In the US, the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV broke all records for viewership with 106.5 million people tuning in.  That’s even more than the 27-year-old record held by the tear-jerking M*A*S*H finale that drew 105.97 million viewers.



As for the Super Bowl ads – well, I would have to say they were sub-par this year.  But there was no shortage of car-related ads and my favorite (but remember I’m partial) was Audi’s ad featuring a re-recording of Cheap Trick’s “Dream Police” as the “Green Police.”  The ad was for Audi’s green car, the A3 TDI clean diesel automobile.  The ad is actually very good and was voted the best auto-related ad of for this year’s Super Bowl.  In case you missed it, you can view it here.



It’s obvious that “green” is definitely the new black – or however people are stating it these days.  I wrote one article on ‘green’ project management back in May 2009 and I’ve since been asked to write several more and interviewed on the subject for two online articles and a major print publication.  Everybody wants to know about going green, apparently.



In my mind, it’s really very simple.  We need to do more with what we have and request less of our environment.  So I’m revisiting it here and probably restating things I’ve already said in the past.  Here are a few of the concepts that I feel make up greener project management and business practices…

 

 





     
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  • Work remotely. I’m a huge proponent of the home office.  Be onsite with a customer when you need to be, but in the world of project management I don’t see a reason why a majority of the work can’t be done remotely.  Project team members are often located across the country and around the world and customers can be located anywhere globally.  Certainly, there will be the need for flights to customer locations or common sites periodically during a year-long project engagement.  What isn’t necessary is the 20-mile, 45-minute drive into the office each way.  That’s 90 minutes of your life you get back each day, but it’s also $1800 or 600 gallons of gasoline per year that you don’t have to buy or use up.  Add in emissions to the environment that you won’t be responsible for any more and you can see how much remote work can help the environment…not to mention your pocketbook and work productivity.




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  • Communicate electronically. Thankfully, just the act of working remotely as a project manager and project team member makes this practice necessary.  Gone are the huge printouts of status reports, project schedules, and status meeting notes.  I have to admit, when I do meet face-to-face with a customer, I tend to still provide not only electronic, but also hardcopy materials for their viewing and reference.  Why?  Habit, I guess.  Everyone feels the need to provide hardcopy materials in face-to-face meetings.  Old habits die hard.  More remote work = more electronic documents.  I used to have to produce 50 status review books of about 120 pages each for formal status meetings every couple of months with the US government on a large project I was leading.  Thankfully, those days are gone.  And the use of collarborative project management tools like Seavus' Project Planner and Project Viewer software packages makes the elimination of hardcopy project materials very easy.




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  • Work in the cloud. More cloud computing means less materials, equipment and storage onsite for you and your company.  It’s fiscally responsible, it’s environmentally friendly as it reduces your overall carbon footprint, and it’s safe.  Just be sure to choose the right cloud solution.  More on that in another article.




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Summary



There are probably a lot of things we can all do in our everyday lives to go easier on our environment – things way beyond what I’ve touched on here.  I’m personally starting to recycle more – I realize I’ve not been the best example in the past.  But I can certainly say from a workplace standpoint, my carbon footprint is about as small as it can get.  In the past year, I’ve not produced one single hardcopy document for any of my project management and business technology work and consulting.