Sustainable Project Management in the Climate Change Era: A Systematic Review of Green Practices, Digital Technologies, and Project Governance

Abstract

Climate change challenges have intensified the need for sustainable project management practices, which call for a more holistic view of project decision-making that includes environmental, social, and economic factors. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to trace the development of sustainable project management, both as a movement of research that integrates and brings together the concepts of green project management, digital technologies, and project governance mechanisms. According to the PRISMA 2020 framework, 50 peer-reviewed studies were analyzed to find the major trends, practices, challenges, and future research directions. The results highlighted that sustainable project management had become more than just the notion of successful projects, and instead shifted to climate responsive project management with the integration of sustainable practices, new digital solutions and sound governance mechanisms. Green practices, Artificial Intelligence, Building Information Modeling, and Internet of Things were identified as key enablers of sustainable project performance. The study suggested an integrated Climate-Responsive Sustainable Project Management Framework with emphasis on the synergy between green practices, digital technologies, and governance mechanisms. Research and development efforts should aim for AI-based sustainability, digital twins, resilient infrastructure and standardization of sustainability assessment methods.