Quadruple bottom line and its application to I.T.

C limited
21600684
INTRODUCTION: the objective of this paper is to analyze the concept of sustainability and quadruple bottom line and how
both are inter linked together. This paper explains about sustainability and why is this new norm in
modern business and what are the different components of sustainability.
Quadruple bottom line states about addition of fourth demonian that is culture from people planet and
profit and explains how all this component are work together and each component is dependent on each
other.
The paper then finds the common similarity between sustainability and quadruple bottom-line and how
these components are brought in to practice.
The paper then states about the different author views on sustainability and quadruple bottom line in the
context of their case study and research.
The paper then states about the company ITC LTD how they incorporate the QBL concept in to their firm
and looks in to it different welfare scheme and its economic health.
it later states what more the company can do to incorporate QBL concept in more holistic way.
Sustainability:sustainability is a sustainable growth of a firm without causing an adverse effect on environment and its
natural resources by integrating economic, social and environmental outcomes.(What is business
sustainability? - Definition from WhatIs.com, n.d.). a sustainable business satisfy the consumer and
customer needs along with fulfilling its social and environmental responsibilities.
Characteristics of a sustainable firm are 1) a firm, which is highly compliant to the environmental regulations
2) understanding the needs and taking care of its employees and communities.
3) It strives to meet the quadruple bottom line.
4) Maintain its economic growth so it can afford to fulfill needs of social and environment.(Sneirson,
2008)
THREE key drivers of sustainability are :1

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environmental pollution: - due to climate change and rise in earths temperature, it has resulted in floods
as well as droughts, which cause huge damage to property and lives.
Unemployment: - due to un-employment in a community, it may suffer from poverty and high rate of
crime.
Erosion of culture: - due to foreign influence and tourism, local culture and its traditions get affected.
(Sneirson, 2008)
Quadruple bottom-line:Quadruple bottom-line is an concept that acknowledges firms responsibility of combining of economic,
social and environmental performance along with being sensitive towards culture of its surrounding and
customers. culture is the fourth dimension adding in the triple bottom line.(Bendell & Kearins, 2005)

The 4Ps of Quadruple bottom line are: 1) profit

2) planet
3) people
4) purpose
1) Profit: - it focuses on economic performance of the firm itself because its performance affects on the
performance of firms social and environmental responsibilities.
2) People: - being generous to its employees and being responsible to the surrounding community threw
eradicating unemployment and providing education.
3) Planet: - using renewable resources and minimizing environmental pollutant like greenhouse gas by
planting more trees.(Sneirson, 2008)
4)Culture :- firm is expected to respect the language culture and belief of its customers and employee for
example :- packaging and marketing its product to customers in their local language.

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Link between sustainability and quadruple bottom-line :both sustainability and quadruple bottom line consist of the 4ps that is :-1) people (social)
2)profit (economic)
3)planet (environmental)
4)purpose (cultural)
1) profit :- both in quadruple bottom-line and sustainability economic performance of the company . They
both strive to produce goods and services to secure long-term economic performance of the corporation.
Economic sustainability is important in both sustainable business and the company that follows quadruple
bottom-line because if economic sustainability is affected then the company will not be able to invest in
its economic and social initiatives. This will affect both people and planet.(Bendell & Kearins, 2005)

2) people: - Both sustainability and quadruple bottom-line focuses on social issues of the people who are
working with them as an employee and as well as to the people in the community where they operate. For
example:- Both sustainable business practice and quadruple bottom-line firms focuses on their employee
welfare by giving them additional benefits and decent salary. The firm also recruits and train large
number of their workforce from local community where they operate hence reducing unemployment in
their community they both invest in other social initiatives like opening education -institution for the local
community and providing medical facilities ect.
3) Planet: - both sustainable business and firms that follow quadruple bottom-line focus on maintaining
high environmental regulation and tries to reduce waste and pollution with innovative techniques for
example I.T.C LTD added 29300 hectors of plantation during 2014-15 under social and farm forestry
initiatives with total plantation of 1,93,072hecters of plantation till date. They also limit their industrial
air pollution by utilizing biomass fuel in their paper and stationary business(Bendell & Kearins, 2005).
4) Purpose:- in both sustainability and quadruple bottom line focuses on persevering and being sensitive
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towards culture for example taking welfare initiatives for indiginus people like vocational training to
tribals by ITC LTD and they help them to gain skills so they can be employed in thir firm or any other
firm.(Bendell & Kearins, 2005)

