Sustainable Project Management - Integrating sustainability in Sweco Management’s projects
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master Thesis
Master Thesis
Program
International Project Management
Publicerad
2018
Författare
ÖHLUND, MARKUS BOHM
SMIDING, JONNA
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
The concept of sustainability has become a recognized component of decision making and gained increased attention in management research and practice during the last decades. Integration of sustainability in project management has picked up momentum in the research field, but there are few studies that illustrate how it can be achieved in practice. As the interest and demand for sustainability within the urban development market is increasing, the aim of the thesis is to investigate how the consulting organization Sweco Management can integrate sustainability into their projects. The study was conducted with a research design called systematic combining where the initial aim and research questions were modified along with an increased understanding of the phenomenon. A qualitative research methodology was chosen with a single case study carried out at Sweco Management. A literature review was conducted along with semi-structured interviews with both project managers at Sweco Management and their customers, participant observations and reviews of the intranet and internal documents. The study shows that understanding and concretizing of the sustainability concept in projects is challenging. It is unclear what is expected of project managers and they perceive that there are insufficient supporting functions for sustainability work. Additionally, the study shows that working with sustainability entails several values and opportunities implying that there are strong arguments for integrating sustainability into projects. The conclusions indicate that Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDGs) provide a meaningful tool for concretizing and understanding the concept and that sustainability can be used in order to maintain market positions. The project managers need to become more proactive and address sustainability in order to meet customer expectations and demands. Vertical integration and supporting functions to embed the concept are needed where the skills, knowledge and mind-set of the project manager are important to consider. The recommendations suggest design and utilization of several methods such as e-learning, workshop, routine at Sweco@Work and checklists. Finally, a corporate environment needs to be promoted where sustainability is discussed and emphasised in order to normalize the sustainability concept.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Samhällsbyggnadsteknik , Civil Engineering