The "triple bottom line" - which delivers simultaneous financial, social and environmental benefits - is a rallying cry for business sustainability. This text examines the implications of the idea, showing what has already been achieved.

In this text leading experts examine the implications of the idea of the "triple bottom line" - the business strategy that delivers simultaneous financial, social and environmental benefits - showing what it has already achieved by stimulating change and bringing business to appreciate the importance and benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and good environmental performance. They then go beyond this to explore the limits of the metaphor and what remains to be done through regulation and legislation and with detailed professional procedures in environmental accounting and management and social auditing. They show how much more attention is now being focused by business on delivering more than just financial targets, and make clear where the next steps must be taken in continuing along this trajectory.

Enter the triple bottom line
TBL - a review of the literature
CSR, sustainability and the TBL
accounting for sustainability
tracking global governance and sustainability
locating the government's bottom line
reporting on the TBL
good intentions - bad outcomes?
what a fine mess
environmental cost accounting
sustainability assessment model
social captial at work
what if business as usual won't work?
put up or shut up
addressing the economic bottom line.