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Triple bottom line, which sometimes can be expressed as 3BL or TBL, is basically a term that expresses a way in which the performance of a company is measured through various measures and not just the company’s ability to make money – i.e. to be profitable. As such, TBL measures the performance of companies by evaluating the social, economic and environmental successes. This is with the aim of encouraging companies not to focus only on making money but to also think of the kind of environmental custodians they are and generally the kind of position they hold in the Global Environment.

While there is a need for every company to make money in order to sustain its procedures and practices, if a company wishes to achieve the kind of sustainability that the triple bottom line advocates for cannot only be interested in the profits it will generate. The other way therefore of approaching the TBL is to see how companies impact on people, planet, and profit. At times, the desire to make money can be to the detriment of the environment and the people in it. Thus, for a company to attain the 3BL, it has to try and create equilibrium between the three things all at the same time.

According to sustainability reports, stakeholders are the people who will be affected by a company’s action either negatively or positively in a direct or less direct way. Thus in meeting the triple bottom line requirements, a company has to ensure that the stakeholders as well as the shareholders are pleased and satisfied. For example, a company whose practices pollute the environment has very many stakeholders, all the people living in the global environment. Shareholders, employees and any external people with whom the company transacts business with are the direct stakeholders.

It would be difficult to meet the triple bottom line if the employees are underpaid, or if the outsiders the company does business with exploit their employees in one way or another. Normally, when a company considers the ‘people aspect’, it will endeavor to be socially responsible in an intricate world. Majority of companies today do this by advertising or publishing sustainability reports to prove their efforts to help the global environment become more sustainable. In these reports, some companies even include ‘green practices’ and methods in which they are using to try and lower the current environmental debt.

Keep in mind though that not every company that publishes its sustainability report or green practices report is really achieving the triple bottom line. This is not to say that the companies are not making any improvements, they are, but mostly these ads only disguise the key areas where such companies have clearly not met the social, environmental, or economic set standards. A company is bound to suffer economically if it doesn’t at least attempt to attain the 3BL because as the society becomes more alert of damaging practices e.g. employee exploitation, it would opt to invest or do business with another environment-friendly company.