Triple+bottom+line

** The Triple Bottom Line  ** The phrase “Triple Bottom Line” was coined by UK environmentalist, [|John Elkington], and became widely popular after Elkington’s 1997 publication, //Cannibals With Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business.//1Also commonly referred to as “People, Planet, Profit” and “3BL”, t he objective of Triple Bottom Line reporting is for companies to report on their financial bottom line as well as their [|corporate social responsibility] and the impact they have on the environment. By reporting on financial, social and environmental performance a company becomes more transparent to its public and the corporate culture and values become more evident to both shareholders and stakeholders. This new line of thinking is thought to have emerged as a result of the general worldview that [|capitalism] is fed by self-interest which can lead to unethical behaviour. 2 Since its emergence in the 1990’s, Triple Bottom Line reporting, has become popular, particularly with publicly traded organizations that want to appear engaged with their community and remain a desirable spot for the investor’s dollar. Increasingly, Triple Bottom Line reporting is becoming part of the annual reporting process for many large companies. Companies as larges as AT&T, Shell and British Telecom have employed 3BL language in their corporate communications.3 Benefits of 3BL reporting: 4  ·   Demonstrates leadership in social issues  ·   Addresses risk management  ·    Improves public relations  ·    Improves employee retention & relations  ·    Improves shareholder retention & relations Conventional approaches to measure a company’s efficiency and profitability are the [|Balanced Business Scorecard] and [|European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)]. Newer frameworks such as // Accountability 1000 (AA 1000) //**,** developed by the [|Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability] have emerged in attempt to measure business performance against the Triple Bottom Line. Aimed at improving accountability and overall performance of an organization, it has two functions 1) traditional financial reporting and 2) a focus on social and ethical accounting using eight quality principles, which are: completeness, comparability, inclusivity, regularity and evolution, integration, disclosure, external verification and continuous improvement. 5
 * Benefits of 3BL **
 * Measuring the Triple Bottom Line **

Triple Bottom Line reporting is not a new idea but an extended version of corporate social responsibility initiatives that emerged in the early 1980’s, the primary difference is the concept of reporting a bottom line on social and environmental performance. To date there haven’t been any practical forms of measurement offered for social and environmental performance where companies can effectively report net gains or losses for social and environmental performance, as they do for financial performance. Triple Bottom Line reporting is a significant communications function. Reporting on the corporation’s social and environmental performance requires initial communication around goals for social and environmental performance and subsequent communication on strategy for achieving those goals. The public relations arm of the organization will need to communicate those goals and strategies with their publics through a variety of methods in addition to the annual report. In the absence of concrete measurement tools for social and environmental performance, it is impossible to achieve a true bottom-line calculation in these areas. Public relations practitioners producing the reports for social and environmental bottom-line performances are at risk of offering nothing more than “window-dressing”6 to their publics. Without a standard of measure, any organization can report they have made improvements but there are no principles by which to the public can audit them. The true intent behind the public report then becomes questionable, as do the ethics.
 * Criticisms **
 * The Public Relations Role and the 3BL **
 * The Ethics of 3BL and the practice of Public Relations **

 [1] Norman, W. and MacDonald, C. ( 2004) Getting to the bottom of “triple bottom line”. //Business Ethics Quarterly,(14// //)//2. 243-262.  [2] Fry, L. and Slocum, J. (2008) Maximizing the triple bottom line through spiritual leadership. //Organizational Dynamics, (37)//1. 86–96.  [3] Norman, W. and MacDonald, C. ( 2004) Getting to the bottom of “triple bottom line”. //Business Ethics Quarterly,(14// //)//2. 243-262.  [4]  Ethics Group http://www.actionethics.com/triple_bottom_line.asp, accessed on November 7, 2008 [5] Bishop, L. and Beckett, R. (2000) Corporate citizenship and the communicator: communication’s role in delivering on the “triple bottom line” in the new economy. //Strategic Communication Management (4)4//. 32-37.  [6]  Parsons, P. (2005) The PR dilemma of the “triple bottom line”. http://faculty.msvu.ca/patriciaparsons/3BL.htm, accessed on October 23rd, 2008.