triple bottom line

Telling Stories at the Intersection of Business, Environment, and Society, with Jen Boynton, Triple Pundit

Triple Pundit is a media company covering the conversation on sustainable business. The argument for a triple bottom line of people, profit, and planet, has been going on for more than 100 years. In 1916, two shareholders, the Dodge brothers sued Henry Ford in Dodge v. Ford Motor Company. The courts ruled in favor of the Dodge brothers, stating that a: business corporation is organized and carried on primarily for the profit of the stockholders.” In 1970, economist Milton Friedman published his article “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” Friedman argues that any money spent by a company on “social responsibility” takes away from the benefit…

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The Impact Measurement Challenge

Calling all data geeks and entrepreneurs. Here’s a business opportunity. Although there are better definitions out there, an entrepreneur is someone who identifies a perceived pain or a desired gain in the marketplace and uses innovative approaches to resolve the pain or bring about the gain. Well, I have a pain for you. As I have been interviewing entrepreneurs for the Social Entrepreneur podcast, one pain point comes up again and again. They tell me that their greatest desire is to create social and environmental impact. However, it is difficult, time consuming and expensive to measure impact. The time and effort that they spend measuring impact reduces the resources that they…

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