Title: Is Triple-Bottom-Line reporting of enterprise performance possible?

Authors: Geoffrey George

Addresses: Victoria Graduate School of Business, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract: This chapter commences with a reexamination of the literature of socio-economic accounting, which incorporates issues of financial, social, and environmental measurement and reporting. Socio-economic accounting precedes the more recent reporting framework proposed for enterprises and described as Triple-Bottom-Line (TBL) reporting and, recently, Sustainability Reporting as proposed by the Global Reporting Initiative. This paper examines the theoretical basis of socio-economic accounting, and the literature demonstrates that the time for a broader reporting framework for the measurement of the performance of enterprises is overdue. Further, TBL provides an interesting and perhaps valuable framework within which the reporting of economic, social, and environmental achievements of enterprises can be presented.

Keywords: triple bottom line; TBL reporting; enterprise performance; socio-economic accounting; environmental reporting; sustainability reporting; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2003.053904

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2003 Vol.5 No.2, pp.147 - 161

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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