Fourth bottom line

2020-07-07T19:02:52Z

Ingepanneels: The text implies it was Ayman Sawaf who coined the phrase in 2014 as per reference nr 1, together with Gabrielle Rowan (not referenced in-text). However this earlier article by Sohail Inayatullah would suggest others? As such more citations are needed.

{{Orphan|date=August 2016}}

'''Fourth Bottom Line''' is a concept extended from the [[Triple bottom line]]; instead of simply focusing on the 3 Ps: people, planet and profit, this concept involves extending to a fourth factor which not only has motivation for a business but also transcends to a humanistic value and beyond by factoring in terms such as "spirituality",<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> "ethics",<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = Environmental Ethics and Sustainability: A Casebook for Environmental Professionals|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jM7MBQAAQBAJ|publisher = CRC Press|date = 2013-07-29|isbn = 9781466584211|language = en|first = Hal|last = Taback|first2 = Ram|last2 = Ramanan}}</ref> "purpose",<ref name=":0" /> "culture", "compassion".<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title = Compassion as the fourth bottom line?|url = http://valuesbased.biz/2014/08/10/compassion/|website = The Values-Based Business|accessdate = 2015-09-21}}</ref>

==Triple Bottom Line==
{{main article|Triple bottom line}}

In traditional business accounting and common usage, the "[[bottom line]]" refers to either the "profit" or "loss", which is usually recorded at the very bottom line on a statement of revenue and expenses. Over the last 50 years, environmentalists and "social justice" advocates have struggled to bring a broader definition of bottom line into public consciousness by introducing [[full cost accounting]]. For example, if a corporation shows a monetary profit, but their asbestos mine causes thousands of deaths from asbestosis, and their copper mine pollutes a river, and the government ends up spending taxpayer money on health care and river clean-up, how do we perform a full societal [[cost benefit analysis]]? The triple bottom line adds two more "bottom lines”: social and environmental (ecological) concerns.<ref>[http://www.goethe.de/ges/umw/dos/nac/den/en3106180.htm Sustainability – From Principle To Practice] ''[[Goethe-Institut]]'', March 2008.</ref> With the ratification of the [[United Nations]] and [[ICLEI]] TBL standard for urban and community accounting in early 2007,<ref>[http://www.unep.org/delc/Portals/119/industrryRoleOfIndclean.pdf Enhancing the role of industry through for example, private-public partnerships], May 2011. [[United Nations Environment Programme]]</ref> this became the dominant approach to [[public sector]] full cost accounting. Similar UN standards apply to [[natural capital]] and [[human capital]] measurement to assist in measurements required by TBL, e.g. the EcoBudget standard for reporting [[ecological footprint]]. The TBL seems to be fairly widespread in South African media, as found in a 1990-2008 study of worldwide national newspapers.<ref>What the Papers Say: Trends in Sustainability'' [[Ralf Barkemeyer et al]]'', Spring 2009, Greenleaf Publishing.</ref>

==Concept of the Fourth Bottom Line==

On the whole, the multiple bottom lines are a concept that help clearly define parts in
the ecosystem. In addition to the above-mentioned triple bottom line's people, planet, and profit, there is a fourth component, ''purpose''.<ref name=":0" />

