The Triple bottom line
Organizations purse operational efficiency through detailed monitoring of their bottom line that is, how much money is left over after all the bills have been paid from the revenue generated from the sale of their product or service. As a testament to how seriously companies are now taking CSR, many have adapted their annual reports to reflect a triple bottom line approach, for which they provide social and environmental updates alongside their primary bottom line financial performance. The phrase has been attributed to Johe Elkington, cofounder of the business consultancy SustainAbility, in his 1998 book Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. As further evidence that this notion has hit the business mainstream, there is a trendy acronym,3BL, for you to use to prove, supposedly, that you are on the "cutting edge" of this new trend. (For a more detailed critique of 3BL, please review the 2003 article by Wayne Norman and Chris MacDonald in Appendix B.)