Triple Bottom Line Accounting

Description

In order to pursue the goal of sustainability, corporate and government leaders must manage companies and economies in terms of balancing and optimizing the triple bottom line of social, environmental, and economic impacts. The Triple Bottom Line concept, also known as the "3Ps" ("People, Planet, and Profit"), is both a metaphor for thinking about sustainability as well as the basis for a practical framework for accounting and reporting on organizations' activities and impacts. The TBL concept borrows the well-known and widely accepted idea of financial accounting and its "bottom line" and expands it.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain the triple bottom line (TBL) concept and its three pillars of "People, Planet, and Profits"
• Describe the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) TBL accounting framework
• Explain how economic, environmental, and social performance indicators are developed
• Discuss how TBL accounting measures an organization's sustainability performance
• Outline the criticisms of TBL accounting
• Describe best practices for TBL accounting

Intended Audience

This course is targeted to individuals who meet or exceed the following professional demographics:  

• Mid-level public procurement and central warehouse professionals who serve as senior buyers, managers, directors, or equivalent functions within their respective entities.

• Non-procurement managers and supervisors who either provide procurement functions that support entity programs under delegated authority, or who already have a good understanding of basic procurement principles but wish to get more in-depth, hands-on training.

• Professionals who are employed by local governing entities and special authorities (such as K-12 and higher education, publicly owned utilities, transportation providers, and other publicly funded or created entities) who either serve within or manage the procurement function.

•  Supplier managers and supervisors seeking to understand the public procurement function from a more in-depth holistic level, including the policies, standards, and procedures by which public entities must function.