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As per Elkington (1998), the tool is the intersection of environmental, social, and economic performance that is a powerful means for an organization to convey about sustainability.
The tool can help explicitly directing the managers to identify the activities that can improve the performance of the economic situation and direct the avoidance of environmental and social activities that are outside the intersection.
According to Reichel Oczyp (2011, p.52), the triple performance line concept is one of the foundations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and is a paradigm of sustainable development, based on the balance between economics, ecology, and ethics dimensions but Hindle (2008) argued that as per Elkington’s concept, the companies should have three different bottom lines where one is for the “corporate profit”, the second one is for “people account” and the third one is company’s “planet” account.
Whereas Krajnc and Glavic(2005) extended the definition and explained that the triple bottom line is “the creation of goods and services using processes and systems that are non-polluting, conserving energy and natural resources, economically viable, safe and healthy for employees, communities, and consumers, socially and creatively rewarding for all working people.”
Another explanation has been provided by Andrew Savitz (2006) that the triple bottom line “captures the essence of sustainability by measuring the impact of an organization’s activities on the world… including both its profitability and shareholder values and its social, human, and environmental capital.”
As we can see through all the arguments, the common goal for all the explanations is sustainable development.