In 1994, John Elkington developed Triple Bottom Line as an accounting basis. Elkington is an entrepreneur and author. Triple Bottom Line (TBL) aims at incorporating sustainable accounting in business inclusive of social, environmental, and economic aspects. John Elkington is known as one of the founders of the global sustainability movement, he is an experienced CSR advisor in the business world.

John has addressed over 1,000 conferences around the world. He was a faculty member of the World Economic Forum from 2002-2008. He has served on over 70 company boards. He has won several awards and is the author and co-author of 20 books. John’s book titled Cannibals with Forks in 1997 popularised his ‘Triple Bottom Line’ concept triple bottom-line consists of People, Planet, Profit and has laid the foundations for sustainable business strategy.

In 2008, The Evening Standard which is a daily newspaper in London declared John among the ‘1000 Most Influential People’ in London, he is described as “true green business guru”, and as “an evangelist for corporate social responsibility” long before it was a fashionable concept in business world.

The triple bottom line (TBL) framework prepares an organization in realizing its responsibilities towards society and ecology. It is all about accountability for the overall effect of the company’s business practices and contribution towards non-profitable aspects. Triple bottom line theory expands conventional business success include its contributions to social well-being, environmental health, and a fair economy.

TBL theory focuses on the 3Ps that makes firms socially responsible:

People

Organizations are accountable for the well-being of the society and its people. Their responsibility pertains to people and behaving and conducting business ethically and with sensitivity towards social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues. Besides maximizing shareholder value, businesses should operate in a way that benefits society. People include employees working in the organization and the society at large.

Profits

It is every company’s responsibility to pay its lenders, operational creditors, and employees. Profit is capital that companies can use for maintaining the workplace buy machinery and equipment, upgrading infrastructure, buying expensive items, or investing in new products, services or employees. In a capitalist economy, a firm’s success most heavily depends on its financial performance, or the profit it generates for shareholders. Strategic planning initiatives and key business decisions are generally carefully designed to maximize profits while reducing costs and mitigating risk. It’s important to make the distinction between a firm’s shareholders and stakeholders. Stakeholders consists the entire society.

Planet

It is concerned with the geographical location, i.e., the nation, area, city, or state in which the company is located. Companies have to make sure that the neighbourhood and the location is clean. They must ensure that their operations don’t affect the environment adversely. Organizations must learn to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste. We as consumers must cut down on what we keep throwing away, we must volunteer for clean-ups in our community, educate children about importance of sustainability of our planet; conserve trees, plant trees, conserve jungles, conserve water, reduce dependence on electricity etc. Corporate social responsibility is a part of every organization’s core business strategy as well as the foundation upon which its core values and culture are based. Organizations don’t exist in vacuum; they are committed to having a positive impact on society and respecting and preserving the environment.

Why Triple Bottom Line is important?

Prof. Michel Porter – strategic management guru feels why should companies turn to NGOs and governments to solve society’s major problems? It is time for business organizations to address societal needs and challenges through creating shared values, in which a company prepares a business model addressing a social cause which will augment their profits. Because when business solves an external problem, it makes a profit and in return the action lets that solution grow. The shared value concept enhances corporate policies and practices add to the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing social and economic conditions in the communities in which the company sells and operates.

For example, IDE Technologies, which is considered a leader in desalination technologies, turns salt water into fresh water. The Israeli company supplies 70% of the tiny Middle Eastern country’s potable water. Its largest local plant, located just south of Tel Aviv, produces 165 million gallons of freshwater daily. Though privately held, IDE also builds and operates some of the biggest desalination plants in about 40 other countries, including Mexico, Chile and China.

When organizations make profit on the basis of shared value, they enable society to advance and companies to grow faster. When corporates include societal issues into their strategies and operations major transformations take place. Some organizations which adopt a triple bottom line approach seem principled in a world that emphasizes profit over purpose. Innovative companies, however, have shown time and again that it is possible to do well by earning great profits.  Many firms have reaped financial benefits by committing to sustainable business practices.

For example, Nike Inc. decided to weave shoes more efficiently by reducing the raw material and labour time needed to make each shoe. That has kept more than 3.5 million pounds of waste from reaching landfills since 2012. But the good news doesn’t stop with the environmental impact. The company is spending less on transportation, materials and waste disposal…this is highly appreciable.

