Proutist Economic Development
Triple Bottom Line
Dr. Michael Towsey and
Dieter Dambiec
economy economy
ecology
ecology communitycommunity
financial value financial value
ecological ecological
value value
human human
& social
& social value value
• A business enterprise takes place around three kinds of value which interact.
• A sustainable business will have three positive balances.
• The Triple Bottom Line focuses attention on three kinds of added value – economic, human / social and
environmental.
sustainability sustainability
The triple bottom line
Financial
balance sheet Human / Social
balance sheet Environmental balance sheet Income Positive outcomes Positive outcomes
Expenditure Negative impacts Negative impacts
Profit Net social
benefit Net environmental benefit
Who is doing it?
• Royal Dutch / Shell Group
• BP (British Petroleum)
• Rio Tinto
• British Telecom
• Volkswagon Group
• Toyota Motor Corporation
• Credit Suisse Group
• Around 290 businesses in 29 countries release
sustainability reports based on the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
www.globalreporting.org/about/brief.asp
Why are they doing it?
The Prestige…
The Prestige – Oil Spill 2002
The Prestige Oil Spill
• An environmental
catastrophe occurs as a tanker sinks off the coast of Spain.
• The stricken Bahamas- flagged Prestige, carrying millions of barrels of oil, leaves a slick over 200 metres wide and 30 km long off the north-western Spanish coast.
• The slick threatens one of Europe's most
picturesque and wildlife- rich coasts.
Who does the clean up work and pays?
• Members of the French Navy deliver oil-trapping nets to Galician fishermen.
• Workers place a floating barrier to protect the
coastline from spilled oil.
What are the impacts?
• Oil washes up on the shore in Camelle.
• Spanish sailors help shovel sludge off an oil-stained beach.
Who has to live with it?
• Inhabitants of Camelle watch clean up efforts for the Prestige oil spill.
• A resident walks on an oil-soaked shore near Porto do Son.
Sustainability
• Companies have a social responsibility to ensure their business practices are sustainable.
• But look at the derangements:
– The idea that business has a social responsibility is
fundamentally subversive. - Milton Friedman
– Anyone who does anything for anything other than profit is either a madman or a bankrupt. - Mr McKinnon, Minister for Defence, Australia, 1970s.
• But what is happening now?
Shell Report 2002
The social auditing cycle
A sustainable company will:
• Define its values
• Define its social and environmental objectives / targets
• Identify stakeholders – all those affected by its business
• Account for all components of its social objectives
• Report the accounting results
• Have the report independently audited by qualified social auditors
• Set new targets and improve its performance
The benefits of social auditing
• “Improved employee satisfaction … improved relationships with key government stakeholders, community groups and non-government organisations … improved reputation in the market place.”
(BP Australia)
• “Improved relationship with regulators.”
(Integral Energy, Sydney)
See research by the New South Wales Chamber of Commerce:
www.thechamber.com.au/homezone/Policy/TheCommonGood/CommonGood.asp
International standards
• International reporting standards:
– Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) established 1997.
– www.globalreporting.org
– Reports should be verifiable.
– Steering group includes: U.N. Environment Program; World Business Council for Sustainable Development; New
Economics Foundation.
• International auditing standards:
– AccountAbility: Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability.
– www.accountability.org.uk
– AA1000 Assurance Standard (2002).
Maleny Credit Union
www.malenycu.com.au - Ecological Sustainability
indicators
www.malenycu.com.au/reports_html
Maleny Credit Union
Governance Policies:
www.malenycu.com.au/library/files/policy_gov.pdf
• During the course of 2002-03 the MCU Board developed and accepted a governance policy based on the Carver Model.
• See: www.carvergovernance.com/model.htm
• The MCU Governance Policy covers:
•Financial Sustainability;
•Social Sustainability;
•Environmental Sustainability.
• The governance policy directs the operations of the MCU and is reviewed regularly by the Board.
Quadruple bottom line
• Where do we go next?
• The quadruple bottom line adds in culture as an accountability, reporting and auditing requirement.
• It recognises that business can promote and learn from indigenous culture - thereby creating economic, social, environmental and cultural benefits.
• See for example in New Zealand (Aotearoa):
www.rodgerspiller.com/attachments/ethical-investor- october-2003.pdf
• Also (it may be the 4th or 5th bottom line):
• www.metafuture.org/Articles/spirituality_bottom_line.htm
Quintuple bottom line
• The quintuple bottom line looks at how an enterprise works cooperatively and how the cooperative itself promotes social equality in society as a whole.
• An extension of the quadruple bottom line?
• Enterprises should aim to achieve a society free from all social inequalities with the human race moving in unison in its diverse and elevated expressions.
• Eg, to achieve social parity, Unity: Journalists of Color Inc demands that by 2008 minority journalists should
comprise no less than 20% of American newsrooms, and at least 15% of newsroom managers.
See: www.unityjournalists.org/news_fcc.html
Cooperative action
• The structural commercial or business model required to achieve social parity in day-to-day interaction and working life is the cooperative enterprise.
• Cooperatives are the main means of ensuring rational distribution of profits to workers and / or shareholders in the local economy.
• They aim for social equality and equal locus standi.
• The cooperative system is capable of ensuring the social welfare of all citizens in the local economy.
Proto-spiritual outlook
• To achieve social parity and implement the principle of social equality requires a broad outlook and
universal view.
• This is the proto-spiritual mentality.
• In this way limiting geo-sentiments and socio- sentiments can be easily surmounted.
• The movement is toward neo-humanism - respect for all humans, animals & plants and their worlds.
• A Gaian nature-friendly ethic and practice.
