Triple Bottom Line

Biological Parallel

An oak tree that hoards all photosynthate for its own growth, refusing to feed mycorrhizal partners or support nearby saplings, faces catastrophic consequences: networks abandon it during drought, leaving it vulnerable to death. This is triple-bottom-line thinking in action—the tree must balance energy profit (growth), social capital (network relationships), and environmental capital (soil health) or face collapse. Elkington's framework simply names what ecosystems have practiced for 400 million years: optimization for a single metric creates fragility, while balanced accounting across multiple capitals builds resilience.