Exploring the Project Owner’s Behaviour of Addressing Sustainability in Project Assignment and Governance

The instrumental role of projects in the transition of organisations and society towards sustainability requires that the concepts of sustainability are considered in projects and project management. Within a project’s organisation, the project manager and the project owner bear the most responsibility for integrating sustainability into the execution, management, and governance of the project. The project owner is expected to translate the organisation’s commitment to sustainability into the assignment and governance of the project. However, several factors influence the behaviour of project owners, of which the organisation’s strategy is only one. Following the studies that explored the stimulus of project managers to consider or address sustainability, this study explored the factors that influence the project owner’s behaviour with regard to addressing sustainability in assigning and governing a project. A survey-based study with quantitative data analysis identified three factors that stimulate the project owners to address sustainability in assigning and governing projects: Organisational attitude, Private attitude, and Practical implementation. Of these factors, Practical implementation and Organisational attitude have the most influence. The importance of the Practical implementation factor highlights the need for practical, applicable tools and instruments that support the implementation of sustainability into projects and project management. The strong orientation on the organisational context may be explained by the managerial responsibility that project owners often have. The study contributes to the further understanding of how organisations can realise their transition to a sustainable enterprise.