Published
This is the second in our series of blogs that build on the Association’s sustainability commitment following our 2019 annual conference.
As with some of the other key transformational aspects of major projects such as, for example EDI, sustainable project practices come most easily when you focus on the commercial benefits that they bring. That may sound counter-intuitive but returning to my EDI example, building a project team that draws across all races, colours, cultures, genders is self-evidently good business practice. That’s not because of the issue of neuro-diversity (which is something that we believe to be important but for which it is hard to make a direct financial argument) but rather because it gives you access to a recruitment pool of all the very best people.
Similarly, the arguments and the strategies for sustainable project practices that should be easiest to adopt are those that offer an immediate financial benefit. For example, those practices that enable you eliminate waste, because waste is a source of delay and rework, as well as a cost, in terms of recycling or landfill.
There are plenty of sources of evidence and advice on how to eliminate waste, from lean construction institute to the Get It Right Initiative.
When it comes to planning and project design, there is also plenty of evidence for the direct, financial benefits of sustainable approaches. Look for example at the cost and impact of the protests by environmental groups of all kinds on one of the UK’s flagship projects HS2. In September 2020, Building Magazine carried the story ‘Protest Disruption Cost HS2 Enough to Build a Primary School’
HM Treasury are often accused being so ‘cost and money’ focused in the Green Book that they can undermine the sustainability of business cases and subsequent project practice. That’s a very easy accusation to level but not necessarily one that is borne out by the evidence: UK Government does provide plenty of tools to help translate environmental and social capital into arguments that do carry weight, for example: the Communities and Local Government Manual for Multi-Criteria Analysis, or Measuring the Benefits of Your Service from the Gov.UK Service Manual.
There is also plenty of advice from the Association website to get you started, from the new Sustainability Toolkit; to our knowledge resources on sustainable procurement, environment or regeneration
The message from this blog:
- If you assume that sustainable project practices will add to the cost of your projects, you’re almost certainly looking down the wrong end of the telescope;
- Start instead by looking at the things that perennially cost you money (and don’t need to)
- And look for all of the many sources of advice on the opportunity cost of unsustainability and on how to translate sustainable benefits into financial benefits.
Read the previous blog: Working out how to work sustainably
Read the final blog in the series: Sustainability – the foggiest project of all