Phew.

When I started to write this post, I had originally planned on discussing a brief overview of Triple Bottom Line. If you are unfamiliar with the Triple Bottom Line, it was originally coined by John Elkington in his 1998 book: Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. The idea behind the Triple Bottom Line (TBL or 3BL) is that companies measure success in 3 areas: People, Profit, Planet. Since the John Elkington’s book, many more have wrote, studied and built businesses on the premise that a company should be focused on a larger picture other than that of purely profit.

Now that I have partially exposed what I intend on writing, I fully intend on explaining my quandary. I have read multiple articles/papers/books on the subject of TBL prior. When I first thought about this first post, I wanted to provide a decent insight on the Triple Bottom Line and why I believe it is important to companies, regardless of revenue. After digging in further to the ethos of TBL and companies successfully embodying the approach of TBL; I realized that a single post does not justify proper, surface level education into the Triple Bottom Line approach. I would rather (attempt at the very least) provide insight to the goals of the TBL approach, companies whom are successful in implementing TBL practices and possible issues with the Triple Bottom Line business strategy. Instead of writing one post, that will most likely barely skim background/intentions/realizations of the TBL practice, I am gong to break it up into 3 posts. And, depending if that is not enough dive into niche areas of the business thought as I believe needed or pending feedback.

Back to the introduction of Triple Bottom Line if you are unfamiliar. Another very important visionary to the TBL business approach is Robert Rubinstein, creator of the Triple Bottom Line Investing concept. He is founder of the TBLI Group and TBLI Conference. Triple Bottom Line Investing is obviously the choice, the challenge and the opportunity of investing in sustainable businesses, ideas and brands. This is incredibly important to the goals of the TBL because Robert is attempting, in a large way, to influence powerful investors to consider investing their funds into businesses that build TBL into their products, operations and end goals.

I think this might be suffice for today. A quick final statement. I believe TBL is very important to the future of business. First and very most, consumers (and I hate that term) are much smarter than brands or investors sometimes give credit. More consumers today are investing in products that go beyond the purpose of the product. They are starting to base purchasing decisions based on how the product is made, who is making it, and where it is made. This at the very least proves that the Triple Bottom Line is relevant in our economy.
-Tyler Browning