The concept of sustainable development in project management. Sustainability as part of the project stakeholder management process and as an independent concept

Concept of sustainability

The increasing economic power became destructive. It led to design of the concept of sustainable development. In the middle of the 20th century society understood that resources of the nature had a limit, self-restoration of the nature would be exhausted in the near future. Therefore, world crises threaten mankind, they have devastating effects on social, economic and ecological spheres. Creating a concept of sustainable development has become a way to solve this problem.

The concept of "sustainable development" was introduced by the World Commission for Environment and Development suggested in 1987 [17].

Sustainable development was a kind of development that allowed to meet needs of the present without risk of future generations to lose opportunity to meet their needs. (WCED, 1987). The concept of sustainable development of society was adopted as a result of the Environment and Development Conference. The conference took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The conference was organised by the United Nations. Heads of Countries and Government were invited to take part in it. The participants of conference noted that it was not possible to achieve of wellbeing by developing countries using approaches of mature economics. Developed countries consumed resources unlimitedly to achieve economic growth. This could lead to disaster. Therefore, nowadays the international community should use sustainable development. The declaration was a result of the conference. It contained several points of the concept of sustainability [16]:

• -    People is a central place in sustainable development;

• -    The government guaranties the quality of the environment;

• -    It is necessary to fight poverty;

• -    It is necessary to keep the environment for present and future generations;

• -    Mature economics are most responsible for the environment.

The concept appeared thanks consolidation of economic, social and ecological factors. A combination of factors is presented in Figure 1. This combination is called: the triple bottom line concept of sustainability [3].

Figure 1 The triple bottom line concept of sustainability

• •    The economic dimension of sustainable development

In the context of economics, sustainable development is an optimal utilization of limited natural resources. It is important that the economic approach is the base of the concept of sustainability. The economic component implies implementation of eco-friendly and energy-saving technologies, optimal utilization of limited natural resources, creation of ecological products, safety production and processing of raw materials, recycling and waste destruction. Long-term economic projects are cost-efficient if they take into account environment. At the same time long-term projects are unprofitable if they have been executed without taking into account the ecological effects [5].

• •    The social dimension of sustainable development

The purpose of sustainable development is the preservation of social and cultural balance, including the reduction of the number of destructive conflicts in relation with the society. Sustainable development is impossible without equal opportunities among all members of the humanity and an equitable distribution of resources. The main objective of the international community is providing worthy life and prosperity for all citizens of the world. Creating just society for all levels of human organization is an important task. The fundamental idea of the concept of sustainable development is the observance of the rights of present and future generations. Earth's natural resources are the common heritage of mankind. This constant reserve fund of resources has to pass from generation to generation as less as possible exhausted and polluted [16].

• •    Environmental dimension of sustainable development

According to environmental view, sustainable development should ensure the stability of the biological and physical systems. The main idea of this approach is to save abilities of ecological systems to changes. Depletion of natural resources, pollution and loss of biodiversity reduces the ability of ecosystems to regenerate.

Thus, the concept of sustainable development is intended for all society. But the state and business should take especially active part in implementation of the concept. Otherwise implementation of the concept is impossible. For business implementation of sustainable development have to embed for all levels of management:

• 1.    development of strategy and setting strategic objectives,

• 2.    development of the system of indicators on functions or business processes

• 3.    solving tasks of operational management.

It is important to note that implementation of project approach for management is a general tendency among the companies of all over the world. Therefore, the usage of sustainable project management is becoming a worldwide trend [15].

The following paragraph describes relationship between the concept of sustainable development and project management.

Project management and sustainability

The main aspects of sustainability and project management are provided in the table 1 [13].

Aspects	Sustainability	Traditional project management
Period of goal-setting	Long-term     orientation goals	Short-term orientation goals

Participants   of   the process	In the interest of present and future generations	In the interests of customer and stakeholder
Orientation tasks	Life cycle oriented	Deliverable or result oriented
Basic     values     / priorities	People, Planet, Profit	Scope, Time, Budget
Consequences for the initiator and participants	Increasing complexity (increases complexity of activity; brings benefits in the long term.)	Reduced complexity (reduced complexity of activity; brings benefits upon termination of the project.)
Geographical governance guidelines	Aimed at both the local and regional effects, and the effects within country and the world.	It is aimed at effect within the territory of carrying out the project.

