About Triple Bottom Line

The Triple Bottom Line (TBL or 3BL) is known as a model created by John Elkington in 1994. It considers impacts of businesses in three dimensions: social, environmental and economic performance. The idea is often broken down into “people, planet, profit”. 

This helps to understand and track the economic, social and environmental value the organizations added or destroyed. 

Source: RMIT, Sustainability and Social Impact course, 2023

Sustainable development index is considered as the area where three dimensions overlap in the Sustainability Venn Diagram as shown below. 

The idea of achieving financial success and benefiting society drives the idea of creating shared value. The concept proposed by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer in a 2011 Harvard Business Review article says that businesses can look beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR) and improve profitability by considering social and environmental impacts in their strategies. This approach suggests that environmental or societal challenges can be treated as business opportunities that could lead to business success.

Businesses can create shared value by developing new products or markets, improving productivity in the value chain and enabling a community of local industry. 

Source: RMIT, Sustainability and Social Impact course, 2023

These three dimensions in ISO represent: 

-  People related management systems (Occupational health and safety ISO 45001, food safety ISO 22000, information security ISO/IEC 27001, security and resilience ISO22316, social responsibility ISO 26000, etc.);

- Environment related management systems (Environmental ISO14001, energy ISO50001, water efficiency ISO46001, etc.); and 

- Business profitability and economy related management systems (Quality ISO9001, Business relationships ISO44001, business continuity ISO22301, business requirements for logistic flow ISO23354, etc.)