Businesses can make more sustainable choices this Earth Day without sacrificing profit or goals by looking to the triple-bottom-line sustainability concept.
This concept, also referred to as TBL, emphasizes looking beyond the “bottom line,” or profit, to meet more sustainable business opportunities. TBL, a term coined by business writer John Elkington, incorporates three aspects: social, environmental and financial. Planning and design leader at engineering consulting company GRAEF, Stephanie Hacker, said “There are ways to move the needle in economic or wealth creation in environmental impact and ways that can impact social equity.”
Some changes businesses and communities make are physical and require design changes, Hacker said, or some may call for policy changes. Examples of solutions include solar panels, making transportation multi-modal, grass rooftops and incorporating more native plants as opposed to ornamental.
A majority of people’s savings go toward food, water and shelter, Hacker said, and making changes in these areas may not only reap benefits environmentally and within the community, but financially as well. Hacker said “There are ways that maybe some upfront costs can yield savings later in all of those areas and beyond.”
Businesses and local government have already begun to make changes. Whitefish Bay’s Depart of Public Works installed a full solar array on the top of the facility, and the payback and progress can be monitored online. After installing solar panels on her house nearly two years ago, Hacker said she is now seeing the financial benefits from this sustainable swap.
