Andy Savitz tells us in THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE, is the place where corporate and societal interests intersect. It is a new way to measure the bottom line – where profits go side-by-side with environmental and social performance – and an illuminating way to understand the often-fuzzy concept of sustainability. It is a spot that the best-run and most profitable companies have already found, and Savitz, former head of PricewaterhouseCooper’s Sustainability Business Services practice, says is attainable for any business that knows where to look and is willing to change.
From the book:
- Hershey Foods, the legendary candy maker that blew a $12 billion dollar deal because it failed to heed social and economic concerns of its employees and of the town that gave it its name;
- PPL, the reviled electricity behemoth that achieved a love fest with environmentalists and Native Americans by agreeing to remove its hydro-electric dam from the Penobscot River in exchange for a sizable cash payout;
- Toyota and GE, which are turning social responsibility into financial opportunity at the same time that Wal-Mart, McDonalds and Exxon are paying a price for thumbing their noses at it.
But Savitz’ book is more than a look back at what other companies have done right or wrong. It helps business leaders look ahead to how their company can find its own sweet spot – from such simple steps as reducing energy consumption and employee accidents to the complex business of creating economic development while doing business with the poor.
“Businesses,” Savitz writes, “are being forced to respond to social, economic and environmental changes in the world around them. Just as global warming is fundamentally altering the commercial and regulatory landscape for energy and auto companies, so the advent of HIV/AIDS, SARS and persistent malaria is changing the basic business model for pharmaceutical companies. Just as Nike was transformed by the discovery of children working in its overseas factories, so Wal-Mart is now coming face to face with the ‘high cost of low wages’ and McDonalds’s with obesity. No sooner had Dell, Apple and IBM created the personal computer then they had to bridge the digital divide.”
“The truly sustainable company,” Savitz concludes, “would have no need to write checks to charity or ‘give back’ to the local community, because the company’s daily operations would not deprive the community, but would enrich it.”Review by: Leslie Johnston
In The Triple Bottom Line, authors Andrew Savitz and Karl Weber look at how businesses can prosper financially while protecting and renewing the social, environmental, and economic resources they need—and how they can fail if they do not protect and renew these resources. Sustainable businesses are ones that measure, document, and report a positive return on investment (ROI) on all three bottom lines: economic, environmental, and social. This Triple Bottom Line reflects an increase in the company’s value, both its profitability and shareholder value and its social, human, and environmental capital.
The authors contend that sustainability should be thought of as the common ground shared by a company’s business interests (those of its financial stakeholders) and the interests of the public (its nonfinancial stakeholders). This is the sweet spot, the place where profits blend with the pursuit of the common good. The best-run companies around the world are identifying and moving into their sweet spots, and they are developing new ways of doing business in order to get there.
Book Description
The Triple Bottom Line is the groundbreaking book that charts the rise of sustainability within the business world and shows how and why financial success increasingly goes hand in hand with social and environmental achievement. Andrew Savitz chronicles both the real problems that companies face and the innovative solutions that can come from sustainability. His is a hard-line approach to bottom-line fundamentals that is re-making companies around the globe.
From the Inside Flap
Your company’s sweet spot is where its financial interests coincide with social and environmental interests.
It is called sustainability, and Fortune 100 companies like DuPont, PepsiCo, and Toyota are beginning to see it as the most transformative business concept in years. Responding to growing pressure from regulators, environmentalists, and socially concerned shareholders, these and other firms are charting solutions that will reap environmental and social rewards along with financial ones. Companies that defy the principles of sustainability find themselves suffering significant setbacks to their business objectives.
The Triple Bottom Line is the groundbreaking book that charts the rise of sustainability within the business world and shows how and why financial success increasingly goes hand in hand with social and environmental achievement. Andrew Savitz chronicles both the real problems that companies face and the innovative solutions that can come from sustainability. His is a hard-line approach to bottom-line fundamentals that is re-making companies around the globe.
Savitz identifies and explains this new management concept in plain language and with good humor, showing leaders in organizations of all sizes and industries exactly how they can benefit. He provides memorable stories and simple rules of the road to help you find your company’s sweet spot. In the end, he shows that sustainability is a fundamental approach to management that lets businesses protect and grow the resources they need to succeed.
From the Back Cover
Praise for The Triple Bottom Line
“Whether you are a corporate manager, investor, consumer, or public official, this book will change your view of how corporations can succeed for themselves and for society. Savitz combines vision and practical advice in an elegant presentation.” —George Stephanopoulos, chief Washington correspondent, ABC News anchor, This Week with George Stephanopoulos
“Informative, persuasive, and practical, containing valuable advice for anyone seeking a more responsible and profitable approach to business.” —Steve Reinemund, chairman and chief executive officer, PepsiCo
“The main challenge of sustainability is how to take it from concept to action. Andy Savitz communicates in plain language what sustainability is and how everyone in the organization can help achieve it.” —Charles O. Holliday, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer, DuPont
“An engaging mix of powerful ideas and practical advice. Values matter and Savitz shows how profitability and responsibility can and must go hand in hand.” —Michael Morris, chairman, president, and chief executive officer, American Electric Power
“At long last a plain English, action-oriented guide to business sustainability illustrated with practical examples from world-class companies.” —Richard Cavanagh, president, The Conference Board, Inc.
“Andy Savitz gets it. He also happens to be witty, sensible, and a good writer as well as a good business strategist—sort of a modern Ben Franklin. That makes this book a joy to read as well as indispensable for businesspeople who wish to succeed in this new age.” —Walter Isaacson, president and chief executive officer and former chairman, Aspen Institute; author, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
“A bold and readable foray into this complex subject. Readers will come away enlightened.” —Kert Davies, research director, Greenpeace US
About the Author
Andrew W. Savitz knows about sustainability from working as one of the lead?partners in the Sustainability Business Services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he helped firms both large and small increase their profitability and responsiveness to environmental and social issues. Before that, he was a senior environmental enforcement official for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Savitz now runs Sustainable Business Strategies, an independent advisory firm based in Boston.
Karl Weber is an author specializing in business, social, and political topics. He coauthored the business best-seller The Power of We with Jonathan Tisch, CEO of Loews Hotels, as well as How to Grow When Markets Don’t with acclaimed management consultant Adrian Slywotzky.
