Triple Bottom Line

The Chartered Institute of Marketing aims to help professional marketers drive the profession forward. We hope that our Agenda Papers will aid you in delivering better business performance, to the benefit of your business, and contribute towards your personal development and learning.

Every six months we present a new Agenda addressing a major topic for marketers today.

Our latest Agenda looks at the Triple Bottom Line - the need for companies to address environmental responsibility and social awareness, as well as economic profitability.

‘Social issues are not so much tangential to the business of business as fundamental to it,’ the worldwide managing director of McKinsey & Company wrote in a recent leading article. ‘Companies that ignore public sentiment expose themselves to attack.’

The triple bottom line – financial, environmental and social – is not merely an inescapable part of business. In fact, it has the potential to alter the strategic direction of companies over the next generation.

It does not mean merely donating a percentage of profits to charity, or supporting fair trade policies. Our triple bottom line agenda will urge companies to go beyond altruistic CSR initiatives. Such initiatives, whilst reducing the ‘footprint’ of companies’ impact on the social and environmental landscape, do not positively contribute to sustainable business development. Instead, we want companies to do more to balance the mid-term needs of stakeholders with the long-term responsibilities to social and environmental needs. 

Some companies still see social issues as a distraction or something that only governments need to worry about. But companies that persist in this view will swiftly find themselves in trouble. As triple bottom line issues become more important to customers, boycotts and negative publicity are increasingly damaging companies that do not react quickly enough.

To view a pdf of our Agenda paper on the triple bottom line, please click here. 

We welcome your views and experiences on the triple bottom line – please email shapetheagenda@cim.co.uk to let us know what you think.