The New Three Ps: Profit, People and Planet. Measurement is key to success.

Oct 27 2011 5:00 AM

After having read the October HBR article, The Sustainable Economy, itcaused me to reflect on how often the term ‘sustainability’ is used in business language and social commentary. I was curious to check out if indeed there was some convergence in the measurement and practice of this growing area of corporate strategy. It is Interesting when you see the multi-dimension definition posted by Wikipedia for Corporate Sustainability:

“Corporate sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term consumer and employee value by not only creating a "green" strategy aimed towards the natural environment, but taking into consideration every dimension of how a business operates in the social, cultural, and economic environment. Also formulating strategies to build a company that fosters longevity through transparency and proper employee development."

Interesting to see reference to “Triple Bottom Line”, a corporate measurement that brings in social and environmental impact. The United Nations made this the standard for urban and community accounting in early 2007 and is now used by companies committed to Corporate Social Responsibility. The Economist defines it in further detail:

“The triple bottom line (TBL) thus consists of three Ps: profit, people and planet. It aims to measure the financial, social and environmental performance of the corporation over a period of time. Only a company that produces a TBL is taking account of the full cost involved in doing business."

The term Triple Bottom Line is being used in one of my firm’s current client projects where we are working with a Canadian industry that has a challenging image. One of the opportunities of this project is to identify multi dimensional elements of this particular industry’s contribution to the Canadian economy, society and more. In researching this Blog, I decided to Google search the term CSR, unsurprisingly, the most recent Corporate Knights ranking with the 2011 Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies came up; interesting that the first Canadian company on the list was ENCANA at ranking 12. Most of the top 10 companies are located in the Netherlands with a US entry through Johnson and Johnson at #2 and Intel at #6. With a search in the Globe and Mail, I found tips for building sustainable practices in to small business that could be useful even for the average consumer. Corporate Social Responsibility is an evolving area of business strategy and corporate practice where measurement is tantamount to effectiveness. There are more resources available for CSR quantification than there are for brand measurement and little excuse to not to use these newer corporate accounting measures.

Patricia McQuillan

Tags: Corporate Social Responsibility