Triple Bottom Line

It's almost impossible to conceive of the recent emergence of the Social Value and Social Impact without giving credit to the idea of ‘Triple Bottom Line’ (aka TBL/3BL), a revolutionary business philosophy pioneered by John Elkington in the mid 1990’s. TBL argues that successful and sustainable organisations create (or destroy) value within three distinct but inter-related arenas – social, economic and environmental.

Economic success: The financial bottom line remains the ultimate barometer of the performance of an organisation, whatever the sector it operates in. It is of no surprise then that there are over 300,000 accountants in the UK. Goodlabs is comfortable working with accountants, but is in no way seeking to duplicate their work.

Environmental success: Increased regulation as well as changes in public mood have led to the emergence of a busy environmental consultancy sector ensuring that organisations meet relevant sustainability standards. It is becoming increasingly common for firms to produce a ‘sustainability report’ alongside the publishing of their annual accounts. Goodlabs is comfortable working with consultants in this sector, but again is not seeking to duplicate their work either.

Social success: The social dimension of TBL remains poorly defined and under-resourced. Organisations that wish to demonstrate that they are having a positive impact within human society, for individuals, families and communities, cannot draw on the same levels of expertise that can be found in the financial and environmental sectors. Where expertise does exist the fees make accessing help cost-prohibitive for all but the largest corporations.

This is precisely the gap that Goodlabs now fills...

The New Convergence

As we progress further into the 21st century we are witnessing increasing convergence between the public, private and voluntary sectors. The public sector is commissioning out more of its work. Private sector and voluntary sector often bid against one another for the contracts. The effect is that charities are needing to become more commercially astute and businesses are needing to become more socially aware. A new common ground is emerging in the process, a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between costs, impacts, outcomes and value creation. The ability to articulate, measure, report and communicate social value, as distinct from financial bottom line, is becoming an essential requirement.