The Triple Bottom Line in Businesses

In Cecil Johnson’s (2006), “Businesses ignore environmental, social bottom lines at own risk,” he describes how the triple bottom line is important in businesses. He quotes Andrew W. Savitz’s Book, “The Triple Bottom Line.” He said that the Triple Bottom Line was “economic, environmental, social” success. In economic and social success, Nike had some problems. Nike made that children worked in their sportswear factories. One problem was that children’s cost was very cheap. The other problem was human rights. He also said that GE and Exxon have problems with the environment.

I think that environmental and social successes are more important than economic success.

Firstly, government should make laws that children cannot work. Children have to study hard, because of their future. In childhood, they have a lot of dreams for their own future. Children have rights to achieve their dreams. If children work in a company during the daytime, they do not have enough time to study. They will miss many chances to get higher knowledge and gain their dreams. Using labor of children is a serious problem for their lives.

Secondly, companies should pay higher wages to employees. Nowadays, many companies move their factories to the third world. Although, because of low wages, company can earn more money, it interrupts the third world’s development. If they earn a low salary continuously, their countries cannot grow technology. I think it is a modern version of slavery. Because of that, companies ought to ensure basic wages. Also, for their life, sorts of non-government organizations have to watch strictly.

Finally, companies have to make new technology for the environment. In these days, a lot of companies’ plants are placed in developing countries. They are not concerned about pollution, because these nations are not the owner’s countries. In the age of globalization, we have to worry about the earth’s future. It is not just simple problems. If we don’t care about it, nobody will know that we can enjoy nature only until we die. So, we should find a way to protect our nature before nature is damaged.

As a result, people such as the president of a company should not be able to use child labor for their future. Also, for balanced development, laborers working in the third world have to take higher wages. We have a mission to clean the earth because of our children. So, we had better make international laws protecting ourselves from these problems.

Johnson, C. (2006, September 11). Businesses ignore environmental, social bottom lines at own risk. McClatchy Newspapers. Retrieved March 26, 2008, from Lexis-Nexis