6.5 THE STRATEGIST IN YOU: Measuring Your Organization's Wider Impact

(SHORT NOTES FROM STRATEGY TOOLS:

Executing Strategies at http://www.mindtools.com)

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The Triple Bottom Line

The triple bottom line is a bottom line that continues to measure profits, but also measures the organization's impact on people and on the planet.  The triple bottom line is a way of expressing a company's impact and sustainability on both a local and a global scale.  The concept behind the triple bottom line is that companies are responsible first and foremost to all their stakeholders, and these include everyone that is involved with the company whether directly or indirectly, as well as the planet we're all living on.

People

·        think about the impact their actions have on all the people involved

·        can include everybody from farmers supplying raw materials, on up to the CEO of the company

·        offers health care, good working hours, a healthy, safe place to work, opportunities for advancement and education, and does not exploit their labor force

·        can also include the community where the company does business

Planet

·        take pains to reduce or eliminate their ecological footprint

·        strive for sustainability, recognizing the fact that "going green" may be more profitable in the long run

·        it's not just about the money

·        look at the entire life cycle of their actions and try to determine the true cost of what they're doing in regards to the environment

·        take pains to reduce their energy usage

·        dispose of any toxic waste in a safe way

·        try to use renewable energy sources

·        don't produce products that are unsafe or unhealthy for people and the planet.

Profit

·        profits will help empower and sustain the community as a whole, and not just flow to the CEO and shareholders.

The Triple Bottom Line is essentially a reporting system.  It can be used to drive improvements in the way an organization impacts people and the environment by helping managers focus on what they need to do to improve all of the bottom lines, and keeping this work high on their agendas.  Triple Bottom Line could better be used on people- or planet-friendly initiatives.