The IPMA Guide to Sustainable Project Management is a recent release introducing IPMA’s emerging sustainability curriculum. This review begins with a summary of the guide’s framework and tools. Next, I evaluate the conceptual focus of the text. I conclude with a comparison to PMI-Green Project Management (GPM) methodology, now part of the PMI certification family.
The IPMA Guide offers a structured framework for embedding sustainability throughout the project lifecycle. It begins with a Project Sustainability Impact Assessment followed by a Sustainability Management Plan, guiding teams to integrate environmental and social considerations from initiation through closure. These tools make sustainability measurable and iterative, encouraging reflection at each phase rather than treating it as a separate or symbolic effort.
The guide’s Wheel of Impacts on Society and the Environment (WISE) is one of its strongest contributions. It helps practitioners visualize the relationships between ecological integrity, community wellbeing, and economic value.
Templates and checklists are clear and approachable, giving organizations with limited resources a feasible starting point for institutionalizing sustainability practices within traditional project structures. Despite its clarity, the guide remains primarily oriented toward mitigation and compliance. IPMA’s text focuses on minimizing harm, not achieving regeneration or system renewal.
The lack of empirical validation, detailed metrics, and clear governance linkages limits its use in complex or resource-constrained environments.
In contrast, GPM’s P5 Standard for Sustainability in Project Management has a more mature and validated methodology. Developed earlier and now aligned with PMI’s framework, GPM integrates sustainability into governance, auditing, and measurement systems with ISO-accredited rigor.
While the IPMA Guide is good for sustainability education, GPM remains the benchmark for accessibility, accountability, and measurable impact.
źródło: Van Haren Publishing
Gilbert Silvius et al., IPMA Guide to Sustainable Project Management, Van Haren Publishing, 2025.
Program Manager, Professor of Political Science at Western Illinois University, and co-owner of AGIL3 Enterprise Coaching & Value Stream Solutions. With 20+ years of experience in project, change, and Agile management, he is a certified PMP, Disciplined Agile, Scrum, Lean, and Green Project Management professional. A recognized scholar-practitioner and global expert on sheriffs, Dr. LaFrance integrates systems thinking, sustainability, and human-centered leadership into training, research, and consulting.