Triple Bottom Line: A Sustainability Framework

This assignment delves into the concept of the triple bottom line (TBL) as a framework for sustainable business practices. It examines the three interconnected pillars of TBL: People (social), Planet (environmental), and Profit (economic). The provided texts explore various applications of the TBL framework in diverse industries, highlighting its role in decision-making, performance assessment, and promoting sustainable development.

REPORT ON TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE FOR WOODSIDE
PETROLEUM

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the Organization.........................................................................................................3
Triple Bottom Line Concept for Woodside Petroleum....................................................................3
Components of a Triple Bottom Line..............................................................................................4
Profit.............................................................................................................................................4
People...........................................................................................................................................5
Planet............................................................................................................................................6
Relation between the factors............................................................................................................7
Bearable.......................................................................................................................................7
Viable...........................................................................................................................................7
Equitable......................................................................................................................................7
Sustainable...................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
In order to carry out any business in a successful manner, it is extremely important to have a
proper balance between all the factors that are affecting or likely to affect the business in terms
of expenses and income. One of the most important factors is the evaluation of Triple Bottom
Line that is considered a very significant parameter to describe the growth of an organization.
The Triple Bottom Line of any company is a concept that is used to measure the balance between
the Social Responsibility, Economic Worth and Impact on Environment of its operations. In this
particular report, the evaluation for Triple Bottom Line for a company named Woodside
Petroleum Limited has been done that shows the different factors that contribute towards the
growth in the economy of this company as well as maintain the optimum level of social and
environmental responsibilities.
Overview of the Organization
The Woodside Petroleum Limited is a petroleum based public company that was established in
1954 in a very small town of Victoria named Woodside. The company is currently directed by
Peter Coleman who happens to be the Chief Executive Officer of the organization and who
commands about 3000 employees that help generating about AUD 4.5 billion every year.
However, the profit earned by the firm is near about AUD 25 million every year. The
headquarters are located at Perth city of West Australia. The sole owner of this organization is
Royal Dutch Shell that currently holds approximately 13% shares of the company. The
organization deals with extraction of Oil and Natural Gases and also to transport them at various
locations. The main product that is refined at its plants is Petroleum based Liquefied Natural Gas
or LNG (Woodside.com.au, 2017).
Triple Bottom Line Concept for Woodside Petroleum
The Triple Bottom Line is a very widely used formula to calculate the degree of three very
common factors that are to be maintained by a company namely Economic Value, Social
Responsibility and Environmental Influence by the operations that are performed by the
company. According to McWilliams et al. (2016), the measure of Triple Bottom Line is done on
the profits that are earned by any organization. In addition to this, the main purpose of having the

Triple Bottom Line is to maintain a sustainable balance between the three considered factors. As
mentioned by Veiga et al. (2017), the description related to the concept of Triple Bottom Line or
TBL consists of three factors depicted as three similar sized circles that are arranged in such a
manner that they are overlapping each other by a certain value. The point at which all the three
circles are overlapping with each other is known as the sustainability point. This is the point
where all the factors operate in a proper balance.
In case of Woodside Petroleum, it can be said that the company has been able to maintain the
sustainability factors in a balanced way. The company has earned a significant amount of profit
by carrying out its operations in an manner that does not harms the environment on a major scale
and has also taken care of its Corporate Social Responsibility. The Financial Bottom Line or the
profit for Woodside Petroleum in the year 2016 has been AUD 830 million through programs
related to productivity. However, it can be said that the company has spent an amount of AUD
12 million in the social work related activities in the areas of Timor-Leste (Woodside.com.au,
2017). This has been very beneficial for the company as it has enhanced the Corporate Image of
the organization by a very huge margin. Following are the three main parameters based on which
the Triple Bottom Line is decided and the associated figures related to the performance of
Woodside Petroleum.
Components of a Triple Bottom Line
Profit
This is the margin that is earned by the company and is left after distributing all the salaries to
their employees and management. As per Malik, Lenzen & Geschke (2016), the more the profit
is there, the more the company is likely to invest more in its other operations as a part of its
expansion program. The profit earned by Woodside Petroleum is significantly high if the
distributions to all the employees are considered. The profit is the main area that decided the
growth of a company and Woodside Petroleum has managed to show some very good level of
profit since the last decade. As mentioned above the profit has been about AUD 830 million
(Woodside.com.au, 2017). The Cash Flow in 2016 has been AUD 2.58 billion from the operating
activities.