Table 1 The main aspects of sustainability and project management

This table shows similarities and differences of sustainable development and traditional project management. Integration of this approaches leads to sustainable project management. Such researchers as Gilbert Silvius, Roland Gareis and other scientists develop this concept. According to Gareis sustainable project management should conform to the following fundamental principles of sustainable development [4]:

• •    Balancing between economic, social and environmental components

Economic component: economic growth, competitive environment, full time work and social security, efficiency, international economic stability.

Social component: security, social justice, health and education, equal opportunities,

Environmental component: Develop higher environmental quality, limitation of the risk and emission, protection of the resource and environmental, reduce of energy usage, risk reducing for human and environment.

This principle takes into account the perspectives of people, planet and profit.

• •    Balancing between short-term, mid-term and long-term orientation.

The company must take into account the short, medium and long-term impact of projects. Thus, sustainable project management should abide by the principles of sustainability throughout the project life cycle and beyond.

• •    Balancing between local, regional, global orientation

Globalization of the world led to the fact that the company which is located in one city can influence world activities. It is therefore necessary to consider the impact of the project results on the local and global levels.

• •    Valuable orientation

Sustainability reflects the values and ethical considerations. Thus stability is included such values as: justice, transparency, ethic, equality of generations, trust, observance of the rights and opportunities [10].

Features of sustainable project management are illustrated in Figure 2 [12]. This figure demonstrates that the traditional project management considers not such many aspects than the sustainable project management. Thus sustainable project management includes:

• •    In the context of the time horizon

• -    Project phase

• -    Project delivery

• -    Exploration and management

• -    Present generation

• -    Next generation

• •    In the context of the scope

• -    Project manager

• -    Project

• -    Organisation

  - Stakeholders

  - Local society

  
  
  

  Figure 2 Sustainable project management

  Thus according to above information the sustainable project management is an implementation of all processes of the project, such as initiation, planning, implementation of the project, monitoring, control and support of the project that take into account economic, social and ecological factors. Also project management has to be aimed at providing benefits for all participants of the world community [14].

  It is important question in the modern world, how to integrate the concept of sustainability into project management. On the one hand, sustainability is part of the management of stakeholders. On the other hand, integration of sustainability into project management is more complex concept than stakeholder management. Sustainability should be integrated as much as possible in all project management process group and in all project management areas of knowledge. Consequently, the two paragraphs below are devoted to the analysis of each point of view.

  Sustainability in project management, as a part of stakeholder management

  
  

Sustainability in project management is part of stakeholder management, this point of view is analysed in this paragraph. It is important to analyse the basic concepts and statements.

Stakeholders are persons or the organizations whose interests can positively or negatively influence execution or completion of the project. For example, stakeholders are sponsors, clients, customers, competitors, public organizations. [11]. Stakeholder management is a complex of actions, for a cooperation with stakeholders and for satisfaction of interests of stakeholders. Actions include the systematic identification of the interests of stakeholders, analysis of the interests, development and implementation of actions aimed at interaction with stakeholders. [1]. Typical project stakeholders are presented in figure 3 [6].

Figure 3 Project stakeholders

These definitions and figure demonstrate that stakeholders generally include only the inner circle of the project. Therefore, according to the concept of sustainability, management of stakeholders includes only a part of participants of the global world. The figure 2 shows a similar situation. Consequently, it is an evident that stakeholders are only part of sustainable project management.

The concept of stakeholders is analysed below as standards of project management. It should be investigated, how these standards contain the concept of sustainability.

• 1.    PRINCE2. This standard does not contain any chapter which is devoted to stakeholders management. But a chapter, which is devoted to risks, contains the recommendation to involve stakeholders in processes of a project. This recommendation is one of the principles of risk management. Thus it argues that the standard PRINCE2 has a very limited approach to stakeholders management.

