The big idea: The triple bottom line measures a product against three accounts: people (social), profit (economic) and planet (environmental).
A product that makes money and harms a community has FAILED on the triple bottom line, however healthy the financial account looks. That is the whole point of measuring three.
Three overlapping accounts, the pairwise overlaps where most products sit, and the small centre where all three are satisfied.
Interactive diagram
Explore the labelled diagram, charts and maps for this topic in full study mode.
Free preview
This is the free notes preview
You're reading the free notes. Aimnova Pro unlocks the full study experience — and you can try it with your first topic free to keep:
- FlashcardsLock in vocabulary and key terms with spaced repetition.
- Practice questionsAnswer exam-style questions and get instant AI marking.
- Mock exams & past-paper vaultSit full mocks and see exactly how examiners award marks.
- Personalised study planA daily plan built around your exam date and weak areas.
| Account | Covers | The part students forget |
|---|---|---|
| People (social) | Users, the community round the factory, the supply chain, and everyone who repairs, cleans or disposes of it | The supply chain — two or three tiers away, and nobody in the design meeting has met them |
| Profit (economic) | The business surviving: margin, volume, warranty cost, and the cost of the product over its life | That profit is one of the three accounts, not the enemy — a design that loses money is never made |
| Planet (environmental) | Extraction, processing, transport, the use phase, and what is left at the end | The use phase for anything powered, and the end of life for everything else |
Profit is an account, not a villain: A design perfect for people and planet that loses money is never manufactured, so it helps nobody.
The version that ships is the one that balances all three — which is why a strong answer treats profit as a constraint to be met rather than as something to apologise for.
Know your predicted grade
Take timed mock exams and get detailed feedback on every answer. See exactly where you're losing marks.
The statement names conflict and compromise explicitly. Most products sit in one of the three PAIRWISE overlaps — good on two accounts and paying on the third — and naming which pair is a strong exam answer.
| Sits in | Example | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| People + profit, not planet | Cheap flights: affordable and employing many | The planet carries the emissions |
| People + planet, not profit | A chair engineered for fifty years | Nobody buys it at the price, so it is never made |
| Profit + planet, not people | Automation that cuts waste and doubles output | The town that lived on those jobs |
| All three — the centre | A concentrated refill: cheaper per use, same jobs, a twentieth of the shipping mass | Nobody — which is why it is worth designing for |
How the centre is usually reached: Not by optimising the existing product, but by changing what the product is.
Shipping concentrate instead of water, selling light instead of light fittings, renting a tool instead of selling one. When two accounts conflict irreconcilably, the way out is usually a different product.
How this is tested — explaining the TBL and the relationship between people, profit and planet. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — multiple choice
- Identify which account an effect falls on.
- Pick the pair a described product sits in.
Paper 2 — analysing a product
- Explain the TBL for a named product, including a conflict.
- Evaluate a decision against all three accounts.
The trap: Treating profit as the enemy. It is one of the three accounts, and a design that loses money is never made — so the balance is the answer, not the villain.
A cleaning-product company replaces its ready-mixed spray bottles with a concentrated refill and a reusable bottle. Explain this decision using the triple bottom line, including a conflict.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.