Figure 1: Cash Flow Statement for Woodside Petroleum in 2016
(Source: Woodside.com.au, 2017)
People
The Corporate Social Responsibility that is taken care of by an organization is the margin that
plays a great role in making the corporate social Image of a company (Ozanne et al. 2016). This
particular factor includes the social variables that usually deal with education, community, social
resources and well being of people. The Human resources department of Woodside Petroleum
has arranged many events where the employees have been made to get involved willing fully in
the social works related to health and well being of poor people. In September 2016, the
company was involved in providing proper health checkups to the needy people and children in

Dakar located at Senegal. As stated by Longoni & Cagliano (2016), these kind of activities
generates trust between the companies and general population.
Planet
This factor is related to the Mother Nature and its preservation. The types of operations that are
carried out by any company must be in accordance to the laws and legislations that have been
made keeping in mind the importance of saving the nature (Wilcox et al. 2016). The Woodside
Petroleum has ensured that its installations are free from any leakage or any other similar
imperfection that can potentially cause some very adverse effect to the nature. As mentioned by
Hussain, Rigoni & Orij (2016) in their journal, there have been cases when the leakage in a very
small area has led to the release in oil over a huge area of sea that has further killed many fishes
and other amphibious lives. Hence, in order to avoid any such consequences, the company has
ensures that the oil refining plants are installed properly and regular maintenance are carried out
to make sure that every module of operation starting from extraction to transportation is carried
out safely.
Figure 1: Components of Triple Bottom Line
(Source: Hunt, 2017)

Relation between the factors
Bearable
The relationship between people or social factor and planet and environmental factor is known as
bearable because the social works can be easily done without compromising with the protection
of environment (Rodger & George, 2017).
Viable
The overlapping of environmental and economic factor is known to be as Viable as there are
certain environmental constraints that are supposed to be followed while earning the profits and
strengthening the organization's economy (Comeau & McKay, 2017).
Equitable
The relation that is shared by social and economic factors is said to be equitable as there is a lot
of finance related calculations that needs to be done in this section. This is also important as it
involves all the employees and other human resources of the company (Gou & Xie, 2017).
Sustainable
When all the three factors are in a balanced form, it is said that the company is performing
sustainably (Álvarez, Bárcena & González, 2017). The performance of Woodside can be
considered as a sustainable one.
Recommendations
Following are some of the recommendations that can be followed by the organization in order to
enhance the profits by minimizing the adverse effects that are caused to the environment by its
operations.
 The oil extraction installations must be made to operate by using some renewable sources
of energy.
 The production of Liquefied Natural Gas from Karratha Gas Plant can be increased
further to enhance the profit of the company.
 More funding needs to be put into the Karratha Life Extension Program as it can save
more lives of the regional flora and fauna at the neighborhood area.

 Investments in International Gas Production from Canada are likely to catapult the
operations on a bigger scale with almost negligible effects on the atmosphere.
Conclusion
After the completion of the study related to evaluation of Triple Bottom Line of Woodside
Petroleum, it can be said very evidently that the operations carried out by Woodside Petroleum
are on a large scale and are creating some issue with the environment. However, there are certain
ways as discussed in the recommendations that are likely to reduce the emission of carbon and
other harmful and toxic gases and substances in the atmosphere. The balance between profit,
socio-cultural responsibility and environment has been still maintained in a manner that can be
considered well within the sustainable limit. The report has included the different statistical
figures related to the profit earned by the organization and also those that have been spent on
different social work related activities and tasks. The three parameters that are Social,
Environmental and Profit have been described explicitly in the report with some very important
recommendation that have been given at the end.

Reference List
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