Written by Dr. Melik Peter Khoury
When John Elkington coined the term “Triple Bottom Line” in 1994, the world looked vastly different. Climate change was a distant concern for most business leaders, artificial intelligence existed primarily in science fiction, and global supply chains, while complex, had not yet revealed their profound vulnerability to systemic shocks. The elegant simplicity of measuring success through people, planet, and profit resonated with a generation of leaders seeking to move beyond pure shareholder capitalism.
Nearly three decades later, that framework feels increasingly inadequate for the challenges we face. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of our interconnected systems. Climate disasters now reshape entire industries overnight. Artificial intelligence promises both unprecedented opportunity and existential risk. Meanwhile, trust in institutions has eroded dramatically, with the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer showing that while business remains the most trusted institution globally at 62%, it operates in a world where institutional credibility has declined precipitously.
My article argues that while the Triple Bottom Line has served as a crucial stepping stone toward more holistic business thinking, we now need a more sophisticated framework to address the complexities of our time. Drawing on my experience transforming Unity Environmental University from a struggling institution of 600 students to a thriving environmental university with over 10,000 students, I propose the “Pentagonal Sustainability Framework,” which expands beyond people, planet, and profit to include performance and process as fundamental dimensions of organizational success and responsibility.
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