• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

  • About
    • Ambassador from the future
  • Past lives
    • Professional
      • Volans
      • SustainAbility
      • CounterCurrent
      • Boards & Advisory Boards
      • Awards & Listings
    • Personal
      • Family
      • Other Influences
      • Education
      • Photography
      • Music
      • Cycling
    • Website
  • Speaking
    • Media
    • Exhibitions
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Reports
    • Articles & Blogs
    • Contributions
    • Tweets
    • Unpublished Writing
  • Journal
  • Contact
  • Show Search
Hide Search

The Triple Bottom Line = “a very neat idea”

John Elkington · 25 January 2015 · Leave a Comment

Source: wwarby and The Conversation, 2015
Source: wwarby and The Conversation, 2015

Great to see an old friend, Professor Rob Gray, joining forces with Professor Markus Milne to take a closer look at the triple bottom line agenda, 20 years after I first came up with the notion.

As I comment on The Conversation platform:

Many thanks to professors Rob Gray and Markus Milne for breathing some further oxygen into this debate. In reading the later stages of their assessment, however, I am reminded of the late Anita Roddick’s comments on the pessimism of the thought — and the optimism of the action. (When The Shop Australia did a triple bottom line report, they didn’t use three zebra hindquarters, but three men’s bums.)

For those new to this area of discussion, The Economist had this to say on the triple bottom line (TBL) a while back: http://www.economist.com/node/14301663

Twenty years on from the first launch of the idea, I have been working with Jochen Zeitz, who pioneered the Environmental Profit & Loss (EP&L) approach while Chairman and CEO of PUMA. He and I have done a book on what we call ‘tomorrow’s bottom line,’ called ‘The Breakthrough Challenge: 10 Ways to Connect Today’s profits with Tomorrow’s Bottom Line’ – see http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118539699.html.

The spirit of the piece is that business can’s simply account and report itself out of the hole we have collectively dug for ourselves. Integrated reporting is only a small piece of the puzzle. Instead, what we call the ‘Global C-suite,’ the top teams of the world’s most powerful 1,000 companies, are going to have to embrace a ‘Stretch Agenda’ linking their strategies (whether couched as TBL, shared value or whatever) to the wider sustainability context.

This is the theme of a white paper we have just completed at Volans, with support from the Generation Foundation. Called ‘The Stretch Agenda: Targets & Incentives for the Breakthrough Decade,’ this is due for launch in March.

If you’re interested in receiving a copy let me know at john@volans.com.

Uncategorized

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Introduction

I began this blog with an entry reporting on a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, on 30 September 2003. The blog element of the website has gone through several iterations since, with much of the older material still available.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on this site’s Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

In addition, my blogs have appeared on many sites such as: Chinadialogue, CSRWire, Fast Company, GreenBiz, Guardian Sustainable Business, and the Harvard Business Review.

Recent Comments

  • Andi Holley on Hooke Farm, Wonderland
  • Dr Jo Elworthy on What’s The Plural Of Tardis?
  • Carl McCullough on Burning Skies, 1968/9

Journal Archive

About

John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

Contact

john@johnelkington.com  |  +44 203 701 7550 | Twitter: @volansjohn

John Elkington

Copyright © 2023 John Elkington. All rights reserved. Log in