GEF

Unit 1  |  Introduction to Sustainability 20 Many businesses have adopted strategies for evaluating their performance in relation to sustainability. The triple bottom line (TBL) is an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental (or ecological), and financial. Businesses use it to measure how they perform in terms of social responsibil- ity, economic value, and environmental impact. Food and farming systems use true cost accounting to measure and report information about the environmental and social costs of economic transactions to inform goal setting, planning, and decision-making. Green solutions often have a greater pay-off in the long run. It is best to think about sustainability as a work in progress. It helps move toward the values, practices, and technologies that place society, economy, and environment into a healthy bal- ance. However, making sustainable decisions often involves trade-offs and value judgments. For example, building a large- scale wind energy facility in a mountain pass may provide reliable, clean electricity to a nearby city, but the wind turbines may kill large numbers of migrating birds. In other words, there is no universal answer to creating sustainability, and finding sustainable solutions requires weighing the importance of vari- ous factors in each. TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE An accounting framework with three parts: social, envi- ronmental (or ecological), and financial. TRUE COST ACCOUNTING A method of accounting that considers costs and benefits in terms of environmen- tal, economic, and social impacts, rather than just direct monetary costs.