By Stewart Clegg, Torgeir Skyttermoen, and Anne Live Vaagaasar – the authors of Project Management – Creating Sustainable Value.
This is the 2nd of an article series of 4 articles (each can be read individually):
1: Beyond the Basics: What Project Management Needs Today 1/4
2: Beyond Waste: What Project Management can do Today (2/4)
3: Beyond Rock Stars: Trust and Psychological Safety in Project Management 3/4
4: Beyond Control: How Project Leadership Maturity Creates Meaningful Impact 4/4
A project can meet every target on time, within budget, and to scope, yet still fall short of its purpose. Today’s challenges, including climate urgency, social inequity, and digital transformation, require more than technical delivery. Projects must create value that is meaningful, lasting, and widely shared. That’s where sustainable project leadership becomes essential.
From Waste to Value
At the heart of sustainable project management lies one fundamental idea: eliminate waste in all forms. This includes materials, energy, time, effort, and opportunity. This is the principle behind the circular economy, where reuse, repair, recycling, and long-term thinking replace the traditional linear model of ‘make-use-dispose’.
It’s a model that challenges leaders to ask more from their projects. How do we design for sustainability, not as an afterthought, but from the start?
The answer lies in a different approach to leadership.
Circular Economy
The circular economy is the economy of the future, being built by sustainability-oriented projects in the present. It emphasizes actions such as rethinking, reducing, repairing, refurbishing, repurposing, and recovering. More than a technical model, it is a mindset. It asks us to refuse to waste, whether resources, opportunities, or human potential, and to design projects that conserve rather than deplete.
If we keep this in mind across all dimensions of a project or organization, we move closer to making the world more sustainable, one decision at a time.
Designing Complex Organizations for Sustainability
Sustainability is not always understood in the same way. It is approached in two quite different ways.
_____
Beyond the Basics: What Project Management Needs Today (1 of 4)
_____
One approach focuses on how sustainability can be embedded across an organization’s goods, services, and strategies. This requires systemic thinking and deep integration. The other approach treats organizations as tools to solve specific sustainability challenges, much like installing a solar panel system to power a factory. Both are valuable, but the first leads to more consistent and resilient outcomes.
The key questions for project professionals become: What does it mean to be sustainable in this context? How do we do it? And why does it matter?
The why is often linked to ethical, reputational, and long-term economic concerns. Evidence shows that sustainable projects are also more successful. Simply put, less waste often means better results.
What IKEA Can Teach Us
Take IKEA, a giant Swedish furniture company. IKEA’s journey toward sustainability offers a powerful case of organizational transformation. This transformation happened not only through product design and logistics but also through leadership structure.
Since 2016, IKEA has reduced greenhouse gas emissions from its products and food by more than 30 percent. Nearly all its electricity now comes from renewable sources, and in some countries, stores are powered entirely by clean energy. Half of its delivery vehicles in these markets are also emissions-free.
But these results are not just the product of clever engineering or bold sustainability statements. They stem from a deliberate decision to make sustainability a core project embedded across the entire business, with leadership directly accountable for the outcomes.
Each IKEA country is led by a Country Manager who acts as both CEO and CFO. This combined role ensures that sustainability is not treated as a separate concern but as a strategic and financial priority. These leaders are responsible not only for the bottom line but also for environmental performance, and they must report on both in annual sustainability reports.
This structure ensures that sustainability is embedded in how the business is run, from design and procurement to supply chain logistics and post-sale initiatives. IKEA’s flat-pack model was originally designed to help customers transport furniture more easily themselves. But it also reduced emissions, packaging, and space during transportation — becoming a foundation for more resource-efficient operations. From there, the company introduced products designed for longevity, reuse, and repair, alongside buy-back programs and spare part services. These are all key elements in supporting a circular economy.
_____
Project Leadership: The World is Changing and so Must You (1/3)
_____
What makes the difference is not just what IKEA does. It is how seriously sustainability is integrated into leadership, accountability, and performance metrics. When those at the top hold responsibility for both profit and purpose, sustainability becomes a shared language across the company rather than a side project.
The Power of Socialized Leadership
Sustainability doesn’t spread without leadership, but not the kind that relies on top-down decisions.
What’s needed is socialized leadership. This is a leadership approach that shares responsibility across teams and departments, where the sense of purpose is collective and decisions are distributed.
Instead of relying on one visionary or a single sustainability officer, socialized leadership enables every team to be a sustainability driver. Leaders don’t hold power alone. They share it. They help shape cultures of accountability, where people are trusted to act, speak up, and take responsibility.
This is a shift from control to collaboration. Moving from old authoritarian leadership approaches that focus on ‘power over’ to ‘power to’ approaches, team members feel empowered to take initiative and work together across functions, and sustainable outcomes become part of how work is done.
Teams that reduce waste and improve sustainability shouldn’t just be praised. They should benefit from the value they create. If waste reduction leads to savings, some of that value can be shared with the teams who made it happen.
Leading in All Directions
Socialized leadership doesn’t stop inside the organization.
It requires leading upward to engage sponsors and executives. Leading outward, to connect with communities, users, and stakeholders. And leading onward, by embedding purpose and ethics into the day-to-day.
When sustainability becomes a shared mission, projects gain legitimacy. Teams become more resilient. Organizations gain the trust of both their people and the wider society.
The Digital Advantage
Digital tools are transforming how we manage projects and minimize waste. From AI-powered logistics to precision design software, technology helps us deliver more value with fewer resources.
_____
Are You Making any of these 10 Project Management Mistakes?
_____
Take WiseTech, a global logistics company. Its digital platform enables real-time coordination across supply chains, adjusting dynamically to everything from shifting tariffs to political unrest. This allows companies to reduce delays, optimize transport routes, and make better use of energy and materials — contributing directly to sustainability goals.
Another compelling example comes from the world of architecture. When Frank Gehry’s team designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, they used CATIA, a digital modeling system originally developed for aircraft engineering. Rather than rely on blueprints, the team first created a physical model and digitally scanned it. The data was then used to construct a precise 3D model, allowing for exact calculations of materials and structural needs.
This approach enabled them to use high-cost titanium more efficiently than traditional materials — reducing waste by over 30%. The result was a world-renowned building delivered on time and within budget, with a significantly smaller environmental footprint. Gehry Technologies later expanded this model, allowing multiple partners to collaborate on the same 3D designs without downloading files or risking version conflicts.
These examples highlight how digital innovation doesn’t just enhance performance — it actively supports sustainability by reducing errors, waste, and cost across the entire project lifecycle.
The Leadership Choice
Sustainability is not automatic; nor does it happen by accident. It happens when leaders, at all levels, make it a priority.
It means asking better questions:
• What kind of value are we creating?
• Who is included and who is left out?
• Will this project matter in the long run?
It also means shifting from short-term delivery to long-term impact. Sustainable leadership helps organizations design for the future, not just the finish line.
That’s the promise of sustainable project leadership.
And it begins with the choices you make today.