Tech giants have spent billions of dollars on solar and wind power, cutting greenhouse-gas emissions and energy expenditures at the same time. Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon and Facebook Inc. are now some of the largest buyers of green power in America. The fact is that it’s not just easy being green — it also can be profitable. Google, Facebook and Amazon are among the largest energy consumers in the United States, and a lot of that power is now emission-free. Each company committed to getting 100% of their power for their data centres from renewable resources such as wind and solar.

Challenges faced by TBL

The biggest challenge TBL faces if of greenwashing which is a spin of corporate social responsibility in declaring itself to promoting environmentally friendly policies whereas in reality, the company does not live up to the commitment. Companies keep making unsubstantiated or misleading claim about the environmental benefits of its products, services, technology and strategic practices. It’s in fact an eye wash. Greenwashing is an unsupported claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly or have a greater positive environmental impact than they actually do.

Way back in 2019, the controversy about McDonald’s introduction to paper straw which turned out to be non-recyclable is a classic case of greenwash. Aside from the questionable practice of cutting down trees to make disposable straws is a classic example of how a corporate giant can pretend to be ethical while cheating on its consumers. The so-called paper straws were made out of plastic creating plastic pollution. Another mocking greenwashing move is to slap a green label on something to make it appear more sustainable or healthy, as Coca-Cola did with Coca-Cola Life with 6.6% sugar was far from a healthy drink. Consumers were taken for a ride – you would probably get less Life if you drank a lot of it.

Women are crucial for economic growth. If we decisively take measures to empower women in supporting their full participation in society, business, and knowledge management and at all levels we will find lasting solutions for many of the pressing problems we face in our world. Major challenges such as poverty, disparity, violence against women and girls, and insecurity will be addressed significantly. Compared to men, women spend the majority of their income on the well-being of their children, their siblings, parents and family.  Raising women’s participation increases economic growth. By ending enforced paucity of women in decision making, we will sustainably and significantly reduce acute poverty worldwide.

Businesses across the world are fostered and nurtured with lot of inter-woven laws, structures and policies. They are based upon cultures, societal norms, educational standards, training and development which are deeply ingrained in the society. Are men and women treated same while implementing policies in a state? Does a woman get equal chances as her male counterpart from credit institutions, from government when she runs her own business? Are both men and women on even footing? Are we ready to treat women entrepreneurs equally to male entrepreneurs, if we are not; we are knowingly stopping our economic growth. Economically empowering women may be one of the most impactful sets of development interventions, both in terms of growth and job creation. 

We are seeing this in our surrounding that women have been starting businesses at a higher rate than men. They are opting for home-based micro (less than 5 employees) and small businesses. What started as a way for women to keep them occupied and earn a small amounts though home-grown businesses has become a source of establishing their self-identity. Now, more women aim to express themselves creatively.

Women see the world through a different lens; they are more responsive and aware of problems from the grass root level, therefore they do things differently. They are gifted with the natural instinct of rearing and nurturing therefore they can solve problems differently without destroying much. If we are able to encourage even a fraction more women to turn their experiences and ideas into reality, I think many of the pressing issues such as climate change, environmental issues, pollution, inequality in distribution of financial resources, population growth, nuclear weapons, genocides, terrorism, racism, sexism, fundamentalism, water shortage, power shortage etc. could be dissolved faster. Today there is a greater need than ever before for green businesses and innovations all around the world, we need more women to clutch these sorts of opportunities.

Women have had to overcome barriers from beginning of history; whether in political life or the business sector and these obstacles will not disappear overnight. Women have a strong historical record when it comes to sustainability; we need to see that women get ahead. We need to see more creative solutions to encourage women entrepreneurship – it is indeed need of hour.

There are some countries which are taking faster steps in this direction. Recently, The Vancouver Board of Trade’s President and CEO Iain Black strongly recommended investigating ways to increase the involvement of women on boards and in senior management positions. In order to arrive at learned recommendations, The Vancouver Board of Trade’s Women Leadership Circle solicited input from local business leaders who have extensive corporate management and board experience and particular insight into how to address gender diversity issues in Canadian workplaces.

