2016年ACCA知识点：TBL

btcapital

ACCA P4考试：Triple Bottom Line Reporting ("TBL" or "3BL")
< The phrase was coined by John Elkington, co-founder of the business consultancy Sustain Ability. It is an expanded baseline for measuring performance.
< Triple bottom line accounting attempts to measure and report corporate performance against economic, social and environmental benchmarks in order to show improvement or to make more in-depth evaluation.*
< It can be viewed as:
= a reporting device (e.g. information presented in annual reports); and/or
= an approach to improving decision-making and the activities of organizations (e.g. by providing tools and frameworks for considering the economic, environmental and social implications of decisions, products, operations, future plans).
Advantages
■Makes transparent the organization's decisions that explicitly consider effects
on the environment and people, as well as on financial capital.
■More informed decision-making as decision-makers can quantify tradeoffs between different aspects of sustainability.
■Improved relationships with key stakeholders and improved risk management through consultation.
■Specific commercial advantages (e.g. competitive advantage with customers suppliers and providers of finance).
■Enhancement of reputation and brand. May result in attracting and retaining employees with sustainable values.
Disadvantages
■There are currently few standards for measuring these effects.
■Usefulness and comparability, as there is a significant range of disclosure (content and quality).
■The difference between the economic bottom line and the financial bottom line is often blurred.
■Increase in annual reporting costs with disproportionate costs for smaller entities.
■Potential exposure to risk and liability relating to the reliability of the report's content (unless audit is mandatory).
■Potential bias in voluntary presentation (e.g. including only favorable information).