The term was allegedly first coined and introduced into mainstream usage by [[Ayman Sawaf] (2014) in a bid to factor in the return to one's ''spiritual self'' as an additional, fourth bottom line. Spirituality, according to Sawaf, is defined as your own unique relationship and partnership with God or The Divine. However, an earlier reference by Sohail Inayatullah (2005) makes reference to Spirituality as the fourth boots line in an article in ''Futures'' <ref>Futures, Vol 37, Issue 6, August 2005 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328704001557 </ref>. The sentiment remains.
It is great to make money and to have a positive impact on society, people, and the environment. It is also important to have a positive impact on one's own spiritual growth. The fourth bottom line lifts business activities to a sacred form. The fourth bottom line is measured by how much more loving, understanding, happy, joyful, in touch with their destiny, deeper relationship or partnership with god or higher powers the person has become, while performing their business responsibilities. And as these qualities are acquired they are infused back into one's own business activities<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title = Sacred Commerce: A Blueprint for a New Humanity (2nd Edition)|last = Sawaf|first = Ayman|publisher = EQ Enterprises|year = 2014|isbn = 978-0-9906987-0-8|location = |pages = 24–28|last2 = Gabrielle|first2 = Rowan}}</ref> This definition, thus, identified spirituality as the fourth bottom line by businesses that relate it with happiness of stakeholders.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Happiness-Spirituality as The Fourth Bottom Line {{!}} Triple Bottom Line Magazine|url = http://www.tbl.com.pk/happiness-spirituality-as-the-fourth-bottom-line/|website = www.tbl.com.pk|accessdate = 2015-09-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = T02-Fourth Bottom Line|url = https://futuristguy.wordpress.com/tutorial-02/|accessdate = 2015-09-21}}</ref> That is when the question of ''why'' one is doing business becomes relevant. The first bottom line deals with the ''what''. "What do I get?" is usually measured by money. The second and third bottom lines deal with the ''how''. "How will I do this?" factors in that the means of doing business now matters. The question of whether one is doing business with honesty, trust, character, integrity, without hurting people and the environment. The Fourth Bottom Line has to do with ''why''. To ask oneself, "Why am I doing this?" involves a deeper sense of [[self]] being nurtured by such a choice.<ref name=":1" /> With the fourth bottom line, commerce/business becomes a spiritual path. The context of spirituality as a fourth factor is further elaborated upon by Dr. Sohail Inayatullah, a professor at [[Tamkang University]] and [[Queensland University of Technology]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title = Spirituality as the fourth bottom line? {{!}} USC Research Bank - University of the Sunshine Coast|url = http://research.usc.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/usc:11504|website = research.usc.edu.au|accessdate = 2015-09-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = SPIRITUALITY AS THE FOURTH BOTTOM LINE|url = http://www.metafuture.org/Articles/spirituality_bottom_line.htm|website = www.metafuture.org|accessdate = 2015-09-21}}</ref>

The fourth bottom line is also conceptualized based on the fact that improving lives can be a factor valuable enough to rival other business objectives due to being a key motivating factor for any business to continue. The concept introduces the fourth bottom line as being a way to utilize core business principles to factor in compassion, for example by being compassionate to the customers and hence developing value for the business in an [[altruistic]] way.<ref name=":3" />

==See also==
*[[Double bottom line]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

===Further reading===
*''Social Audit - A Management Tool for Co-operative Working 1981'' by Freer Spreckley [http://www.locallivelihoods.com/cmsms/uploads/PDFs/Social%20Audit%20-%20A%20Management%20Tool.pdf Local Livelihoods Publications]
*''The Gaia Atlas of Green Economics'' (Gaia Future Series) [Paperback], by Paul Ekins, Anchor Books
*''Harvard Business Review on Corporate Responsibility'' by [[Harvard Business School Press]]
*''The Soul of a Business: Managing for Profit and the Common Good'' by Tom Chappell
*''Capitalism at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World's Most Difficult Problems'' by Professor Stuart L. Hart
*''The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success—and How You Can Too'' by Andrew W. Savitz and Karl Weber
*''The Sustainability Advantage: Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line (Conscientious Commerce)'' by Bob Willard, [[New Society Publishers]] {{ISBN|978-0-86571-451-9}}
*''SURF Framework for a Sustainable Economy'' by Marilyn Waite [http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jms/article/view/27508/18663 Journal of Management and Sustainability]

{{Social accountability|state=expanded}}

[[Category:Welfare economics]]
[[Category:Sustainable business]]
[[Category:Corporate social responsibility]]
[[Category:Accounting terminology]]
[[Category:Accountability]]

Wikipedia - User contributions [en]

Fourth bottom line