Achieving Sustainable Development: Balancing Social, Economic & Environmental Capital

Sustainable development is measured using three types of capital namely social, economic and environmental capital which must be sustained and balanced. In sustainability management, the social, environmental and economic developmental factors must be understood systematically for a manager to develop a lasting impact on people, for-profit and planet. Hence, a triple bottom line (TBL) refers to the environmental, economic and social value that a business, government, and non-profit organizations add or destroy (Elkington, 2004). The agenda encouraged by TBL is a comprehensive approach that engages coordinators, stakeholders, and various policies on technology, security, tax, economic development, labor and corporate reporting for sustainable development and environmental security.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

To achieve sustainable development, an organization has to attain a precondition known as sectorial sustainability. Hence, sectorial sustainability entails first ensuring that the lifestyles, business, and governments are lived, managed and governed sustainably. Conversely, sustainable development implies a development that leaves a long-lasting impact on people, planet, and profit by meeting the needs of both the future and the present generations. In this regard, sustainability management entails "accounting and managing single positive or negative social, environmental and economic impacts of a business" (Laasch, & Conaway, 2013, p. 71). Sustainability leads toward activities and initiatives that are long-lasting.

A business measures the triple impact to establish whether the business has become sustainable. The triple impact measurement yields three impact results namely negative, neutral and positive which reveals whether a business is unsustainable, sustainable or restorative respectively. An unsustainable business is one that has a negative TBL impact on the economy and an example is one that practices philanthropic but affects the economy negatively making it bankrupt. Such a business lack economic sustainability and as a result unsustainable. An example of a restorative and sustainable business is one that is flourishing in three dimensions of economy, environment, and social aspect. In this regard, the business is good to its stakeholders, has a neutral environmental impact and socially restorative.

References

Elkington, J. (2004). Enter the triple bottom line. In J. Richardson & A. Henriques, The triple bottom line, does it all add up?: assessing the sustainability of business and CSR (1st ed., pp. 1-1). London, Sterling, VA: Earthscan. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=JIiHcXcLSHAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Triple+Bottom+Line&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAnaOt7rPkAhUJDGMBHbfqBxYQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Triple%20Bottom%20Line&f=false

Laasch, O., & Conaway, R. N. (2013). Principles of responsible management: Glocal sustainability, responsibility, and ethics. Australia: Cengage Learning