Financial Blog

FSC Wood is Perfect for Your Green Building Project

Established in 1993, the Forest Stewardship Council is dedicated to promoting responsible forestry management throughout the world. They are also an independent, non-profit organization that is beholden to no government or industry. Simply put, they are doing a great deal to make sure that the world’s lumber companies start to recognize that the old ways of logging through environmentally irresponsible forestry are a thing of the past. As a viable alternative, the profitable and beneficial way of conducting business in the 21st century is through managed and eco-friendly forestry standards. As we all become exposed to more eco-friendly products and practices, a purchase of FSC lumber, FSC decking, or FSC flooring is akin to you telling the lumber industry that you want to see more eco-friendly wood products on the market.

Whether you are a do-it-yourself maven who is planning on building a green deck, or a general contractor who has just been called to complete a brand new green flooring project, using FSC wood that has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council is the best choice you could make. Where can you get quality grade FSC timber? And, once you find FSC certified wood, what wood is going to meet your or your client’s needs?

FSC lumber is increasingly popular because of the expanding interest in sustainable forestry practices. After all, it’s not enough to screw in some eco-friendly light bulbs, if the other materials you use in your home or office are detrimental to the environment, then your overall efforts to have an eco-friendly home or business are pretty much in vain. With this in mind, it’s important that you remain diligent in researching the companies that you get all of your materials from.

There are many wonderful types of hardwood that are available to consumers and businesses. Some of the FSC Wood that is available for purchase are:

FSC Ipe FSC Tigerwood FSC Garapa FSC Cumaru Many more!

This is why you must also be very careful that you procure FSC wood from lumber companies that have been recognized by the Forest Stewardship Council. These companies must go through a rigorous process in order to gain FSC Certification. Some of the best companies you could work with are those who have earned the highly-coveted and reputable FSC Chain of Custody status. From the initial forestry to the arrival of FSC wood to your door, companies that have achieved FSC Chain of Custody status are able to monitor the complete process. FSC certified Chain of Custody companies are also the only lumber companies allowed to label goods with verifiable FSC trademarks. The FSC label is the defining element that ensures the public that the eco-friendly wood they are purchasing is in fact, FSC certified.

Companies like Advantage Trim & Lumber Company are leading the way when it comes to efficiently using their FSC Chain of Custody status. They offer premium grade FSC Decking, FSC flooring, and general FSC lumber to companies and homeowners throughout the world.

In this day and age, it’s critical to ensure that the world’s children don’t look back at us and ask why we didn’t do more to protect the environment. Using FSC certified wood is one way that we can all build the green house that we want without sacrificing on quality, durability, and resilience.

its six stewardship!!! pictures… i dont own anything. specialy the music. na-disabled 2loy…hmmp..:(

Use Organization Strategy to Drive Project Portfolio Management

Business or organizational strategy is intended to drive all decisions within an organization. It provides a direction, a rallying point, and a litmus test for decisions at all levels. Hence, it only stands to reason that strategy would drive the projects, programs, and the project portfolio management process. Good projects map well to organizational goals. In fact, the best organizations make sure their initiatives are in alignment with their strategic plan. Whether for project initiation or for simply evaluating how the value of a project fits within the organization, becoming familiar with the strategic plan is invaluable.

Background
Here is some background on strategic planning, project management, program management, and project portfolio management.

There are many approaches to strategic planning. One approach is to think through these 5 points for the organization:

1. Vision – where the organization wants to be in the future
2. Mission – purpose, or why the organization exists
3. Values – organization’s culture and priorities
4. Goals – results that the organization desires in carrying out its mission 5. Tactics and Initiatives – actionable behaviors and initiatives supporting all above

It is important for project managers to understand where their project fits into the organizational strategy. What organizational goals does it support? Does it support the organization’s vision and mission? How are the organization’s values being expressed in the execution of the project?

It is equally important for a program manager, with responsibility for an initiative, or program, which involves several projects, to understand how the program supports the organizational strategy. The program manager needs to make sure the individual projects align to organization strategy, and that the project set as a whole that make up the program support that vision.

Project Portfolio Management is concerned with selecting the projects that best support the organization’s vision and strategy. PPM works with a list of candidate projects and assembles critical data on each, such as cost, resources, purpose or objective, expected return, risks, and more. With a formal strategy in hand, assuming there is one, the PPM process involves mapping the products to the various elements of the strategy. One of the keys with such data is to be realistic by checking assumptions versus actual on projects and programs in the portfolio over time. Establishing the appropriate parameters for this data is important to accomplishing the desired results.

What the PMI Says About Portfolio Management
“The Standard for Portfolio Management” published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) states that in order to be successful, the portfolio management team must:

1. Understand the organization’s strategic plan.
2. Establish determining factors for managing the portfolio based on the strategic plan.
3. Consider all of the organization’s projects, programs, and other portfolio components.
4. Follow agreed-upon processes.

The standard clearly articulates the importance of the relationship between strategy and project portfolio management!

Working Together By Thinking “Outside the Box”
Project managers develop plans to execute the projects in the portfolio, and then lead the effort to implement the plan. Likewise, program managers develop plans for their programs, but they do it for a higher level entity that contains many projects. In each case, the Project Manager or Program Manager “owns” his/her project or program. It naturally follows that portfolio managers “own” their respective project portfolios. The element that MUST tie the portfolio managers, program managers, and project managers together is strategy, which often requires some “out of the box” thinking on the part of the respective managers. Strategy needs to be the common thread through the project portfolio, programs, and projects.

By taking “ownership” of a portfolio, program, or project, professionals are addressing the “what”. So how can they “think out of the box” within the overall organizational context to be more effective? The answer is by being driven by the “why” by clearly understanding the link to strategy. Maintaining that tie throughout implementation is a challenge, and can be supported by devising feedback processes to ensure that everyone is aligned with strategy. Each area needs to produce metrics that map back to the stated strategic initiatives of the organization, and communicate those metrics among the project portfolio management team, project teams, and program management teams on these metrics to “close the loop”.

Call to Action
The project portfolio management team, project teams, and program management teams need to take ownership of the “why” as well as the “what” in order to ensure their actions are aligned with the strategic direction of the organization. They need to be intimately aware of organizational strategy, and if there is no formal strategy, they need to devise one and verify it as formally as possible. They need to think “outside the box” by mapping the projects and programs back to the strategy, and taking ownership of the whole process.

CFA Exam Portfolio Management: Capital Market Theory. The complete CFA exam videos are available at www.allenresources.com

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