Proutist Economic Development Triple Bottom Line

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Proutist Economic Development Triple Bottom Line

• Dr. Michael Towsey
• and
• Dieter Dambiec

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economy
ecology
community
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financial value
sustainability
human social value
ecological value

• A business enterprise takes place around three
  kinds of value which interact.
• A sustainable business will have three positive
  balances.
• The Triple Bottom Line focuses attention on three
  kinds of added value economic, human / social
  and environmental.

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The triple bottom line
Financialbalance sheet Human / Socialbalance sheet Environmental balance sheet
Income Positive outcomes Positive outcomes
Expenditure Negative impacts Negative impacts
Profit Net social benefit Net environmental benefit
The triple bottom line
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Who is doing it?

• Royal Dutch / Shell Group
• BP (British Petroleum)
• Rio Tinto
• British Telecom
• Volkswagon Group
• Toyota Motor Corporation
• Credit Suisse Group
• Around 290 businesses in 29 countries release
  sustainability reports based on the guidelines of
  the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

www.globalreporting.org/about/brief.asp
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Why are they doing it?
The Prestige
The Prestige Oil Spill 2002
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The Prestige Oil Spill

• An environmental catastrophe occurs as a tanker
  sinks off the coast of Spain.
• The stricken Bahamas-flagged Prestige, carrying
  millions of barrels of oil, leaves a slick over
  200 metres wide and 30 km long off the
  north-western Spanish coast.
• The slick threatens one of Europe's most
  picturesque and wildlife-rich coasts.

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Who does the clean up work and pays?

• Members of the French Navy deliver oil-trapping
  nets to Galician fishermen.

• Workers place a floating barrier to protect the
  coastline from spilled oil.

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What are the impacts?

• Oil washes up on the shore in Camelle.

• Spanish sailors help shovel sludge off an
  oil-stained beach.

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Who has to live with it?

• Inhabitants of Camelle watch clean up efforts for
  the Prestige oil spill.

• A resident walks on an oil-soaked shore near
  Porto do Son.

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Sustainability

• Companies have a social responsibility to ensure
  their business practices are sustainable.
• But look at the derangements
• The idea that business has a social
  responsibility is fundamentally subversive.
  - Milton
  Friedman
• Anyone who does anything for anything other than
  profit is either a madman or a bankrupt.
  - Mr McKinnon, Minister for
  Defence, Australia, 1970s.
• But what is happening now?

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Shell Report 2002
For 2003 see www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId
shellreport2003-en
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The social auditing cycle

• A sustainable company will
• Define its values
• Define its social and environmental objectives /
  targets
• Identify stakeholders all those affected by its
  business
• Account for all components of its social
  objectives
• Report the accounting results
• Have the report independently audited by
  qualified social auditors
• Set new targets and improve its performance

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The benefits of social auditing

• Improved employee satisfaction improved
  relationships with key government stakeholders,
  community groups and non-government organisations
  improved reputation in the market place.
• (BP Australia)
• Improved relationship with regulators.
• (Integral Energy, Sydney)

See research by the New South Wales Chamber of
Commerce www.thechamber.com.au/homezone/Policy/Th
eCommonGood/CommonGood.asp
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International standards

• International reporting standards
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) established
  1997.
• www.globalreporting.org
• Reports should be verifiable.
• Steering group includes U.N. Environment
  Program World Business Council for Sustainable
  Development New Economics Foundation.
• International auditing standards
• AccountAbility Institute of Social and Ethical
  Accountability.
• www.accountability.org.uk
• AA1000 Assurance Standard (2002).

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Maleny Credit Union
www.malenycu.com.au/reports_html
www.malenycu.com.au - Ecological Sustainability
indicators
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Maleny Credit Union
Governance Policies www.malenycu.com.au/library/f
iles/policy_gov.pdf

• During the course of 2002-03 the MCU Board
  developed and accepted a governance policy based
  on the Carver Model.
• See www.carvergovernance.com/model.htm
• The MCU Governance Policy covers
• Financial Sustainability
• Social Sustainability
• Environmental Sustainability.
• The governance policy directs the operations of
  the MCU and is reviewed regularly by the Board.

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Quadruple bottom line

• Where do we go next?
• The quadruple bottom line adds in culture as an
  accountability, reporting and auditing
  requirement.
• It recognises that business can promote and learn
  from indigenous culture - thereby creating
  economic, social, environmental and cultural
  benefits.
• See for example in New Zealand (Aotearoa)
• www.rodgerspiller.com/attachments/ethical-investo
  r-october-2003.pdf
• Also (it may be the 4th or 5th bottom line)
• www.metafuture.org/Articles/spirituality_bottom_li
  ne.htm

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Quintuple bottom line

• The quintuple bottom line looks at how an
  enterprise works cooperatively and how the
  cooperative itself promotes social equality in
  society as a whole.
• An extension of the quadruple bottom line?
• Enterprises should aim to achieve a society free
  from all social inequalities with the human race
  moving in unison in its diverse and elevated
  expressions.
• Eg, to achieve social parity, Unity Journalists
  of Color Inc demands that by 2008 minority
  journalists should comprise no less than 20 of
  American newsrooms, and at least 15 of newsroom
  managers.
• See www.unityjournalists.org/news_fcc.html

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Cooperative action

• The structural commercial or business model
  required to achieve social parity in day-to-day
  interaction and working life is the cooperative
  enterprise.
• Cooperatives are the main means of ensuring
  rational distribution of profits to workers and /
  or shareholders in the local economy.
• They aim for social equality and equal locus
  standi.
• The cooperative system is capable of ensuring the
  social welfare of all citizens in the local
  economy.

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Proto-spiritual outlook

• To achieve social parity and implement the
  principle of social equality requires a broad
  outlook and universal view.
• This is the proto-spiritual mentality.
• In this way limiting geo-sentiments and
  socio-sentiments can be easily surmounted.
• The movement is toward neo-humanism - respect for
  all humans, animals plants and their worlds.
• A Gaian nature-friendly ethic and practice.