Sustainable development, Timeline, Evolution of Triple Bottom Line Concept

The Bruntdland Commission

In 1983, the United Nations tapped former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland to head the new World Commission on Environment and Development. After four years, the "Brundtland Commission" published its final report, "Our Common Future." This defines sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (Brundtland, 1987).

After decades of efforts to improve living standards through industrialization, many nations remain struggled with poverty in different forms. It revealed that economic development at the expense of environmental health and social justice did not lead to lasting prosperity, The Commission succeeded in uniting environmental protection with social and economic concerns on the Global development agenda.

Based on these three pillars, the General Assembly began the negotiation process on the Post-2015 Development Agenda in January 2015. The process culminated in the subsequent adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 SDGs at its core and 169 targets that remain in place today. at UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015. The 2030 Agenda is an action plan for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership all countries and all stakeholders will act in partnership to implement.

Now, Human nation recognized that without plans and strategies to manage development in sustainable way, they will absolutely lose their chances to continue live on this planet rather than maintaining development itself. Nations now recognize, or should do, that they have to cooperate to manage sustainable development, manage shared resources to secure enough resources for future generations. Cross-border rivers, oceans, inland water bodies, ocean and tidal powers, wind and solar energy, even migrating animals, all these and similar shared resources should be managed, and maintained in collaborative and sustainable way. Controlling greenhouse gases emissions, maintaining ice bodies in north and south poles, maintaining pollution of oceans, safe waste disposal, improving education and health conditions in developing countries, erection of fair social and political systems everywhere, and more, is not individual interest of local societies, these are global interests. There’s no more room or time for Ego, nor super control. Human nations recognized either they all rise as one or fall individually.

As humans embark on this collective journey, no one should be left behind.

Fears and concerns raised by developing countries should be understood, studied, and considered. Sustainability should not be a way to slow down development, or misuse need of developing societies for global support. Equality and fair access to sustainable development keys is the way for global resilient and sustainable development in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet.

The Triple Bottom Line Concept

The Triple Bottom Line concept (TBL) was originally proposed by John Elkington in 1997. Both concepts of TBL and CSR are interrelated as they both promote economic efficiency, environmental management and social justice (Nikolaou, 2013).

The issue is how focusing on the social and environmental bottom line could eventually have a positive impact on the financial bottom line?(Gimenez et al., 2012).

The Environmental Bottom Line

Environmental performance is about the amount of resources, a company uses and pollutants discharged by company's activities (Hubbard, 2009). The environmental bottom line is also refers to the "internal environmental aspects and the external aspects of natural resource management"?(Nikolaou, 2013). The change of aspects within a company, such as the start of recycling, has an impact on the external natural environment.

The Economical Bottom Line

Economical performance metrics are actually the traditional performance indicators, Presley categorized financial indicators into four groups: strategic factors, like cost reduction, attaining superior financial performance, and tactical factors like expenses, and operational aspects like customer return or energy consumption (Presley, et al., 2010).

The Social Bottom Line

Carter suggested five aspects of the social bottom line: diversity, ethics, human rights/quality of life, philanthropy/community, and safety (Carter & Jennings, 2002).