Triple Bottom Line

Filed under Family Business, Sustainability

Have you heard of the triple bottom line? We consider Firefly Diapers to be a triple bottom line business.

  1. people
  2. planet
  3. profit

Profit ought to come first, but it often doesn’t when one gets too caught up in people and planet.

Not everyone is a fan of the idea of triple bottom line. They say it’s a rhetorical device lacking substance, but I see evidence to the contrary in my own business and in the stories of other businesses told in the recent, wonderful book, Getting to Scale: Growing Your Business Without Selling Out. One of my business organizations sent this book to members. (I didn’t pay enough attention to which! Either Co-op America Business Network or Organic Trade Association.)

There are also other sustainable business models, including the UN’s Agenda 21 and Ceres Sustainability Reporting.

One way or the other, if you expect to run a green business, you need to create an effective plan for your sustainability efforts.

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