emergency.
Emma De Vita finds inspiration in the work of project professionals working on frontline climate projects, and finds advice for everyone who wants to push sustainability up the project agenda everywhere.
The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change report published in August made for depressing reading: “Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some changes already set in motion – such as continued sea level rise – are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.” The message is clear. There is no time to lose in our transition to sustainable energy decarbonisation if we are to curtail temperature rises to 1.5°C by 2100. Project professionals across every sector will have a critical role to play in reaching net‑zero emissions by 2050, and when there is no silver bullet to the climate problems we face, every effort everywhere counts, from working on projects with climate change mitigation at their core to simply making every project you work on more sustainable.
The question is how
Any project can be made greener by reducing waste, says Andrew Wright, director of Dynamic Technologies and co‑chair of APM’s Systems Thinking SIG. “Waste always has a carbon or environmental footprint, so being more focused on eliminating waste is vitally important – and that comes from making sure that you’re doing the right thing.” This, explains Wright, means ensuring a project is “fit for purpose”, will solve the problem that needs fixing and is being done in the right way, so little rework is needed. Systems thinking can help achieve this. “Systems thinking is about understanding how that problem is interacting with everything else, how the solution will fix the problem and how that solution will interact with everything else.”
If, for example, you work on a business change project, you have to get the green benefits into the costing and benefits models up front, Wright says. “If you’re reducing the amount of electricity as part of this, you could have high‑efficiency, low‑power lighting. You’re eliminating waste, aren’t you? So, it brings efficiencies. You can cost up the waste elimination and show the running cost reductions. One of the things I think is really important is looking at the total cost of ownership of the asset with projects. In order to appreciate that longer‑term value, you have to be invested in that project for a long time. You have to be thinking more long term.”
A challenge as global in scale and nature as climate change requires collaborative, long‑term big thinking across projects. “What stops people thinking [this way] is their prejudices, habits and values,” says Wright. “If you want to change someone’s values and beliefs, you have to tap into the human aspect of their psyche, not their professional side. You have to draw out the benefits of working in this different way to them as a person. So, particularly in megaprojects in construction and engineering, it’s very heavily siloed. And if you’ve got that sort of culture, how do you get around that? You have to educate people. You have to tap into the fact that, as human beings, they would actually much prefer to be friendly with those people and we would then be more successful together.”
As lean as possible
Jason Sprague, principal of Sprague & Co, works on large‑scale innovation and transformation projects and is a member of APM’s Contracts & Procurement SIG. He says that projects can be made more sustainable if consumption is actively reduced. “If you consume, you are dealing with issues of sustainability, because by consuming, you are creating. If you disagree with that, then there’s no way in the world you’ll ever be able to adopt and understand sustainability. Anybody who tells me that their project is green or that they are driving sustainability, and then uses the word ‘investment’, where investment implies consumption, then in most cases, they are trying to consume their way out or simply follow the crowd.” It comes down to designing and managing projects to be as lean as possible to achieve the outcomes you want. “We can’t consume our way into being net zero,” he reiterates.
In project contracts, this translates into creating incentives that make a supply chain seek to not consume virgin metals, for example. Sprague explains: “None of our contracts talk about the whole‑life cost of the infrastructure and materials used to maintain it, and this is a really exciting bit of innovation and invention. Industry is talking about ‘how do I use waste materials better?’ But capitalism is based on consumerism, so this is a big mindset problem – infinite consumption in a finite system is the problem. The future of sustainable contracts is about performance, where you are asking: what is the least amount I can consume to achieve my performance outcomes?”
Each organisation needs to own the carbon that it is responsible for, argues Sprague. “That is the whole life cycle of their fleet, their asset and of those employed to work on and to maintain it. There’s a lot of hidden carbon. The contract must not drive perverse incentives to keep a perpetual motion machine going for the sake of revenue because we create the waste in carbon.” So, if there are three things every project professional can do to make their projects more sustainable, they are: eliminate any waste anywhere, look at the environmental impact of the whole life cycle of a project and make the project absolutely fit for purpose.
The Net Zero Technology Centre
Glen Littlejohn is a project manager (and former engineer who is currently studying for his APM qualifications) at the Net Zero Technology Centre in Aberdeen, the purpose of which is to develop and deploy technology for an affordable net‑zero energy industry. Littlejohn manages projects that accelerate the move from fossil fuels to sustainable energy in Scotland, working with multiple stakeholders, including technology developers who are ready to scale up. He takes a dynamic approach to project management. “Each project I’m involved with has very different attributes. It can be mainly stakeholder management or commercial management – or it can be managing the small specialist technology developers, helping them to organise their work using project management fundamentals so that our deadlines and budget commitments are met.”
