Integration Of Sustainability Principles Into Project Baselines Using A Comprehensive Indicator Set

Abstract

Sustainability is defined as balancing the three concepts of people, planet, and profit to maximize the absolute value of an undertaking. Therefore it deals with the long term economic, social, and environmental effects of an undertaking. However, the definition of sustainability, which is focused on the long term, does not provide practical guidance to companies attempting to integrate sustainability into their projects, which by definition are temporary constructs. The imbalance between the definition of sustainability and the definition of a project has made it difficult to incorporate meaningful sustainability indicators into project baselines.

In this paper we propose a framework for integrating sustainability into project baselines for consulting engineering projects in the industrial and resource extraction fields. This framework is based on using a sustainability indicator set that has been derived from existing sets applicable to industrial or resource extraction projects. The utility of the proposed framework and indicator set are back checked against a recently completed engineer, procure, and construction manage mining project undertaken by a large engineering and project management services organization.