Bottomline3
(BL^3) calculates your organisation's Triple Bottom
Line Account, including a choice of
financial, social and
environmental indicators. The
methodology behind the software is based on years of
research and development by the Integrated
Sustainability Analysis team at Sydney University. The
result is a software package that produces a triple
bottom line analysis with a high level of validity.
The software can be used "out-of-the-box" by an
organisation to perform their own triple bottom line
analysis. The user is shielded from the complexity of
the calculations and statistical data required by a
simple to use interface than only requires allocation of
profit & loss figures and input of direct
environmental impacts.
Each
step in the data entry process can be completed by
selecting the appropriate item on the Tasks
Pane.
The general details that are entered for
your organisation include your industry category
and sector. The software uses this information
to match your organisation against other organisations
in a similar industry.
The next step is to enter your organisation's
expenditure and revenue items into the
software. You can enter these details manually, or
import them from a delimited text file. The system
allows you to exclude individual items if you wish, and
automatically calculates the difference between your
revenues and expenses.
The heart of the software is the allocation of
expenses and revenue to the appropriate sectors in the
national accounts. The software has a large base of
empirical data on the environmental impact of each
sector in the national accounts. By allocating against
these accounts, you are telling the software what level
of that environmental impact should be attributed to
your organisation.
Smaller
amounts can be left to be automatically estimated based
upon your industry. This speeds data entry, because only
material amounts need to be dealt with in the allocation
process. Allocation is also assisted by a "scaled
benchmark" for each of the sectors. This benchmark shows
you what the expected level of spending would be in a
particular sector for an organisation of your size in
your industry.
Once
you have allocated your expenditure and revenue, the
only thing left to do is to choose the indicators you
wish to report on. You may choose from a broad range of
Economic, Social and Environmental Indicators.
A
number of standard "indicator suites" makes indicator
setup quick and easy. The number of suites is growing
all the time, and includes:
- Balancing Act
TBL
- Global Ecological
Footprint
- Climate
Change
- Heavy
Metals
- The
Eco-Indicator
- LCA
You also have the option of creating your own suite
from over 1000 possible indicators. The choice is
yours. Change between indicator suites is simple,
allowing you to try various options at the click of a
mouse.
The
complexity of the calculations are completely hidden
behind the easy to use BL^3 interface. Click the
calculate button, and in under a minute you are
presented with a set of standard charts and tables.
These outputs may be easily customised and exported for
use in your own reports. Some examples of the reports
are shown below.