While he works across a portfolio of projects, Littlejohn spends most of his time at the moment on bringing to life a project supported by the Scottish Government’s Energy Transition Fund. The fund will look at decarbonising traditional on‑site power generation in major industrial worksites, including existing oil and gas installations, by replacing 100 per cent hydrocarbons with alternative fuel blends, particularly hydrogen and ammonia. “It’s an exciting project which we hope will deliver real‑terms decarbonisation of industrial power generation by the mid‑2020s.”
Creative thinking
Littlejohn’s work requires him to “get really creative” to help build the innovative operational capability and knowledge base that Scotland needs, and to get it up and running quickly. “We need to build resource; we need to build highly technical capability,” he says, finding ways to connect capabilities across Scotland. “There’s a lot of creative thinking, negotiation and stakeholder engagement. What aspects of this can be anchored down? How can we contribute to a just energy transition? How can we build a future skills base? How can we create value for the region?”
Littlejohn has seen much change in the Scottish offshore energy industry. “Even six years ago, when the last oil and gas price crash hit hard, I think all of us here felt Aberdeen was lost in its own bubble, perhaps embedded in many of the old ways of a 40‑year‑old oil and gas industry value chain. Thinking and project drivers were all planted in the many paradigms of that industry, and resistance to change was heavy. In this drive towards net zero 2030, I believe we’re now looking at projects with fundamentally different definitions of success. It’s a fascinating time in which a dynamic and open‑minded approach to building and managing projects is essential – that’s where an APM approach is so great. It is like having solid foundations and utilities in a building. Having those in place allows you to not worry about the things which should and must be routine and consistent, and then to concentrate on creative thinking and problem solving.
“I’m just trying to anchor this back into projects that deal with very modern urgent solutions, so getting to net zero and the mindset that goes with that.” With a strong project framework in place, and the objectives known, it pays to be creative about the strategy used to get there, argues Littlejohn: “There are different ways to organise, monitor and manage progress and actions. Use the tools and do just what you need to. There’s little sense in a cumbersome, all‑parties Gantt chart review when all the scope and scale of the project really require is robust, visible task management.”
Change is a constant
Littlejohn works closely with his team, reviewing everyone’s priorities regularly. “You have to blend the big picture objectives with flexibility at task level, being aware that the best way to get things done might change and shift every week – and that’s okay. You’ve got to have that ability to change tactics quickly to keep things moving.”
Littlejohn has witnessed how decarbonisation and future proofing of energy facilities have become influential success criteria in projects over the past five or more years. “Say you have a ‘brownfield’ modification project, then you need to be thinking how, in 10 to 20 years, we might hook in a wind turbine, enable power from shore for electrification or repurpose it entirely as some form of future energy hub. The nature of projects is changing. If we think of high‑level success criteria, then a few years ago, they might have been purely economic, but now, carbon abatement is truly a project fundamental. Everybody gets that [climate change] is real now, and that’s the fundamental shift in the last couple of years.”
His plea to project professionals? “The fact that we’ve got to reach these targets in 10 to 20 years. The fact that the big companies are behind it. The fact that there’s a great deal of work to do that might be exportable around the world. We’ve all got to play our part now. If you’ve got the capability and the knowledge, tear in and get involved.”
Tyseley Energy Park
Peter Lawrence, founding partner at Evolution Blue, has for the past two years been supporting the work of the Tyseley Energy Park (TEP) in Birmingham. TEP is a collaboration between academia, industry and the public sector, including a 300‑year‑old family business, Webster & Horsfall, and the University of Birmingham. Its mission is to create an energy park that allows low‑carbon and green‑tech projects to flourish, whether that’s recycling rare earth materials from car batteries, becoming the first publicly accessible multi‑fuel low and zero carbon refuelling station in the UK or providing cleantech start‑up support.
David Horsfall, a director of TEP, explains that his wire manufacturing business, which sits on 15 acres of land in the centre of Birmingham, made the armoured wire for the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866. “This is a family business that has had to continually innovate to stay successful,” he says. The company wants to transform itself into a sustainable net‑zero business while helping Birmingham become the epicentre of the new green industrial revolution in the UK.
