What it is
A method, with evidence at every gate
PRiSM is the project delivery method that GPM has developed since 2007 and publishes with the Project Management Institute in the PMI GPM Practice Guide for Sustainability in Project Management, Fourth Edition. It answers a practical question: once an organization has decided that a project's impacts on people, planet and prosperity are requirements, how does the project team identify them, commit to them, deliver them and prove them? PRiSM's answer is six phases, one plan that grows through all six, and a decision gate at the end of each phase where the sponsor sees the impact evidence next to the cost, schedule and scope evidence.
Three components do the work. The P5 Standard supplies the measure: 52 impact elements, each assessed for the product the project delivers and for the process that delivers it. The P5 Impact Analysis applies that measure to a specific project, at Discovery and again at Delivery. The Sustainability Management Plan records what the analysis found, what the project committed to, who owns each commitment, how it is monitored and verified, and what actually happened. Everything else in PRiSM, the roles, the gates, the reporting, the benefits reviews, exists to make those three components run.
PRiSM is part of what GPM offers under the Sustainable Project Management® mark, together with the training, assessment and certifications that teach and test it. The method itself is free: the Practice Guide and its templates can be downloaded without purchase or membership. The subject it serves, sustainability in project management, has its own guide on this site.
The core artifact
The Sustainability Management Plan
Many methods scatter sustainability across a business case appendix, a risk register entry and a closing report. PRiSM keeps it in one place. The Sustainability Management Plan (SMP) is opened in Pre-Project with a preliminary screening and closed after benefits realization with a tracker that shows measured outcomes against targets. In between, every phase adds one section, so the plan is always the current statement of what the project has found, promised and delivered.
The plan is built from the P5 Impact Analysis. The team works through the 52 elements of the P5 Standard, scores each on a 1 to 5 scale from both the product and the process perspective, records the indicator and the source for each score, and applies the No Masking Rule: a strong positive on one element cannot hide a negative on another, so the register shows every material impact with its own direction and magnitude. Impacts that cross a threshold agreed in the business case become decisions for the sponsor. The Practice Guide, Fourth Edition, treats those thresholds as binding governance triggers, which is what separates a plan from a wish list.
Materiality is dynamic. What matters at Discovery, when the solution is still a set of options, is rarely the same as what matters at Delivery, when suppliers, sites and designs are fixed. PRiSM therefore repeats the analysis, and the plan records both, so the change itself becomes evidence. Because every P5 element carries a mapping to GRI, ISSB, TCFD and the SDGs, the finished plan is also the project's contribution to the organization's disclosures. The Project Sustainability Reporting Guide shows how each phase's output reaches GRI, ISSB, CSRD, CSDDD, EU Taxonomy and SDG reporting without being rewritten.
| Section of the plan | Added in | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Preliminary impact screening | Pre-Project | First view of which P5 elements the project is likely to touch; informs the business case. |
| Impact register and materiality matrix | Discovery | Full P5 Impact Analysis: 52 elements, product and process, scored with indicators and sources. |
| Material topics management table | Design | For each material impact: the commitment, the target, the owner, the monitoring method and the verification method. |
| Implementation and monitoring section | Delivery | Second P5 Impact Analysis, monitoring results, changes and their approval. |
| Verification checklist | Closure | Evidence that each commitment was met, and the organizational materiality report for disclosures. |
| Benefits tracker | Post-Project | Outcomes measured at six to twelve months against the baseline and targets. |
The six phases
What happens in each, and what the gate decides
Each phase ends with a go/no-go decision evaluated against the business case, including the sustainability impact thresholds set in it. The sponsor makes that decision; the project manager brings the evidence. The phases describe decisions and evidence rather than a calendar, which is why the same six phases work for a nine-month construction project and a two-week product increment.
Phase 1
Pre-Project
Purpose. Decide whether the project is worth starting, and start it with the right people accountable.
What the team does. Objectives are identified and tied to organizational strategy. The sponsor and project manager partnership is established, with the sponsor's accountabilities named. Business case development begins and lessons from prior projects are reviewed. A preliminary impact screening looks across the P5 elements to see where the project is likely to have material effects.
Gate. Authorization to proceed to Discovery, with the business case draft carrying the first sustainability impact thresholds.
Sustainability Management Plan output: Preliminary impact screeningShow in the ecosystem mapPhase 2
Discovery
Purpose. Understand what the project will do to people, planet and prosperity before the solution is fixed.
What the team does. Requirements are defined and the business case is aligned to strategy. The first P5 Impact Analysis is performed on the candidate solution and on the process that will deliver it. Each material impact is recorded with its direction, magnitude, indicator and source, and the team looks for places where a negative impact can be turned into value rather than only reduced.
