Managing the triple bottom line

Part IV: Infrastructures for accountability

February, 2004

Part I of this series introduced the concept of triple bottom line management - a way of evaluating corporate performance on social, environmental, and economic factors. Part II outlined the challenges and opportunities in assembling and publishing this type of information. Part III evaluated examples of triple bottom reporting on the Web.

In this, the final part of the series, we look at the technical and intellectual infrastructures necessary to support the hybrid publishing system we proposed.

By technical infrastructure, we mean software and data structures. By intellectual infrastructure, we mean editorial practices and semantic tools, such as indexes, glossaries, and thesauri. In this article we tell what they are, illustrate why they're important, and suggest guidelines for their use.

Triple bottom line reporting is one of the most challenging communications issues facing information professionals today, not only in corporations but also in nonprofits and government agencies. Good reporting has the potential to help solve complex environmental, social, and economic problems. For the private sector, this means reduced risk and new revenue opportunities. For the public sector, it means greater accountability and better use of allocated funds.

Cost effective, high quality reporting requires a collaborative effort, a robust and flexible technical infrastructure, sound editorial practices, and accessible linguistic tools. Fortunately, many companies are already working to create them. Triple bottom line reporting is an opportunity to show how important they are, not just to the organization but also the environment in which it must operate.

More... (members only) How to become a member