Sustainability

Sustainability has become one of those words that gets applied to almost everything, which is a sure sign that it risks meaning almost nothing. A project is called "sustainable" if it produces a document, a programme, or a service that will outlast its funding. A company is called "sustainable" if it uses recycled packaging. Both uses are accurate but partial. The deeper meaning, the one with most practical consequence for project managers in Irish organisations, is about understanding the full cost of delivering value, including the costs that don't appear in the budget.

Why it matters

The foundational definition comes from the 1987 Brundtland Report, formally titled Our Common Future, published by the World Commission on Environment and Development: sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (WCED, 1987). That definition has three structural implications. First, sustainability is about time: decisions made today create conditions that constrain future choices. Second, it is about distribution: not just whether a project works for those who commission it, but whether it imposes costs on those who have no say in the decision. Third, it is about limits: the world's physical systems, climate, water, biodiversity, nitrogen cycles, are finite, and projects that treat them as unlimited externalities create problems that eventually must be paid by someone.

For project managers, this is not abstract philosophy. The question "what does this project cost?" needs to account for more than budget lines. It needs to account for the carbon embedded in procurement choices, the social impact of delivery on the surrounding community, and whether the activity, once complete, will generate ongoing costs that undermine the very organisation it was meant to serve.

Core concepts

John Elkington's concept of the triple bottom line, introduced in his 1997 book Cannibals with Forks, provided business and project managers with a practical framework: organisations should account for their performance across three dimensions, people (social equity and wellbeing), planet (environmental impact), and profit (economic viability) (Elkington, 1997). The triple bottom line is not a perfect framework, Elkington himself later expressed concern that it had been misapplied as a simple accounting exercise, but it remains the most accessible organising principle for the idea that organisational success has multiple dimensions that interact.

The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by all 193 member states in September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, provide a globally agreed vocabulary for sustainability across seventeen interconnected areas, covering poverty, health, education, gender equality, clean energy, responsible consumption, climate action, and more (UN, 2015). For an Irish charity working on social inclusion, SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG 1 (no poverty) are obvious reference points. For an SME developing a new product or supply chain, SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) and SDG 13 (climate action) are directly relevant. The SDGs also provide a shared language with institutional funders, the EU, Irish state agencies, and international philanthropic bodies, which is a practical reason to engage with them.

For project managers, the most operationally relevant concept is scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, drawn from the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, the global framework for measuring greenhouse gas emissions (WBCSD and WRI, 2004). Scope 1 covers direct emissions from sources controlled by the organisation (vehicle fleet, on-site heating). Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity. Scope 3 covers all other indirect emissions across the supply chain, the materials procured, the travel of contractors, the end use of products. For most small organisations, Scope 3 is both the largest and the least visible category of emissions, and it is also where most meaningful reduction opportunities lie.

The concept of planetary boundaries, developed by Johan Rockström and colleagues at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and first published in 2009, identifies nine Earth system processes that define a "safe operating space for humanity", including climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater use, and novel entities (chemical pollutants, microplastics) (Rockström et al., 2009). Exceeding these boundaries risks triggering irreversible environmental change. The framework has been adopted by the European Commission as an underpinning for EU environmental and sustainability policy, and its logic, that there are hard physical limits beyond which development is not merely inefficient but impossible, is increasingly influencing corporate and public sector planning.

The Irish context

Ireland's Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 established legally binding carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings, and set the national target of a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (compared to 2018 levels), with climate neutrality by 2050 (Government of Ireland, 2021). These are not advisory aspirations, they are statutory obligations. Ireland's Climate Action Plan 2024 provides the sectoral roadmap for achieving them, covering electricity, transport, agriculture, buildings, and industry (Department of the Environment, Climate and Energy, 2024).

However, the Environmental Protection Agency's May 2025 emissions projections are unambiguous: Ireland is currently on track for only a 23% reduction by 2030 under the higher-ambition scenario, less than half the statutory target (EPA, 2025). Ireland also exceeded its EU Effort Sharing Regulation annual emission limits every year since 2016. Agricultural emissions, which constitute approximately 34% of total national emissions, have declined by only 1% since 2005, reflecting the structural difficulty of decarbonising the farming sector.

