The “triple bottom line,” abbreviated as TBL or 3BL and known as “the three pillars” or “people, planet, profit,” is one of most commonly used models of sustainability and has to do with the idea that long term well-being takes place when community, environment and economy are in balance.
John Elkington coined the term, triple bottom line, in 1994 and later expanded it in his 1998 book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business.
In describing the City of Portland’s commitment to sustainability the portlandonline website states, “The City of Portland is committed to clean air and water, livable neighborhoods, parks and open spaces for all, economic development that is sustainable for our environment, transportation that makes sense and much more.”
The City’s statement breaks down this way: Clean air and water are the City’s environment or ‘planet’ component of the triple bottom line model; Livable neighborhoods, parks, and open spaces are the components the City sees as the community or ‘people’ component; And economic development is the way the City frames the economy or ‘profit’ portion of their TBL thinking.
The most common use of triple bottom line thinking is in attempting to account for ecological and social costs in addition to financial performance. Businesses often assign a monetary value to the ecological and social project components in order to get a clearer view of an undertaking’s true cost as measured in dollars: Human capital, natural capital and monetary capital become the tools of analysis in the TBL model.
Overlapping areas outside of sustainability are explained in different ways depending upon who is providing the explanation, but the basic categories are economic-social, environmental-economic, and social-environmental. Sustainability takes place in the area that all three of the basic components -- environment, community, economy -- overlap.
©2010 Katie Cordrey. You may repost with copyright notice and link back to this original article!
Please share this story or subscribe to the Portland Sustainable Living Examiner channel using the buttons above the article.
Comments