• 2.    PMBoK 2013. This standard contains 10 areas of knowledge. The standard considers stakeholders within the certain area of knowledge. It is “Project Stakeholder Management” [9, 11]. Stakeholder management is necessary to get information from stakeholders to determine their needs. The standard recommends to actively manage the expectations of stakeholders using negotiations between participants to achieve project objectives. Thus PMBoK does not contain implicit consideration of the principles of sustainability.

• 3.    The International Competence Baseline (IPMA). This standard uses a special term for stakeholders “interested parties”. The standard shows that it is necessary to include the interests and expectations of stakeholders in the requirements, objectives, scope, deliverables schedule and costs of the project plan. The standard takes into account the interests only of inner circle of the project [2].

• 4.    ISO 21500 Guidance on Project Management. This standard contains 8 chapters. Stakeholders are represented in two paragraphs ‘Project stakeholders in ISO 21500’ and ‘Stakeholders Subject group’ in chapters ‘ISO 21500 Subject group’ and ‘ISP 21500 and roles and responsibilities’ respectively.

Thus information above clearly demonstrates that the concept of stakeholder management is narrower concept in comparison with a concept of sustainable project management. Stakeholder management is the social dimension of sustainable project management, which allows to provide social sustainability [10].

Sustainability in project management as an independent concept

This paragraph describes the point of view that the sustainability should be included as much as possible in all project management process group and in all project management areas of knowledge. It is necessary to analyse standards of project management to understand how sustainability should be introduced in processes and areas of project management’s knowledge. The following standards are specified below: PRINCE2, PMBoK 2013, ISO 21500.

The standards PRINCE2 includes 7 themes, 7 principles and 7 processes. PMBoK includes 10 knowledge areas and 5 group of process. ISO 21500 includes 5 process groups, 10 subject groups. In 2012 scientists such as Silvius, Schipper, Planko, Brink and Kohler suggested the following table to implement the concept of sustainability in project management [13]. The table demonstrates sustainable project management impact areas that based on tree standards such as knowledge areas, subject groups and themes. Information is presented in a table 2.

PMBok Knowledge areas	ISO 21500 Subject groups	PRINCE2 Themes	Sustainable project management Impact areas
Project Integration Management	Integration	Plans Change	• Project change management
Project Stakeholder Management	Stakeholders	-	•    Identification of stakeholders •    Stakeholder involvement
Project Scope Management	Scope	-	•    Recognition of the context •    Project specifications / requirements / deliverable •    Dimensions of project success
Project Human Resource Management	Resources	Organization	• Selection and organization of the project team
Project Time Management	Time	-	• Project sequencing and scheduling
Project Cost Management	Cost	Business case	• Business case / costs/benefits
Project Risk Management	Risks	Risks	• Risk identification and management
Project Quality Management	Quality	Quality	• Project quality criteria
Project Procurement Management	Procurement	-	•    Materials used •    Procurement
Project Communications	Communication	-	• Project communication
-	-	Progress	• Project reporting
-	-	-	• Project handover
-	-	-	• Organizational learning

Table 2 The standards and Sustainable project management impact areas

There are several sustainable project management impact areas that are described below.

Project change management

The concept of sustainability requires change of organizations’ behaviour in the world community, and also should change a relationship between organizations and project management.

Identification of stakeholders

Identification of stakeholders and work with them should meet criteria:

• -    Identifying economic, social and environmental stakeholders;

• -    Identifying local, regional and global stakeholders;

• -    Stakeholders have to be related to all life cycle of the project from initiation phase to influence on society;

• -    Interaction with stakeholders has to be pro-active.

Examples of sustainable stakeholders are organizations for waste recycling, communities of project management, interests of society and customers.

Stakeholder involvement

Sustainable project management should involve stakeholders in the project management process. The participation of stakeholders is particularly important in such process as defining objectives and requirements of the project, evaluating the benefits and costs, planning and design process, identification and detection of risks, compiling reports.

Recognition of the context

The concept of sustainable development encourages to introduce a project context. It is a fact that the modern world becomes global. It is necessary to estimate influence the project in time and spatial frames. This aspect is presented in Figure 2. The figure illustrates that it is necessary to evaluate how the project influence on the global world.

