What’s your Triple Bottom Line?

April 13th, 2009

Results that are based on economic

A friend of mine from japan sent me two articles this past week relative to Mars the owner of the Mars, M&M and Snickers brands behavior in sourcing their cocoa and their responsibility to be socially aware and environmentally friendly.

No one would blame food companies during the worst global economy in over 75 years if they tried to cut corners and buy less expensive goods and services.

This author has posted several times on the emerging standard of TBL. For those of you that are not aware of it, please read on and ask yourself what your company is doing in this area. A Mars spokesperson goes on to say that their employees and consumers expect them to do the right thing. So do the stake holders in all companies. Mars gives us a great view of how the business world can be.

The triple bottom line (or “TBL”, “3BL”, or “people, planet, profit”) captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success: economic, ecological and social. With the ratification of the United Nations and ICLEI TBL standard for urban and community accounting in early 2007, this became the dominant approach to public sector full cost accounting. Similar UN standards apply to natural capital and human capital measurement to assist in measurements required by TBL, e.g. the eco Budget standard for reporting ecological footprint.

In the private sector, a commitment to corporate social responsibility implies a commitment to some form of TBL reporting. This is distinct from the more limited changes required to deal only with ecological issues.

Ask how your sourcing partners can help you in this process.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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