Lawrence, a project manager with a deep interest in renewable energy, explains that CoGen, a Birmingham‑based company that develops energy from waste, spotted the potential to partner with TEP in 2010. “It was a natural fit as one of the biggest cost expenditures in manufacturing wire is power,” he explains. The Birmingham Biomass plant built by CoGen supplies TEP with power at competitive rates that enables the manufacturing business to reduce costs while meeting its sustainability goals. “That was the cornerstone and catalyst for the start of the energy park,” Lawrence says.
Motorway travel
TEP now aims to create low and zero carbon energy, fuels, transportation and waste and recycling solutions to help Birmingham reduce its carbon footprint by 60 per cent by 2030, and to create a green energy cluster. Lawrence brings the project management discipline and clarity of vision to this constantly evolving project. “Articulating [the vision] simply and consistently, while being its custodian, is critical in ensuring that the multiple parties from multiple industries with multiple agendas can collaborate. As project manager, I am just the guy trying to create bite‑sized, understandable chunks to take forward in a managed process, while keeping TEP true to its ultimate vision.”
He explains that a co‑creation meeting is held quarterly, where all 35 project players come together to work on projects. “The whole mindset around silos, specific project deliverables, fixed project timelines is far more fluid. I know that’s unusual coming from a project professional, but we consider the project travelling on a motorway, not a single lane road. The destination is reached on both, but in our way we can change lanes, speeds and durations.”
Incredibly rewarding
Lawrence explains how TEP would like to build on its current hydrogen production and scale to meet hydrogen demands in the surrounding area and industries. This might include decarbonisation of heat networks and hydrogen for a fleet of buses, HGVs or trains. “It’s not ideal when timelines are so far in the future, so we need to reframe the opportunity and look at what we can do now to enable that longer‑term vision. It’s about holding onto the vision and being prepared to be flexible in terms of how you get there, how long it takes and which bits come first. The mindset of holding onto preconceived ideas or plans needs to be left at the door. It’s not just about you and your direction, it’s about the collective direction.”
Over the coming months, TEP’s partner ITM Motive will be refuelling 20 new hydrogen buses bought by Birmingham City Council, as well as working with partners across the West Midlands to consider how the region can expand its hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. Some of Webster & Horsfall’s existing manufacturing shops are also going to get a £1m facelift to refurbish existing industrial space for innovative energy businesses to access.
“There is a massive range of projects at TEP. It’s incredibly rewarding doing stuff that you fully believe in, and knowing you have a role in making them happen,” says Lawrence. Horsfall adds that the number‑one attribute a project professional must have is the ability to create and tell the story of a project, and to hold that story passionately, “because sometimes when things go wrong, it’s you holding that narrative, that passion, that story together that will keep other parties together and the project on track”.
Project Seagrass
Project Seagrass, a charity set up by a team from Swansea University, is dedicated to restoring and growing seagrass meadows around the UK as a way to conserve those environments and sequester carbon. Seagrasses produce oxygen, clean coastal water, absorb greenhouse gas emissions and help to keep oceans healthy. Since 1900, the UK has lost approximately 90 per cent of its seagrass meadows.
A model for the world
Dr Mark Townley is a project management consultant for Babcock International, a trained marine biologist and an APM Fellow. He volunteers for the Bridgend‑based environmental project. “We can’t just sit by and watch nothing happen,” he says. Outside of his consultancy work, he has the free time to carry on doing the thing he loves – project management – while doing something of real benefit. “This is a great vehicle for me personally, but I also hope it’s going to benefit the UK in the long term.” His consultancy EVMT also provides financial support through an annual sponsorship.
Townley gives project management assurance and governance advice as the team locates the best environments for new seagrass meadows, and then ensures it is being done the right way to maximise the amount of carbon that can be fixed. He was asked to help run the charity’s research as a ‘proper’ project because, “while the academics were doing everything right research‑wise, they were struggling with achieving project outcomes and tangible benefits”. And getting the project managed right matters. “They’re going to really help the UK get to net zero and then build a model that would allow other people to try it in other parts of the world.”
Assurance and governance
Townley manages the project using APM guidelines and best practice: “It’s quite difficult with research projects because they need to be agile. They need to be flexible enough to change very quickly when things don’t quite go the way you expect. But what they haven’t managed to do in seagrass projects in general is to implement a clear plan – where they want to go, where the benefits of that plan are going to be, and to make sure that they achieve those to a schedule. Research projects do seem to run and run, and it’s necessary always get to an end product. So, my role is to initially set it up and then put in place the assurance and governance.”
Townley also mentors two of the eight‑strong academic team in project management, to train them up and help them to get project management qualifications so that they are well prepared for their next project. “You need both the research side of life and you need the more technical side of life to manage your project properly,” Townley says.
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