Project specifications, requirements, deliverable, qualitative characteristic

Sustainability affects the specification, requirements, deliverable, qualitative characteristic regarding the scope in the field of project management. Specification, requirements and qualitative characteristic should be defined based on the economic, social and environmental perspectives. These concepts should be developed with the participation of stakeholders.

Dimensions of project success

A standard of project success is defined as meeting three needs: time, scope and budget. The standard of PMBoK adds to the success of the project quality requirements such as satisfaction, resources and risk. In 2005 Kezner said that project success is a set of various criteria in the book Project Management 2.0 [8]. However, according to the concept of sustainability, project success should be determined in frames of the economy, society and environment. Therefore, in 2010 Grevelman and Kluiwstra suggested a model of project success based on the concept of sustainability [7]. They added economic, social and environmental requirements to the traditional model of project success. The model was named the star, and it is presented in Figure 4. Budget constraints were combined with the economic requirements in the model.

Environm

Figure 4 Success in sustainable project management

Selection and organization of the project team

Organization and management of the project team is the next impact area of sustainable project management. This area is a social dimension of the concept of sustainability. Implementation of the following aspects allow to provide social sustainability to the project team:

• -    Equal opportunities

• -    Non-discrimination

• -    Favourable labour conditions

• -    Part-time positions

• -    Virtual teams

• -    Safety and security

• -    Development

• -   Work/life balance

• -   Cultural differences

• -    Respect

• -    Law-book of peer-pressure.

Project sequencing and scheduling

This impact area involves to introduce the concept of sustainability in project time management. Sustainable planning and creation of schedules in realization process of the project provides decrease in number of waste, cost reduction on delivery, more effective use of resources, possibilities for increase in labour skills and an opportunity for creation of workplaces in poor areas.

Business case, costs, benefits

This impact area describes how definition of cost and business case of the project is changed in relation with the concept of sustainability. Cost and business case of the project should include environmental and social aspects, as well as to bring benefit to these aspects.

Risk identification and management

Risk identification and management that based on sustainability should satisfy the following criteria:

• -    The definition of risk should include influence of the economic, environmental and social dimensions;

• -    Risks should be identified in a short-term and long-term period;

• -    Risk assessment should take place in cooperation with stakeholders and taking into account the perspectives for stakeholders;

• -    It is necessary to identify measures that reduce probability of risk formation;

• -    It is necessary to identify measures that reduce the effect of influence on economy, society and the environment in case negative risk.

Materials used and Procurement

The choice of materials is a particularly important part of ensuring sustainability of the project. Materials which are used in the project should not damage to the environment, should be able to be recycled or material can be renew. The organization should choose its suppliers which use principles of sustainable development and can keep to the rules.

Project communication

Sustainable management of project communication means proactive cooperation between all participants.

Project reporting

Sustainability is affect the reporting because is necessary to prepare reports about ecological, social and economic factors of delivery and outcome.

In 2015 Silvius and Schipper suggested the following impact areas of sustainable project management [15]. These areas are not related to any of the points of project management standards.

• -    Project handover

• -    Organizational learning.

Silvius described the sustainable project management impact areas. However, the concept of sustainability began to work, when organizations and associations on project management included the principles of sustainability in standards of project management. Also the project manager influenced on introduction of sustainability in the project. The manager had to be committed to the principles of sustainability.

According to the information above it can be argued that the integration of sustainability in project management is a broader concept than management stakeholders.

Stakeholder management is a part of the standards of project management. However, project management can become a sustainable project management, when the sustainability is introduced in all project management process groups and in all project management areas of knowledge.

This article reviewed the concepts such as sustainability, the concept of sustainable development, the relationship of project management and the concept of sustainability. Firstly, stakeholder management is a part of sustainability in project management. The concepts of stakeholders, stakeholders management and sections of project management standards are analysed in the first point of view. Secondly, integration of sustainability in project management is more complex concept than stakeholders management. Sustainable project management impact areas are demonstrated, the description of each area from the point of view of stability is also provided. Thus the analysis has led to a conclusion that the integration of sustainability in project management is a broader concept than management stakeholders. Sustainability should be integrated into the processes and areas of knowledge of project management. Also, the project manager and project management standards influence on integration of sustainability in project management.