Sustainability as a framework is usually expressed as the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). Unlike the standard “bottom line” which only focuses on the economic impacts on an entity, the triple bottom line is concerned with the economic, social and environmental areas an entity operates in.
The TBL usually focuses on the macro interests of a large organization. But what about the individual within that organization? Or what about a framework that would work for an individual, and not just a large group of individuals?
If the Triple Bottom Line can be expressed as a triangle, then that triangle can be extended into a triangular pyramid (tetrahedron) and a focus on the individual can be added! It is represented as a pyramid because all the pieces – environment, economic, social, individual – are related to each other. No one piece is more important than any other one (although many businesses would argue that the economic piece shares a larger portion of the pie, and I don’t blame them).
Some sustainability experts may say that the individual is covered under the social aspect of TBL, but I disagree. When I think social, I think the larger community, not the individual that interacts in that community. Put another way, if the Social aspect of TBL is how people within an organization interact, the Individual aspect is how a person interacts with the larger organization. Social deals with the outward physical space, Individual deals with inner mental space.
You could be an employee of a large corporation that participates in Habitat for Humanity, which helps grow a stronger bond with your coworkers and helps the community as a whole – both great aspects of the Social tenant of the TBL. But if you are overweight, drink too much and are at a huge risk for a heart attack, then you aren’t living your life sustainably. In other words, an organization could be operating sustainably at face value by satisfying the triple bottom line, but if the members of that organization are all unhealthy – both mentally and physically – and the organization isn’t actively trying to help then is that organization really operating sustainably?
The book “Deep Economy” was a big inspiration for the Sustainable Pyramid. In this excellent book about sustainability, Bill McKibben makes the case that sustainability is all about happiness. A community (social) can’t be happy unless the individuals in that community are happy.
Living sustainably is all about happiness. I’m happy when I have more money (economic). I’m happy when I’m hanging out with friends and family and helping my community (social). I’m happy when I’m enjoying the clean outdoors while hiking or biking (environment/individual). I’m happy when I’m eating good food from local farms (environment/social/individual) and drinking good beer from my local brewery (social). I’m happy when I get a new car that has excellent gas mileage which lowers my nation’s dependence on foreign oil, saves me more money, and improves my local air quality (environment). I’m happy when I learn something new (individual).
Sustainability is NOT about meeting some corporate goal to satisfy investors. Sustainability is about each individual in an organization being happier. When employees are happy, customers are happy and great things happen for everyone and everything.