What's a Triple Bottom Line?

In Economic Development, we understand the bottom line. It's a matter of pride that we consider a project all the way through to the end, to evaluate whether over time the reward will outweigh the risk. Of course, there's some risk involved - we're making guesses about the future, however well-informed - but we can at least rest assured we've done our due diligence.

We may need to think again. Even when we are sure our project is going to mean bottom-line profits, that bottom line may not cover everything we need it to.

Just yesterday I put together some information about economic development programs and had some "negative" examples - projects that didn't make money - that were also transformative projects in their communities. On the other hand, we've all seen projects that made money on paper, but resulted in overdevelopment, played out early and left an empty big box, or had other unintended consequences. The bottom line is an important measure, but it doesn't measure everything.

It's this fact that has inspired many - including, now, the Economic Development Administration - to expand their thinking about what constitutes "profit." Enter the "Triple Bottom Line" - a way of looking at a project that asks about not only its financial net profit, but also at its social and environmental consequences as well. It's a fancy new term, but it captures things we intuitively grasp in the Heart of Texas - we understand our communities need lots of things, not just money. So it may not be a new concept at heart, but the Triple Bottom Line does give us a new tool: a way of measuring, comparing, and evaluating projects looking at all three of those areas.

Watch this space for more information as it becomes available: EDA is currently vetting a Triple Bottom Line evaluation tool that all our communities will soon be able to use.