By Jeff Bell
We may be using the triple bottom line (TBL) in our business—standing for social, economic and environmental outcomes or “people, planet, profits”. It was devised in 1994 by John Elkington, of the management consultancy SustainAbility, when working for Shell in the Netherlands.
- People means fair and beneficial business practices toward staff; where the well-being of the company is interdependent with its people and all other stakeholders.
- Planet refers to sustainable environmental practices, carefully managing its consumption of energy and non-renewables, reducing waste and disposing of any toxins safely and legally.
- Profits is the real economic benefit enjoyed by the host society, which has been created by the business after deducting the cost of all inputs.
Even if some matters are difficult to measure, such as social and environmental performance, setting the bar above the uni-dimensional profit made a lot of sense then, as it does 30 years later.
I think it’s also a great idea to extrapolate the 3Ps of TBL into a Personal Triple Bottom Line (PTBL)—as leaders, it’s of great benefit to have our own framework, which is of course will influence our framework for the business. Here’s my SFC:
- Self means becoming the best version of ourselves. We eat healthily, get help with designing and carrying out a rigorous fitness program (in each stage of our life), achieve optimal quantity and quality of sleep, remain hydrated and avoid harmful substances. We remain curious—being constantly open to learning and self-development on a wide range of topics that encompasses the broad spectrum of age, gender, belief, race and it includes, but is beyond institutional learning and to challenge what you already think that you know, to never assume that you can ever actually know! We find the combination of work or an enterprise that provides a good commercial return while being socially and personally satisfying. We recognise ego for our survival, but also know that in excess, it is our biggest barrier. We find that there is always something more important than ourselves.
- Family means creating with our loved ones an harmonious, inclusive, creative and loving homelife. We are in the moment, we don’t hold grudges or regrets about what has already happened; nor do we rest on our laurels. We don’t become anxious about what may happen. We live in the now. We decide what is important, finding our purpose and the cause in each of our professional life, our family life, our sporting and recreational life, our self-development, the welfare and development of others. We make firm commitments to each other and to what we want to achieve individually and collectively and we live by our word. We set goals for what seems impossible now, but would make a wonderful difference if achieved—personally and professionally; we work out the steps, gather our resources and strive for each goal, asking for help if and when necessary.
- Community means that we work with others for the common good in sport, social projects, health and education. We put aside personal practices and beliefs to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. We see that we are not alone, we communicate the things that seem important with those whom we have trusted connections. With all the “how”, we work for collaboration—this is the “who?” all around us. We are assertive—it’s not a matter of crash through or crash, it’s being clear about controlling what we can control and taking the initiative. We don’t lose sleep over the things that are beyond our control. We are adaptable, not seeking to create some oppressive structure, but agreeing clear boundaries within which there is freedom for all to move. We appreciate that we are living in an exciting, dynamic world and we learn to ride with it.
Basically, these amount to our values.
In later describing the journey to conceive the TBL, Elkington wrote:
“Most business people, indeed most people, take values as a given, if they think about them at all. Yet, our values are the product of the most powerful programming that each of us has ever been exposed to.”
He never trademarked the TBL model, making it available to everyone.