More Companies Move to Triple Bottomline Concept

Last year's corporate financial reporting mess has more and more companies looking at better ways to demonstrate their commitment to ethical practices. They believe this action may be warranted given investors' low confidence in the stock market and other problems. For one, they must meet the new SEC rules on financial reporting. If they don't, they could be fined and sent to jail, as we saw last year. But many feel that may not be enough. Some are beginning to examine the triple bottomline concept adopted by many companies during the past decade.

According to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), more companies are moving toward a new corporate balance sheet that reflects not only financial profits, but also environmental performance and social impacts. AEI cites Dow Chemical, Ford, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Monsanto as examples of companies headed in this direction. Will environmental and social performance override financial performance? That's doubtful, according to AEI. Here is the report. However, the triple bottomline concept is expected to grow in popularity as the number of socially conscious investors grows.

Some groups remain skeptical of corporations' motivation and commitment to sustainability. Click here to find out what the Ethical Corporation Magazine has to say.

Dow Jones has given attention to sustainability criteria since 1999 through its Sustainability Index, which assesses and ranks companies worldwide with respect to their performance in related to finance and economics, environmental sustainability and social performance. 500 companies in 59 industries in 33 countries are rated according to the Index. Who are some of the leaders? They include: Volkswagen (Germany), Webspace Banking (Australia), Dofasco (Canada), DuPont (U.S.), LaFarge (France), Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands/UK), Unilever (Netherlands/UK), 3M (US), and Proctor and Gamble (US).

To learn more about the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, click here.

Does sustainability pay? For an answer read what the Forum for the Future in the UK has to say.