For Irish SMEs and charities, the practical implications of this context are growing. The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), phased in from 2024, requires large and listed companies to disclose detailed sustainability information, and its supply chain reach means that even small organisations that supply goods or services to larger entities may be asked to provide sustainability data they have never previously tracked. SEAI (the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland) provides direct grants, training, and advisory services for Irish businesses undertaking energy efficiency and renewable energy projects (SEAI, 2024). The Wheel's resources for the community and voluntary sector include sustainability planning tools specifically designed for organisations with limited capacity but genuine environmental and social commitments (The Wheel, 2024).

Common pitfalls

Three patterns undermine sustainability in project management. The first is greenwashing, making sustainability claims that are not backed by measurement, change, or accountability. This is not merely a reputational risk; it is increasingly a legal one as the EU and Irish authorities develop stronger advertising standards around environmental claims. The second is treating sustainability as a separate workstream rather than integrating it into project design, procurement, and evaluation from the outset. A project that delivers its environmental report as a chapter in the final evaluation document has not practised sustainable project management; it has retrospectively described it. The third is ignoring social sustainability. Environmental focus, while urgent, can crowd out the equally important questions of whether a project's benefits and burdens are fairly distributed, whether it supports or undermines community cohesion, and whether it leaves behind durable capacity or creates dependency.

Watch / Listen / Read

Watch, Let the environment guide our development by Johan Rockström (TED2010, 18 min). Rockström introduces the nine planetary boundaries, the scientific framework that defines the physical limits within which human development can safely operate. A landmark talk that reframes sustainability from a preference to a constraint. Available at link.

Listen, Sustainability Defined, an independent podcast covering the frameworks, concepts, and practitioners shaping sustainable development. Episodes cover Scope 3 emissions, the SDGs, ESG reporting, and the circular economy in accessible depth. Available on all major podcast platforms at https://www.sustainabilitydefined.com/.

Read, WCED (1987) Our Common Future (The Brundtland Report). New York: Oxford University Press. The source of the definition that still governs all subsequent sustainability frameworks, available free at link.

Quick quiz

1. What is the Brundtland Report's definition of sustainable development?
2. Name the three dimensions of Elkington's (1997) triple bottom line.
3. What is Ireland's statutory greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by 2030 under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021?
4. What was the EPA's projected emissions reduction for Ireland by 2030 under higher-ambition policies, published in May 2025?
5. What are Scope 3 emissions in the GHG Protocol framework?

Answers: (1) Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (2) People, planet, profit. (3) 51% reduction compared to 2018 levels. (4) Up to 23%, less than half the statutory target. (5) All indirect emissions across the supply chain not covered by Scopes 1 and 2, including materials procured, contractor travel, and end-use of products.

References

Department of the Environment, Climate and Energy (2024) Climate Action Plan 2024. Dublin: Government of Ireland. Available at: link (Accessed: 27 April 2026).

Elkington, J. (1997) Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Oxford: Capstone.

Environmental Protection Agency (2025) Greenhouse Gas Emission Projections 2024–2055. Wexford: EPA. Available at: link (Accessed: 27 April 2026).

Government of Ireland (2021) Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. Dublin: Oireachtas. Available at: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2021/act/32/enacted/en/html (Accessed: 27 April 2026).

Rockström, J. et al. (2009) 'A Safe Operating Space for Humanity', Nature, 461, pp. 472–475.

Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (2024) Energy efficiency and renewable supports for businesses. Available at: https://www.seai.ie/business-and-public-sector/ (Accessed: 27 April 2026).

The Wheel (2024) Sustainability resources for community and voluntary organisations. Available at: https://www.wheel.ie (Accessed: 27 April 2026).

UN (2015) Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New York: United Nations. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda (Accessed: 27 April 2026).

WBCSD and WRI (2004) The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (revised edn). Geneva and Washington DC: WBCSD/WRI. Available at: https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard (Accessed: 27 April 2026).

WCED (1987) Our Common Future (The Brundtland Report). New York: Oxford University Press.