Gate. Approval of the business case with the impact register attached; impacts above threshold are accepted, mitigated or cause the option to be dropped.
Sustainability Management Plan output: Impact register and materiality matrixShow in the ecosystem mapPhase 3
Design
Purpose. Turn each material impact into a commitment with an owner.
What the team does. Plans are tailored so that resource efficiency, stakeholder engagement and every material impact have defined commitments, targets and named responsibilities. Procurement criteria, supplier requirements and acceptance criteria carry the commitments into contracts. Monitoring and verification methods are chosen now, so that evidence is designed into delivery.
Gate. Approval of the plans, including the material topics management table; nothing proceeds to Delivery without an owner for each commitment.
Sustainability Management Plan output: Material topics management tableShow in the ecosystem mapPhase 4
Delivery
Purpose. Produce the deliverables and prove the commitments are being met while it can still be corrected.
What the team does. The team produces the deliverables needed for the expected outcomes and benefits. For larger projects, Delivery is iterated. A second P5 Impact Analysis re-examines the solution as built and the process as run, because suppliers, sites and designs have become concrete. Monitoring results and changes are recorded, and any change that moves an impact across a threshold goes back to the sponsor.
Gate. Acceptance of each delivery increment against the plan's commitments, and a decision to proceed to Closure.
Sustainability Management Plan output: Implementation and monitoring sectionShow in the ecosystem mapPhase 5
Closure
Purpose. Hand over deliverables that the organization can operate, with evidence it can disclose.
What the team does. The team facilitates acceptance and adoption of the deliverables, conducts a final review, verifies each commitment against its evidence, and produces an organizational materiality report from the plan so the project's impacts flow into the organization's sustainability reporting. The project team is formally released.
Gate. Formal closure, with the verification checklist complete and the benefits realization schedule agreed with operations or the PMO.
Sustainability Management Plan output: Verification checklistShow in the ecosystem mapPhase 6
Post-Project Benefits Realization
Purpose. Find out whether the project delivered the value it claimed.
What the team does. Outcomes are tracked after the team has gone. The project manager coordinates long-term tracking with operations or the PMO, benefits realization reviews are held six to twelve months after delivery, and results are validated against the baseline and targets recorded in the plan. Shortfalls become lessons for the next business case.
Gate. Confirmation of realized benefits, or a recorded gap with an owner.
Sustainability Management Plan output: Benefits trackerShow in the ecosystem mapIn the ecosystem
Where PRiSM sits among GPM's publications
GPM's publications work as one system, and the interactive ecosystem map shows how: the Sponsor Guide sets the governance line, the P5 Standard the impact line, the Reporting Guide the disclosure line, the Competence Standard the competence line. PRiSM is the Practice Guide's line through the middle of it: six phases, four reauthorization gates, and the six Sustainability Management Plan artifacts that carry evidence from one to the next. Choose a phase or a station below to light it up on the map, or click any station on the map itself for its definition.
The whole PRiSM linePre-ProjectDiscoveryDesignDeliveryClosureBenefits realizationThe planP5 Impact AnalysisThe gates
Click a line to follow one publication; click any station for its definition. The full-size map, with every line and station, is on the ecosystem page.
Roles and gates
Who decides, and on what evidence
PRiSM makes the sponsor the decision-maker for impacts. Whoever authorizes a project, decides whether it continues, changes its mandate or stops it is also the person who decides whether an impact above threshold is accepted. The PMI GPM Guide to Responsible Project Sponsorship sets out the accountabilities that come with that role. The project manager owns the analysis, the plan and the evidence, and brings them to every gate. The PMO or operations function inherits the benefits tracker at Closure.
Gates are where the method earns its keep. At each one the sponsor sees the impact evidence next to the schedule, cost and scope evidence and makes a single decision that covers all of it. Because the thresholds were agreed in the business case, the decision is rarely a surprise: the plan shows which impacts have moved, by how much, and what the team proposes. Organizations that already run stage gates or portfolio reviews add the impact columns to the existing decision; they do not need a second governance process.
The same structure gives the organization a way to see how well it is doing. The PSM3 maturity assessment scores, from 0 to 5 with evidence, how consistently portfolios, programs and projects apply the analysis, the plan and the gates, and gives a roadmap for the gap.
Working alongside other methods
Predictive, agile and hybrid
PRiSM does not ask a team to abandon what it already does well. Scheduling, cost control, risk management, procurement, change control and configuration management are covered in the Practice Guide so that the sustainability thread connects to them, but a team using PMBOK® Guide practices, PRINCE2 stages or ISO 21502 processes keeps them. PRiSM supplies what those approaches leave to the organization: the impact analysis, the plan, the thresholds and the benefits check.
