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Article: The corporate conscience and the triple bottom line.(Assurance: technical developments, professional issues and engagement changes)
- Article from:
- Accounting Today
- Article date:
- July 12, 2004
- Author:
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The movement has already started: the triple bottom line, or, as some refer to it, the "10-K of the corporate conscience."
And it has a fair amount of impetus behind it.
Here's the theory: Business serves several purposes in the economy. One, of course, is to generate a profit for investors. To judge from the focus of financial reports, profit is the only purpose of business.
Corporations have far broader impacts on the economy and the society that it sustains. Corporate reports, some say, should therefore report on those impacts. One answer may be the triple bottom line.
The financial bottom line is the traditional conclusion of annual ...