Abstract

A form of “groupthink” has emerged over the last 25 years on Business Sustainable Development (SD) reporting with the Triple Bottom Line approach (TBL) being adopted wholesale by industry and government. This paper reviews the original definition (Our Common Future, 1987) and the true meaning, which has been lost over the last quarter of a century, is established. SD is essentially a process/activity that has permanence; which has a way of meeting needs and is resource availability dependent with no trade-off.

The paper goes on to summarise how the adoption of this principle has been easily integrated into the accepted International Standards Organisation’s (ISO) style Environmental Management System (EMS) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) procedures, such that Companies can develop an alternative strategic plan B in parallel to their TBL reporting.

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