Triple Bottom

Line
 Definition
• TBL is an evaluation of Business Enterprise by
comprehensively assessing its financial,
environmental and social performance.
• It takes in its fold the following three
parameters to gauge business performance:
– Economic;
– Environmental; and
– Social Factors
–
• The term TBL was coined by
SustainAbility Limited (
www.sustainablity.com) an
International Business Consultancy,
founded in 1987.
• It has it HQ in London and offices in
Europe and US and network of
partnerships around the world.
•
• At its narrowest, the term TBL is used as
framework for measuring and reporting
corporate performance against economic,
social and environmental parameters.
• At its broadest, the term is used the whole set
of values, issues and processes that
companies must address in order to
minimise any harm resulting from their
activities and to create economic, social and
environmental value.
• Sometimes, it is referred to as three Ps:
People, Planet and Profit.
 Triple Green Rating

• A newer concept, far superior to the TBL

concept, called ‘Triple Green Rating’ is
slowly emerging. Triple Green Rating
involves three parameters, i.e:
– Being Water positive;
– Being Carbon positive;
– Having Zero solid waste.
• Increasingly organisations around the world
are recognisingthe value of demonstrating
transparency and accountability beyond the
traditional domain of financial performance.
• This trend has come about through increased
public expectation from the organisation to
take responsibility for the non-financial
impacts of its activities, including impacts
on the community and the environment.
• Now, the assessment of the social and
environmental impacts of business has
moved away from the mere reduction of
emissions or offering of assistance in case of
natural calamities to raising of questions as
to
• how a particular product was manufactured;
• how and to whom it is marketed, etc.
•
The fast food giant, Mc Donald’s, was dragged to
courts in the UK, and had to spend millions of
pounds over a period of two and a half years to
defend itself from the charges of ‘exploiting
children’ with its advertising, producing
‘misleading advertising’, being ‘culpably
responsible’ for cruelty to animals and so on.
• McDonald's loved using the UK libel laws to
suppress criticism. Major media organisations like
the BBC and The Guardian crumbled and
apologised. But then they sued gardener Helen
Steel and postman Dave Morris.
• In the longest trial in English legal history, the
"McLibel Two" represented themselves against
McDonald's £10 million legal team. Every aspect
of the corporation's business was cross-examined:
from junk food and McJobs, to animal cruelty,
environmental damage and advertising to children.

•
• Outside the courtroom, Dave brought up his young son
alone and Helen supported herself working nights in a
bar. McDonald's tried every trick in the book against
them. Legal manoeuvres. A visit from Ronald
McDonald. Top executives flying to London for secret
settlement negotiations. Even spies.
• Seven years later, in February 2005, the marathon legal
battle finally concluded at the European Court of
Human Rights and the result took everyone by surprise
- especially the British Government.
• McLibel is not just about hamburgers. It is about the
importance of freedom of speech, now that
multinational corporations are more powerful than
countries.
 Sustainable Development

• The term Triple Bottom Line has its

emergence in the concept of ‘sustainable
development.’
• Sustainable Development is defined as “the
development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.”
• It involves socio-economic change leading to
improvements in the quality of life.
 Brundtland Report
• In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and
Development published a report entitled ‘Our
Common Future.’
• The document came to be known as the Brundtland
Report.
• This document developed guiding principles for
sustainable development as it is generally
understood today.
• Tangible results have flowed from the Burndtland
Report, such as the emergence of International
agreements like the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols,
Agenda 21, etc
 Agenda 21
• During 3-14 June 1992, by the United Nations
held a conference on Environment and
Development (The Earth Summit) in Rio-
De Janeiro, Brazil, where the nations of the
world agrees on an action plan for
sustainable development for the next
century.
• Agenda 21 has been the basis for action by
many national and local governments
• This action plan, known as Agenda 21,
recognises that:
– Humans depend on the Earth to sustain life;
– There are linkages between human activity and
environmental issues;
– Global concerns require local actions;
– People have to be involved in planning
developments for their own communities if
such developments are to be sustainable.
 The Montreal Protocol
• The Montreal Protocol on substances that
deplete the Ozone layer is a landmark
international agreement under the Vienna
convention, designed to protect the
stratospheric ozone layer.
• The Protocol stipulates that the production and
consumption of compounds that deplete ozone
in the atmosphere- chlorofluorocarbns (CFCs),
halons, carbon tetrachloride and methyl
chloroform- were to be phased out by 2000.
 Kyoto Protocol
• The Kyoto Protocol is a legally
binding agreement that arose out
of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) to tackle change through
a reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions.
• India is a party to UNFCCC.
• Countries, party to this Protocol, are
legally bound to reduce emissions
of man-made greenhouse gases by
• There are many gases that contribute to the
greenhouse effect.
• The Kyoto Protocol deals with six of them:
– Carbon-di-oxide
– Methane
– Nitrous Oxide
– Hydrofluorocarbons
– Perfluorocarbons
– Sulphur hexafluoride