Triple Bottom Line
– The Measure of Corporate Accountability


The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) concept widens the scope of traditional management and reporting to include the social, environmental, and economic performance of an organisation.


Sustainability and the Triple Bottom Line

Concern for global environmental and social issues is increasingly reflected in the expectations people have of both public and private sector organizations. Environmental problems such as global climate change, native deforestation, pollution, resource depletion, and social problems such as child labour, corruption, the underdevelopment of human capital, and the gap between rich and poor have been targeted by such international action plans as Agenda 21, which emerged from the World Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

At just over ten years on from Agenda-21, one of the significant changes has been in the world's leading businesses, and their willingness to expose their values, strategies and triple bottom line performance. These organisations have recognised not only do they have a big role to play in perpetuating or reducing those global and local problems, but also those problems increasingly affect the sustainability of their own operations.


Implementation of Triple Bottom Line Reporting

Moving to TBL requires buy-in at the senior management or board level.
It also requires considerable commitment across the organisation. It is recommended that a TBL champion is identified within the organisation who has full management support and adequate resources to lead the project. An increasing number of organisations are following this path.

An organization is required to:

• Establish its own values in relation to social, environmental and economic issues

• Determine the performance issues of importance to its stakeholders (staff, customers, shareholders, communities, suppliers, insurers, etc)

• Integrate the above to establish a set of key performance areas, indicators and targets

• Measure and openly report performance, with external verification to increase trust

Advantages of Triple Bottom Line Reporting

Organisations choose to report for many different reasons. If used effectively, the TBL approach and reporting have the potential to:

• Build stakeholder relationships based on shared values, trust, and integrity

• Manage risks by identifying areas of concern to stakeholders and being able to deal with them proactively rather than reactively

• Enhance internal management by identifying areas of improvement

• Increase the organisation's contributions to global sustainable development

• Reduce operating and compliance costs through improving systems

• Benchmark the organisation against others reporting in its sector

• Increase market opportunities through stimulating innovation and attracting new clients.

Report excerpt by Landcare Research, New Zealand