How to strike right balance

By ELLEN READ

"You don't have to be left wing and woolly," says Urgent Couriers managing director Steve Bonnici, speaking of triple bottom line (TBL) reporting. "It actually makes good business sense."

Since adopting TBL in 2001, he said, he had learned more about his business and staff, attracted new clients and made more money.

The courier business, being a service industry, was all about people, Bonnici said, and TBL had shown him ways he could improve his contractors' conditions, which in turn improved the business because the staff were happier and stayed longer.

"Financial reporting is all about numbers, while the triple bottom line approach has more balance," he said. "It's about measuring people and their input."

For example, TBL has shown that the couriers' vehicles release a combined 1000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year - a fact not known until a TBL report was compiled two years ago.

Now, the company recommends lower-pollutant vehicles, which can not only save the contractors money but help the environment.

The report also revealed that the biggest problem facing the company was the turnover of contractors. Falling incomes meant couriers were moving on to other things.

That made the company look at its structure and operations. Bonnici said: "If we reduce what's going out it generally means we can reduce what's going in, so you reduce contractors' costs."

Urgent Couriers prepared its first TBL report in November 2001 and is currently writing its second.

It doesn't have to be a big, expensive exercise, especially for a small business.

Bonnici said Urgent Couriers prepared its report on the computer and printed it on recycled paper.

"It brings useful disciplines. For example, we have to do an internal staff survey to see how they think we are doing. For small businesses we all tend to get too involved in the day-to-day stuff."

Bonnici will share his experiences as one of the presenters at next week's Sustainable Business Network TBL workshop.

The one-day workshop will be based on a TBL guide for small or medium-sized business "Enterprise3: Your business and the Triple Bottom Line economic, environmental and social performance", which was developed by the Sustainable Business Network and the Ministry for the Environment.

So what is the Triple Bottom Line?

The Sustainable Business Network explains that traditionally businesses judge performance against one bottom line - the financial. But increasingly they are being asked to consider impacts on the environment and their communities.

TBL is a method that enables companies to assess their performance against environmental, social and economic factors.

It involves thinking more broadly about what constitutes "performance" and "success" for business, looking at how a business affects the environment, society and the economy and finding how to improve performance in these areas.

Companies using the TBL approach say benefits include: identifying potential risks to the company, providing structure and measurement for existing social and environmental initiatives, identifying areas where improvements are necessary, improving suppliers' social and environmental performance, increasing staff morale and enthusiasm, and contributing to better social and environmental outcomes.

* Practical Workshop - Implementing the Triple Bottom Line in Business. July 24, 9am-5pm, at Enterprise Waitakere in Henderson. Cost - $275 including GST (for SBN members), $375 including GST (for non-members).

Sustainable Business Network