In 2012, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched the Center for Women in Business (CWB) with the belief that putting more women in leadership roles will bring companies a host of valuable benefits, including more active boards, improved financial performance, and greater diversity of thought. In March 2012, CWB hosted a number of companies and business leaders for a conference to share insights on why women are not making it to the very top. CWB brought together stakeholders and allies not only to share insights but also to hear from the assembled audience about the areas and best practices that merited better understanding and appreciation. Women currently hold just 4.2% of CEO positions in Fortune 1000 companies. At the same time, there are companies that defy this trend. These companies are actively advancing women to the highest levels of leadership, and as a result, they have more engaged boards and greater diversity of talent and ideas, for example Coca-Cola. McKinsey & Co is already conducting a research of Fortune companies in world that practice putting women in the top positions and reaping good fortune. They are partnered with Wall Street Journal for this yeoman issue.

In India, the new company’s Act 2013 requires at least one woman director on its board;under the rules notified by the Corporate Affairs Ministry, every listed company and those public firms having paid up share capital of Rs 100 crore or more should have at least one woman director on their board. It will be also applicable to entities with a minimum turnover of Rs 300 crore.

The International Finance Corp announced via a press release that women-owned enterprises are experiencing an estimated $300 billion credit gap. This needs to be filled immediately. So on Women’s Day this year Google took an initiative with their “Google for Entrepreneurs” it aims at finding new ways to give female entrepreneurs the boost they need in order to play a more active role in the business world. As a result, the tech giant has committed $1 million to 40 startup-focused organizations. With this project, Google is set to promote women’s participation in the technology space.

The World Bank’s program infused $600 million to support economic opportunities for women by kicking off a global project of honoring female entrepreneurs. The gift came right in the middle of celebrating Women’s Day 2014 and it has been accompanied by the IFC, which also invested $100 million and expects to collect $468 million from private and public investors and Goldman Sachs Foundation’s “10,000 Women” programme, which offered $32 million. Goldman Sachs, the powerful Wall Street investment bank, said the partnership deepens the commitment of its 10,000 Women educational program that promotes female entrepreneurship.

Today policy makers in the world are recognizing that they need to advance equal opportunities for women by removing structural barriers. And, once those are removed it will reduce inequality and spur inclusive economic growth. By supporting women’s equal representation in leadership positions in peacemaking, in communities, in politics, in business and in religious institutions, we will build a more just, peaceful and protected world.

We cannot afford to go slow on women empowerment; if we do so, the progress will remain    uneven and we will see a further down fall in progress. No country in the world has achieved equality between women and men and girls and boys. All those violations of the rights of women and girls are infuriating. Let us understand this right – we can no longer afford to hold back half the world’s population, we cannot suppress their positive energies any further. The 21st century has to be different for every woman and girl in the world. She must know that to be born a girl is not the start of a life of hardship and disadvantages forever. Together we must make sure that:  SHE is safe and secure from gender-based violence, she has Human Rights that are respected, including reproductive rights.  She must be empowered economically and in every way through education, she must be given same opportunity as her brother, she must be included in partaking and leadership.

To begin with on home front we must train our daughters to choose the right life partner; an unsupportive spouse is a liability for her creative instinct.  We should ingrain in her to be self sufficient while enjoying each day of her life. She has to learn to enjoy her presence as a woman. Educate her – let her study as much as she wants. Help her build her own network. Tell her the importance of entrepreneurship, mould her to be one. Encourage her to take decisions of her own. She must never limit her own skills. Women are naturally good at multitasking. They should be trained to do one thing at a time. Starting and stopping in the middle of things to concentrate on something else is frustrating. Let us liberate the girl(s) in our family to begin with.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, there are 126 million women operating new businesses and another 98 million at the helm of established ones. Yet we face a huge equality gap. In only seven countries—Panama, Thailand, Ghana, Ecuador, Nigeria, Mexico and Uganda do women take part in business at rates equal to men’s; in some countries, like Pakistan, they barely take part at all. Even when women are active business owners, they do not utilize their probable capacity. Women own almost three in ten American firms, yet employ only 6% of the country’s workforce and account for barely 4% of business revenues.

Lets us start supporting women entrepreneurs, women farmers, women in households, and young women. Sectors with a high potential for wealth creation such as food security, or export promotion can offer particular opportunities for generating or expanding entrepreneurial and employment opportunities for women. For example, creative industries include a broad spectrum of subsectors; art, crafts, design, textiles, leather, furniture, perfumes and beauty products, food, and even community-based tourism related services that allow for innovative and expanded opportunities for income generation. UNIDO (United Nation Industrial Development Organization) projects in Bolivia, China, Pakistan, Panama and Peru have proven that creative industries can be a means for women to harness cultural knowledge and assets to generate wealth and income. Let us enhance women entrepreneurship and women’s participation in governance for a better and safer world.