Study about Impact Assessment and the Triple Bottom Line: Competing Pathways to Sustainability
Introduction: The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is a concept that has received official imprimatur as a framework for encouraging institutional concern about sustainability. But is it achieving its goal? Although initially intended as a philosophy or way of thinking about sustainability, akin to the concept of corporate social responsibility, it has become simply a mechanism for accounting and reporting. TBL is inherently limited in what it has to offer, and is promulgated by proponents who are largely ignorant of other approaches. Although TBL is meant to add social and environment to the equation, it is often championed by people who have little understanding of what the social entails.
This paper argues that the concept of TBL is not fundamentally different to the well established field of impact assessment, but that impact assessment and, in particular, the field of social impact assessment (SIA), have much more to offer in terms of accumulated experience and understanding, and a professional and theoretical base. The paper, therefore, is critical of TBL, not because the author is opposed to sustainability or the need to think about social and environmental, as well as economic, criteria, or the need for corporate social responsibility—far from it—but rather because the originators of TBL and its current advocates seem to be ignorant of the field of impact assessment. It is argued that impact assessment, and specifically social impact assessment, offers far more to those concerned about social justice and human welfare than does TBL. Keep reading..
