Triple Bottom Line

'The Triple Bottom Line' - which delivers simultaneous social, financial and environmental benefits - is a rallying cry for business sustainability. This text examines the implications of the idea, showing what has already been achieved.

The concept of the 'triple bottom line' (TBL) - the idea that business activity can simultaneously deliver financial, social and environmental benefits - was introduced in the early 1990s. A decade on, The Triple Bottom Line: Does it All Add Up? brings together the world's leading experts on corporate responsibility to assess the implications, benefits and limitations of the TBL. This collection provides a review of what has already been achieved in stimulating change in corporate culture and bringing businesses to an appreciation of the importance and benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and good environmental performance. It further explores the conceptual and practical limits of the metaphor of the TBL and sets out what can be achieved through regulation and legislation, presenting detailed professional procedures for environmental accounting and management and social auditing. The contributors' wealth of experience and insight provides a vivid picture of how much attention is now being focused by businesses on delivering more than just financial targets, and they clearly outline the necessary steps for successfully continuing along this trajectory.

The concept of the 'triple bottom line' (TBL) - the idea that business activity can simultaneously deliver financial, social and environmental benefits - was introduced in the early 1990s. A decade on, The Triple Bottom Line: Does it All Add Up? brings together the world's leading experts on corporate responsibility to assess the implications, benefits and limitations of the TBL. This collection provides a review of what has already been achieved in stimulating change in corporate culture and bringing businesses to an appreciation of the importance and benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and good environmental performance. It further explores the conceptual and practical limits of the metaphor of the TBL and sets out what can be achieved through regulation and legislation, presenting detailed professional procedures for environmental accounting and management and social auditing. The contributors' wealth of experience and insight provides a vivid picture of how much attention is now being focused by businesses on delivering more than just financial targets, and they clearly outline the necessary steps for successfully continuing along this trajectory.

A pragmatic new business model for sustainability that outlines eight steps that range from exploring a mission to promoting innovation; with case studies. Many recent books make the case for businesses to become more sustainable, but few explain the specifics. In this book, Francisco Szekely and Zahir Dossa offer a pragmatic new business model for sustainability that extends beyond the traditional framework of the triple bottom line, describing eight steps that range from exploring a vision and establishing a strategy to implementing the strategy and promoting innovation. Szekely and Dossa argue that businesses and organizations need to move away from the business case for sustainability toward a sustainable business model. That is, businesses should go beyond the usual short-term focus on minimizing harm while maximizing profits. Instead, businesses on the path to sustainability should, from the start, focus on addressing a societal need and view profitability not as an end but as a means to support the sustainable organization. Szekely and Dossa explore key problems organizations face when pursuing a sustainability agenda. Each chapter presents one of the eight steps, describes a business dilemma for sustainability, provides a theoretically grounded strategic framework, offers case studies that illustrate the dilemma, and summarizes key findings; the case studies draw on the experiences of such companies as Tesla Motors, Patagonia, TOMs, and Panera. The book emphasizes leadership, arguing that leaders who question the status quo, inspire others, and take risks are essential for achieving sustainable business practices.

The Triple Bottom Line is the groundbreaking book that charts the rise of sustainability within the business world and shows how and why financial success increasingly goes hand in hand with social and environmental achievement. Andrew Savitz chronicles both the real problems that companies face and the innovative solutions that can come from sustainability. His is a hard-line approach to bottom-line fundamentals that is re-making companies around the globe.

The concept of ‘the triple bottom line’ has recently emerged to describe a new framework for development aimed at achieving economic and social balance while maintaining the long-term integrity of ecological systems. This requires measuring not only the economic viability of projects, but also their impact on the environment and their contribution to society. We live in a world where most people are aware of the importance of our environment. The way in which this realisation came about has, in hindsight, not been as simple as could have been expected. Systematic evaluations of the economic viability of projects using discounting date back to the beginning of the last century and are something which has been readily accepted, especially over the last few decades. However, an integrated approach, including environmental and social aspects, is much more recent, and even now, the methods and methodologies for such an approach are still being developed. This volume details the state of the art of the development towards the triple bottom line. It indicates where there is still debate about fundamental principles, where theory has been overlooked in the name of convenience, and where there are still unresolved problems. The discussions provided here will serve to provide a more detailed understanding of what we do in our calculations, what they mean and the limitations thereof.

HR Professional's guide to creating a strategically sustainable organization Employees are central to creating sustainable organizations, yet they are left on the sidelines in most sustainability initiatives along with the HR professionals who should be helping to engage and energize them. This book shows business leaders and HR professionals how to: motivate employees to create economic, environmental and social value; facilitate necessary culture, strategic and organizational change; embed sustainability into the employee lifecycle; and strengthen existing capabilities and develop new ones necessary to support the transformation to sustainability. Talent, Transformation, and the Triple Bottom Line also demonstrates how leading companies are using sustainability to strengthen core HR functions: to win the war for talent, to motivate and empower employees, to increase productivity, and to enliven traditional HR-related efforts such as diversity, health and wellness, community involvement and volunteerism. In combination, these powerful benefits can help drive business growth, performance, and results. The book offers strategies, policies, tools and specific action steps that business leaders and HR professionals can use to get into the sustainability game or enhance their efforts dramatically Andrew Savitz is an expert in sustainability and has worked extensively with many organizations on sustainability strategy and implementation; he and Karl Weber wrote The Triple Bottom Line, one of the most successful books in the field Published in partnership with SHRM and with the cooperation of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Forward by Edward Lawler III This book fills a gaping hole in both the HR and sustainability literature by educating HR professionals about sustainability, sustainability professionals about HR, and business leaders about how to marry the two to accelerate progress on both fronts.

The global sustainability challenge is urgent, tremendous and increasing. From an ecological perspective, the current worldwide resource footprint requires approximately 1.5 planets to sustain existing life, and with current usage would require two planets by 2030. The social impact of ever-growing resource use disproportionately affects the world’s poor – the 3 billion people living on less than $2.50 a day, as they struggle to acquire what is needed to survive. The serious ecological and social challenges we face in trying to establish global sustainable supply chains must not be underestimated, yet so far research has largely ignored the social dimension in favour of the environmental and economic. So how can we develop business strategies that move away from a primary economic focus and give equal weight to people, planet and profit? How can we create sustainable supply chains that take a true triple-bottom-line approach?Implementing Triple Bottom Line Sustainability into Global Supply Chains features innovative research, highlighting new cases, approaches and concepts in how to successfully implement sustainability – covering economic, ecological and social dimensions – into global supply chains. The four parts cover the rationale for sustainable global supply chains, key enablers, case studies showing clear implementation steps, and directions for future research and development.This book is a must-read for any academic researching in sustainable supply chain management, procurement or business strategy, and for business leaders seeking cases that will inform a critical step forward for CSR programmes.