A framework that evaluates performance across social, environmental, and economic outcomes.
The Triple Bottom Line broadens the way organisations think about success. Rather than evaluating performance solely through financial results, it asks leaders to consider social, environmental, and economic outcomes together.
The traditional formulation is often expressed as:
People, Planet, and Profit
This remains a useful starting point because it challenges the narrow view that business performance is only about financial return. It reminds organisations that decisions affect employees, customers, suppliers, communities, ecosystems, and future generations.
In Adapt, Survive and Flourish, the Triple Bottom Line is presented as a gateway concept. Its deeper value lies not merely in adding extra reporting categories, but in shifting the worldview underpinning decision-making.
The Source Note Triple Bottom Line: From Profit to Prosperity reframes the third bottom line from Profit to Prosperity. This does not reject profit. Organisations need to remain financially viable. However, prosperity is broader than profit. It asks whether the organisation and the wider system of which it is part are becoming more viable, capable, resilient, and healthy.
In this framing:
Profit asks: Did the organisation benefit?
Prosperity asks: Did the organisation and the wider system become more viable?
This shift links the Triple Bottom Line to ecocentric thinking, stewardship, consequential intervention, sustainability, organisational ecology, and adaptive capacity.
Related Glossary Items
- Ecocentric vs Egocentric Thinking
- Profit vs Prosperity
- Consequential Intervention
- Organisational Ecology
- Sustainability
- Stewardship
- Adaptive Capacity
Related Source Notes
- Triple Bottom Line: From Profit to Prosperity
- Source Note — Ecocentric vs Egocentric Thinking
- Source Note – Consequential Intervention
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Source Note – Line of Sight
Related Subject Areas
- Subject Area: Ethics and Consequential Intervention
- Subject Area: Organisational Ecology
- Subject Area — Mindsets for Adaptive Capacity
- Subject Area: Building Resilience through Social Ecology