Predictive
Stage gates and the plan
The six phases map onto stage gates directly. The impact register joins the business case at the first gate, the management table joins the plan at Design, and the verification checklist joins the closing report.
Agile
The Agile add-in
Delivery is run as sprints. The Sustainability Management Plan is updated incrementally each sprint, impacts are reviewed at sprint review, and thresholds are checked before each release. The second P5 Impact Analysis becomes a rolling analysis rather than a single event.
Hybrid
Gates outside, iterations inside
Pre-Project, Discovery, Design and Closure run as gated phases; Delivery is iterated. Most large programs use this shape, and the plan's structure does not change.
Programs and portfolios
The same evidence, rolled up
Because every project's plan uses the same 52 elements and the same scoring, program and portfolio views can aggregate impacts, thresholds and benefits without translation.
The principles
Six principles, and where they come from
PRiSM rests on six principles, derived from the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, the Principles for Responsible Management Education, the Earth Charter and ISO 26000:2010. They are written as obligations rather than aspirations, and each one shows up as a concrete requirement somewhere in the phases. The full text of the principles is on its own page.
| Principle | In one sentence | Where it appears in the method |
|---|---|---|
| Commitment and accountability | Uphold the rights of all people to a healthy, clean and safe environment, fair treatment and the rule of law, and report transparently on sustainability objectives. | Sponsor accountabilities in Pre-Project; the organizational materiality report at Closure. |
| Ethical and responsible decision-making | Embed ethics in every decision and prevent short- and long-term adverse impacts. | Impact thresholds in the business case; go/no-go gates. |
| Integrated, transparent and inclusive governance | Integrate economic, social and environmental considerations into governance, with open communication and cross-disciplinary collaboration. | One decision at each gate with impact evidence beside cost and schedule evidence. |
| Principled and values-based development | Conserve and enhance natural resources, respect ecological limits and regenerate ecosystems. | Planet elements of the P5 Impact Analysis; regeneration targets in the management table. |
| Social and ecological equity | Address vulnerability in populated and sensitive areas and prioritize marginalized communities. | People elements of the P5 Impact Analysis; stakeholder engagement commitments at Design. |
| Economic prosperity | Balance stakeholders' immediate needs with the long-term interests of future generations. | Prosperity elements; the business case; benefits realization. |
History
From a plan on one project to a PMI-GPM publication
PRiSM began as a single document. In 2008 Joel Carboni wrote a Project Sustainability Management Plan and used it on a live project, after working on the idea since 2007. GPM was founded in May 2009 around that plan and the P5 framework. The delivery approach was called Process and Priority (P2) until November 2011, when it was renamed PRojects integrating Sustainable Methods. A paper on the plan was presented at the IPMA World Congress in 2012, and in March 2013 GPM received an IPMA Achievement Award for integrating sustainability into project management practices through PRiSM, the plan and the P5 Impact Analysis.
The method was first published in May 2013 in The GPM Reference Guide for Sustainability in Project Management, with the plan template released as a free download. Second and third editions followed in 2018 and 2024. In April 2026 the Practice Guide, Fourth Edition, was released as a PMI-GPM publication, alongside Version 4.0 of the P5 Standard: 209 pages and 14 chapters in four parts, covering the principles, the PRiSM lifecycle with its planning, staffing, risk, cost, schedule, procurement, performance and change practices, governance and benefits management, and the international standards the method supports. The dated record of every edition and recognition, with where each can be checked, is on the Provenance page.
Common misreadings
Where projects go wrong with the method
Running the P5 Impact Analysis once. A single analysis at Discovery describes a solution that no longer exists by Delivery. The second analysis is where the real supply chain, the real site and the real design are assessed, and it is the one most often skipped under schedule pressure.
Treating the plan as a report. A Sustainability Management Plan written after the design is fixed cannot change the design. The plan is a decision document; if it is not on the table at the gate, the method is not being used.
Thresholds without teeth. If crossing an impact threshold does not trigger a sponsor decision, the threshold is a note. The Practice Guide makes thresholds binding governance triggers for this reason.
Stopping at Closure. Benefits realization is the phase that tells the organization whether the business case was true. Leaving it out is the most common reason sustainability claims in project reports are never verified.
Confusing the standard with the method. The P5 Standard is what to measure; PRiSM is how to deliver against it. Adopting the standard without the method produces a register with no owner; adopting the method without the standard produces a plan with nothing consistent to measure.
