Triple bottom line

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The triple bottom line is also known as "people, planet, profit" or "the three pillars" captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organisational (and societal) success: economic, ecological and social. With the ratification of the United Nations and ICLEI triple bottom line standard for urban and community accounting in early 2007, this became the dominant approach to full cost accounting in public sector. Similar UN standards apply to natural capital and human capital measurement to assist in measurements required by the triple bottom line, for example the ecoBudget standard for reporting ecological footprint.

The Organic Design perspective on this is that it is only a temporary and imperfect solution. Profit itself is a big problem and is only a concept that exists due to the scarcity of money. While money is scarce, profit will always sneak its way back to the first priority leading back to the economic bottom line problem. To overcome this, the financial system needs to operate as a resource based economy, but this can't happen within the rules of the current system. Peer-to-peer systems such as Ethereum currently hold the greatest promise for overcoming these problems.

See also