Sustainability is now a core performance target in PRINCE2, with clear roles, processes, and tolerances designed to align projects with ESG commitments and long-term value.
The sustainability management approach ensures accountability, continuous assessment, and integration of environmental and social impact into every stage of project delivery.
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Learn how PRINCE2 7th Edition integrates sustainability management into projects, covering roles, tolerances, performance targets, and reporting methods.
Plan Sustainability
Plans can address Sustainability in at least three different ways:
Product sustainability
In identifying and describing the required products, it is helpful to determine the product’s environmental impact through its entire lifecycle, including disposal where appropriate.
Delivery sustainability
Projects often face choices in planning work packages and stages that can affect the climate impacts of the delivery activities.
Agreeing to sustainability tolerances is an effective way for the project manager and project board to keep things like fuel consumption and production wastes aligned with the organizational strategy.
Benefits sustainability
Projects often deliver benefits long after they have been closed and may fail to achieve the expected benefits because there are only limited means to sustain these benefits. For example, ongoing training
and user support are not considered when defining the project’s scope. An effective way to avoid this problem is by identifying requirements to ensure benefits sustainability.
Targets and tolerances
The permissible deviations for scope, cost, and time at the level of the plan. Stage plans and team plans may also include sustainability and risk tolerances.
Product sustainability
Sustainability is a crucial consideration in describing and specifying the project products.
Sustainability requirements should address the organization’s ability to sustain expected benefits after delivery (for example, the Sustainability of a product) and its ability to achieve its expectations for the project’s environmental impacts and its products (environmental Sustainability).
Both aspects can be addressed at a high level in the project product description.
- Product descriptions should include product sustainability requirements captured as quality specifications or acceptance criteria.
- Product sustainability considers both the environmental impact of the product and the characteristics that will ensure that the product can realize its benefits over its expected lifetime.
- Consider how a product will be decommissioned if that work represents a significant portion of its overall environmental impact.
- The quality specifications associated with product sustainability can usually be derived from information about the product’s supply chain and how the business intends to use and support the development.
- Quality specifications related to environmental Sustainability may need to reference regulatory or advisory standards.
Sustainability Risk planning
Threats and opportunities can impact the project’s objective of delivering an agreed scope and benefits to an agreed time, cost, and quality within agreed sustainability targets.
The use of risk categories helps projects identify and prioritize risks.
PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental) analysis and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis can analyse the internal and external context for risks.
These techniques also help to identify sustainability risks that may affect the project and can also help to identify the most appropriate owners.
Business Case Sustainability
A project will incorporate specific sustainability targets and tolerances into its business case, which should be assessed for risks.
Sustainability Risk management considerations can include:
- Defining the approach to managing risks relating to the Sustainability of the project work (for example, the project not meeting its sustainability performance targets)
- Defining the approach to managing risks relating to the Sustainability of the project product (for example, one or more products not meeting their sustainability performance requirements)
- Incorporating the cost of responding to sustainability risks into the risk budget (for example, extreme weather events that may affect the project or the resilience of the supply chain)
- Documenting risks and actions relating to Sustainability into the risk register and including them in regular risk communications.
Issue and changes Sustainability
Sustainability can be a source of significant issues and changes outside the project, particularly in regulatory requirements and supplier capabilities.
Suppose sustainability and environmental impacts are significant aspects of the project. In that case, the issue management approach should ensure that someone in the project management team is responsible for monitoring external sources of potential issues and changes.
Progress control involves measuring actual progress against the performance targets of Sustainability, and this information is used to make decisions, such as whether to approve a stage or work package, whether to escalate deviations, or whether to prematurely close the project and take actions as required.
Sustainability progress can be monitored at the work package, stage, and project level.
Sustainability tolerance types by layer
Limits on the agreed metrics for Sustainability will be included in the Business Case, Stage Plan, Work Package description, and Product descriptions.
The project board may set more specific stage-level sustainability tolerances when authorizing a stage or by the project manager and when approving work packages, especially from external suppliers.
Some areas of Sustainability will fall under legislation, regulation, or business layer policies; therefore, it will require evidence to support compliance.
Progress Management Sustainability
Progress management will gather data on those aspects of Sustainability recorded in the project implementation document that are critical success factors for the project.
This is to check that the project remains within its sustainability tolerances and the parameters established by the business layer.
Progress management must be able to identify and report on the data required to support this evidence.
The project executive may request an audit of the project if compliance against sustainability regulations is required. Advice should be sought from the quality assurance function with the business or programme.
Sustainability reporting should not be separate from the agreed reporting requirements but rather integrated into the cyclical analysis of the project data by the project manager, team managers, and project support.
The activities in the plans should consider the data needed to satisfy sustainability analysis, just as they should for the other tolerances within the project.
This is so that evidential reporting on Sustainability is a consequence of progress management rather than something that requires additional activities or resources.
Applying Sustainability to the PRINCE2 Processes
Sustainability application to Directing a Project
The project board approves the initial and updated versions of the sustainability management approach for alignment with the business case and business approach.
The project board agrees on level benefits and sustainability tolerance with the business and sets the stage level tolerance for them.
The activity Give ongoing direction by the project board and provides general advice on the project (for example, explaining the business’ sustainability objectives and ESG reporting requirements relevant to the project)
The management approaches are derived from sustainability expectations captured in the project product description.
When the approaches have been defined, it is possible to establish the project controls to create the sustainability management approach.
Sustainability application to Initiating a Project.
The outline business case in the project brief is developed further into a full business case ready for approval by the project board based on a better understanding of the project and the proposed option.
The sustainability management approach is developed to support the business case and provide input for establishing controls.
Application of Sustainability to Controlling a Stage
The business case is regularly checked to ensure it remains viable. Otherwise, the project board must be informed.
The sustainability management approach is applied, and their requirements are included in work package descriptions for the stage.
Ensure that each product in the work package has gained its requisite approval as defined in the sustainability responsibilities in their product descriptions.
Application of Sustainability to Managing Product Delivery Process
Sustainability management requirements defined in the work package description are fulfilled when executing the work package.
Application of Sustainability to the managing a stage boundary process
It is a PRINCE2 principle that a project must ensure continued business justification.
The project board is ordinarily authorized to continue while the project remains viable, meaning the benefits will be realized within the sustainability parameters established in the currently agreed business case.
The project’s performance at the end of the stage is assessed, and the business case is updated to reflect any changes to forecast costs, risks, and benefits, as well as any changes external to the project that affect the business case.
The sustainability management approach is reviewed and updated if required.
Application of Sustainability to the closing of a project process
The performance of the project at the end of the project is assessed, and the business case is updated to reflect the actual costs and benefits as well as a forecast of benefits yet to be realized.
If required, the benefits and sustainability management approaches are reviewed and updated for post-project responsibilities.
Sustainability within the management documents
Business Case
Specific targets relating to Sustainability that the project must meet. The targets include sustainability tolerances.
The Plan document
The performance targets and the permissible deviations for scope, cost, and time at the level of the plan. Stage plans and team plans may also include sustainability and risk tolerances.
PID content
The sustainability management approach is created to define the actions, reviews, and controls that will be established to ensure that sustainability performance targets for the project are achieved.
The sustainability management approach defines the actions, reviews, and controls will be established to ensure that sustainability performance targets for the project are achieved.
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