Principles as slogans. The six principles are useful only because each one has a place in the phases. Quoting them in a charter and skipping the analysis satisfies neither.
How to start
Four steps, in order
Download the guide. The Practice Guide, Fourth Edition is free and includes the P5 Impact Analysis and Sustainability Management Plan templates. Read Part Two, the PRiSM lifecycle, first.
Analyze one live project. Run a P5 Impact Analysis on a project already under way and write its first plan. The material impacts you find, and the ones nobody had assigned an owner, are the business case for the rest.
Put the thresholds in the next business case. Agree with the sponsor which impacts above which levels come back for a decision. This one change is what turns a sustainability appendix into governance.
Learn it and prove it. The method is taught in the training that leads to the Certified Sustainable Project Professional (CSPP), the exam-based certification delivered through the Project Management Institute; that page is where to enroll. GPM's competence-based certifications, the CSPMs and CSPMx, assess the method on real project results against GPM's Sustainability Competence Standard. Organizations that want to know how consistently they apply it use PSM3.
Questions
Frequently asked
What does PRiSM stand for?
PRojects integrating Sustainable Methods. It is GPM's method for delivering a project against the P5 Standard, with a P5 Impact Analysis at Discovery and again at Delivery and a Sustainability Management Plan that runs from the business case to benefits realization.
How many phases does PRiSM have?
Six: Pre-Project, Discovery, Design, Delivery, Closure and Post-Project Benefits Realization. Some summaries published elsewhere list five; they stop at Closure and leave out the phase in which the benefits are measured against the baseline.
Is PRiSM a replacement for PMBOK, PRINCE2 or Scrum?
No. PRiSM adds the sustainability thread that those approaches leave to the organization: an impact analysis, a plan that carries commitments, thresholds that trigger decisions at each gate, and a benefits check after delivery. Teams keep their existing scheduling, cost, risk and delivery practices and run PRiSM alongside them, in predictive, agile or hybrid form.
What is the difference between PRiSM and the P5 Standard?
The P5 Standard defines what a project must account for: 52 impact elements across People, Planet and Prosperity, examined for the product and for the process. PRiSM defines how a project team does that work, phase by phase. The standard is the measure; the method is the practice.
What is the Sustainability Management Plan?
One document that holds the P5 Impact Analysis, the commitments and targets agreed for each material impact, who owns each one, how it is monitored and verified, and the outcomes. It is opened in Pre-Project and closed after benefits realization, and each phase adds a section. GPM introduced it in 2009, and the first version was used on a live project in 2008.
Where do I get PRiSM?
The full method, with the P5 Impact Analysis and Sustainability Management Plan templates, is in the PMI GPM Practice Guide for Sustainability in Project Management, Fourth Edition (2026). It is 209 pages, 14 chapters, and free to download from GPM and from PMI.
Where can I learn PRiSM, and do I need a certification to use it?
The guide and the templates are free and anyone can apply them. To learn the method with an instructor and prove it, the Certified Sustainable Project Professional (CSPP) is the exam-based certification, delivered through the Project Management Institute at pmi.org/certifications/sustainability-cspp. GPM's competence-based certifications, the CSPMs and CSPMx, assess the method on real project results.
Who developed PRiSM?
Joel Carboni, founder of GPM, who wrote the first Project Sustainability Management Plan in 2008. The method was called Process and Priority (P2) until November 2011, when it was renamed PRiSM, and it was published in the first GPM reference guide in May 2013. GPM received an IPMA Achievement Award in March 2013 for integrating sustainability into project management practices through PRiSM, the plan and the P5 Impact Analysis.
Author
Dr. Joel Carboni is the founder and president of GPM and the architect of the standards, methods, and certifications behind Sustainable Project Management®, delivered through the PMI-GPM joint venture. He created the P5 Standard, the Sustainability Competence Standard, the Sustainable Project Management® Practice Guide, the Project Sustainability Reporting Guide and the PMI GPM Guide to Responsible Project Sponsorship. For over 30 years, his work has moved the profession in a different direction. A Forbes Business Council member and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) contributor, he was shortlisted for Thinkers50's inaugural regenerative business award in 2025 for his book Becoming Regenerative.
Published 5 September 2026. Corrections through the contact page.
PRiSM™, GPM®, Green Project Management® and Sustainable Project Management® are trademarks of GPM Ltd. PMI and PMBOK are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc.
Also on this site
The P5 Standard: the 52 impact elements PRiSM measures against. The Practice Guide: the full method with templates, free. The PRiSM principles: full text and sources. Sustainability in project management: the subject, explained. Learn PRiSM: the CSPP at PMI: the exam-based certification that teaches the method. Glossary: 316 terms.