Sustainability, the Triple Bottom Line and Business

This article discusses the concept of sustainability and its application in businesses through the triple bottom line framework. It explores the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability and their impact on business performance. The article also highlights the challenges and limitations of the triple bottom line approach.

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Sustainability
Name
Institution

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Sustainability, the Triple Bottom Line and Business
Introduction
Sustainability has been the objective of many businesses both profit and non-profit
making organization. However, many businesses have decided to handle sustainability by using
the triple bottom line. It is a framework in accounting that links the three dimension of
performance; environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The TBL framework is also
referred to as the 3ps because it covers the planet, profits, and people. Businesses have embraced
this framework in order to measure the effect the business has on society and the environment.
According to what I learned in class, the concept of the social bottom line is to evaluate
the profits in human capital. As a business person, my social line will increase when I practice
fair and beneficial labor practices that also consider the community (Alhaddi, 2015). The first
issue that arises in this triple bottom is whether the business is helping in solving the
unemployment issues in the city or not. The class presentations stated that a sustainable business
should create jobs in the region it is operating in. creating jobs for the people in the city or town
in which the business operates will reduce the rate of unemployment and reduce the rate of
criminal cases that may arise due to lack of jobs. In my opinion, the employees of the business
should, in turn, give back to society (Ozanne, 2016). This can be done by participating in
community projects through monetary aids. According to the class presentations, the mission f
the triple bottom line is to focus on profits. However, I think this will make businesses to ignore
the rights of people who are directly related to the success of the business (Sarkis & Dhavale,
2015). This becomes a challenge to the business and the society because the actions of the
business activities may impact on the employees and the community. According to the class

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presentations, the approach that businesses can use to apply effectively the social bottom line is
by creating an effective sustainable index (Glavas & Mish, 2015). I think this approach can be
used in measuring the percentage of female participation, and unemployment so that the business
can know where to improve.
During the lecture, we talked about the environmental triple bottom line as another
sustainable aspect in business (Tilman, & Clark, 2014). This concept represents how natural
resources can be measured and their potential influences on the practicability of those measured
(Liu, et al., 2015). In my perspective, I think the environmental concept should also focus on
utilizing the few available resources to produce maximum benefit to society without affecting the
environment. The approaches we learned in class on how a business can measure the
environmental triple bottom line include measuring the amount of material that is recycled (Onat,
Kucukvar & Tatari, 2014). I think this is not an effective approach to measure the environmental
sustainability of a business. This is because measuring the number of materials recycled is not an
effective environmental sustainability measure. The approach should also consider the
environmental impact of the recycling process should also be measured like emissions and other
pollution so that a sustainable business environment can be achieved. However, the issue with
this triple bottom line is that it only focusses on the ecological problems leaving other impacts
like the effect of pollution on people (Eccles, Ioannou & Serafeim, 2014). I think the great
challenge of this triple model is its inability to incorporate sustainable measures on environment-
related issues.
During the presentation, we learned about the concept of economic sustainability. The
lecturer said that economic sustainability if the impact of a business on the economic
environment (Høgevold, et al., 2015). The approach that is being used measuring economic

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suitability as learned in class is through evaluating the employment distribution, the revenue
contribution of each sector, and job growth. However, I find this evaluation method inadequate
in assessing the economic sustainability of a business. Therefore, using personal income and the
cost of employment would enable the business to effectively assess its economic sustainability
(McWilliams, 2016). The challenge of this approach is that it is difficult to measure the exact
economic sustainability achieved by a business. In my opinion, this method relies on estimation
and basic assumptions.
Conclusion
Many businesses have incorporated sustainability programs in businesses in order to
achieve maximum profits. According to the triple line framework, businesses are able to
measure, economic, social, and environmental sustainability of their businesses. I think using
these methods will positively impact the growth of the businesses and the community in general.
Despite the positive impacts of this framework to business sustainability, it has some limitations.
This framework is unrealistic in measuring environmental sustainability. However, even if
environmental sustainability is evaluated, it is difficult to establish a common measurement of
the three types of triple bottom line.

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References
Alhaddi, H. (2015). Triple bottom line and sustainability: A literature review. Business and
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