Everyone is referring to the triple bottom line when discussing sustainability and businesses these days, but can the triple bottom line benefit communities too? The answer is yes. The idea of bringing social, economic, and environmental factors together to create a long term sustainable enterprise is what cities and counties are all about. I would even hazard to say that those communities that aren’t looking at their future from a Triple Bottom Line vantage are and will be facing obsolescence. As our world gets more crowded, more connected, and more complex, communities cannot afford to look at each part of their operations from a silo perspective. To maximize an ever shrinking budget and an ever increasing cost of “being”, communities must view their design, their operations, and their development processes as a dynamic interconnected web of elements all acting in concert to create their community. Communities that approach themselves from this integrated perspective will ultimately create long-term viable, healthy, prosperous places to live and work.

The following diagram outlines how a small change to improve the triple bottom line of a community can impact all parts of a community. However messy and complex this diagram may seem, it only shows a snapshot; and although this diagram simplifies an extremely complex system, it is a wonderful way to remind us how interdependent our community systems are. Now with the triple bottom line we can take that integration that in the past has led to problems and use it to lead our communities to sustainability.

So how does a community begin to try and look at themselves from this perspective? Well, it isn’t simple, quick, or easy. Those approaches are what have gotten communities into the binds that they are currently in. First, the community needs to make a commitment and make it public. Advertise that you are looking to be sustainable. Then form a team. Triple Bottom Line planning takes stakeholder involvement from all realms within a community. Every community is unique with regard to specific stakeholders, but in general, a community will need to engage: citizens, local industry and business, economic development officials, public officials, city planners, city engineers, and non-profits ranging from environmental groups to low income housing groups to environmental health groups. Public advertising of the team creation is important, so that stakeholder’s don’t view the team selection as biased toward any particular faction.

Yes, this much involvement can seem daunting, but it is essential to create a viable, long-term sustainable plan for your community. By providing stakeholder involvement from all realms of the community you ensure “buy-in” as well as a stronger integration of your community’s functionalities.

Before advertising, lump potential stakeholders into “areas” and then when advertising request those areas to choose one “area” representative who will disseminate information to their constituents and feed thoughts, comments, and requests back to the team. The number of representatives will be determined by the size of your community, but keeping it under 20 people will help facilitate discussion and keep meetings to a reasonable length.

Ground-rules for your Triple Bottom Line team will be important. Everyone must be willing and able to hear other perspectives, promote multiple agendas other than their own, and commit to what is best for the community as a whole. Open dialogue is a must and no one faction can dominate the team. This is where a good facilitator comes in. The most effective facilitator will be an un-biased third-party. Many communities will bring in a facilitator from outside the community, which can help when animosity currently exists in a community, but it isn’t a requirement. If there is a person in your community that can be seen as impartial, trustworthy, and committed to the best outcome for the entire community (a community “father”), this often-times is the best solution because people feel that the facilitator cares about the outcome and therefore will mediate with the community’s best interest at heart.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.