Authors views on quadruple bottom-line and sustainability :one of the authors for sustainability was on kiwi grow initiative that enacted new Zealand local
government act 2002 required local government to take a long term view on human sustainability such
as social economic cultural and environmental. kiwigrow was an accreditation system of local
communities on the basis of sustainability index it measured sustainability health on basis of
community:- people with in community contributing to social initiative threw paid or unpaid activities
economic :- business positively contribute to the economy threw economic and community welfare and
produce minimum waste and pollution.
Environmental: - providing clean water storage and minimizing use of weeds and pesticide encouraging
recycling lifestyle.
cultural :- taking care of indigenous population by providing subsidized housing and education like the
maori population in their locality and provide various social program targetd for their welfare.
the authors states that the community accreditation system helps in accountability more efficiently it can
be applied to every stage of organization. it can be develop business units organization community teams
and groups it helps in thinking creatively and thinking about the grassroots level issues beyond
organization sustainability can be used from house hold to neighborhood, cities and regions.(Luckman,
2006)

current generation nonprofit housing were carried by government or NGO by giving affordable housing
to lower income households and constructing them in a very environmental friendly manner and
providing below market interest loans and providing green building designs.
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the author states that nonprofit housing try to meet all component of quadruple bottom line and state and
local government are in better position to meet the demand of nonprofit housing to the population.(Bratt,
2012)

I.T.C LIMITED (ITC - Sustainability in Action | Corporate Sustainability, n.d.) :-

I.T.C is an Indian conglomerate which is headquartered in Kolkata, west Bengal. Its diversified business
in to five groups such as - fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), hotels, paperboard and packaging, agree
business & information technology.(ITC Ltd - FMCG, Hotels, Paperboards & Packaging, Agri-business
and IT, n.d.)
it has 26000 employees.(ITC - Sustainability in Action | Corporate Sustainability, n.d.)
In 1910, I.T.C was known as imperial tobacco company ltd, which was changed in to I.T.C ltd in 2001.
I.T.C limited has received various awards for its social program and there welfare initiative has changed
lives of various families.
I.T.C limited is known to incorporate quadruple bottem line in a very holistic way.

Economic performance :-

Net Revenue (crore ):- 21,168(2010-11), 24,798(2011-12), 29,606(2012-13) ,32,883(2013-14)

36,083(2014-15).(sustainability-report-2015.pdf, n.d.),(ITC - Sustainability in Action | Corporate
Sustainability, n.d.)

it has 26000 employees.(ITC - Sustainability in Action | Corporate Sustainability, n.d.)

Social program:-

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ITC's Primary Education programme :- it is aimed to provide children from poor family, access
to education with quality education and more attendance of children . Over 4,53,000 children have
benefitted from this programme. In the third quarter of 2015-16 , thus taking the total number of
government primary schools covered till date to 1,242. (sustainability-report-2015.pdf,

n.d.)

Skilling & Vocational Training:As there is unavailability of skilled man and the Government's efforts to promote vocational education
and training, ITC's Vocational Training helps in building and upgrading skills of unskilled youth to better
meet the growing needs of the job market. 2593 students were admitted for training .Of the total students
enrolled, (1,322) completed training and 472 students were provided placement. The students

(Corporate Social Responsibility, n.d.)

Health & Sanitation:-

ITC invested in implementing public health through multiple routes. To eradicate open
defecation and reduce water-borne diseases, 8, 353 individual household toilets have been
constructed till date.
In areas where there is an water quality issues, 19 plants providing safe drinking water to about
28000 village households are being provided in the state of Andhra Pradesh. (ITC Sustainability in Action | Corporate Sustainability, n.d.)
(ITC - Sustainability in Action | Corporate Sustainability, n.d.)
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ITC's sustainable agriculture:- This course tries to introduce new technology and knowhow
in the field of agriculture this program educates farmers about different agricultural practices and
increases awareness about optimal use of water and manure for farm so they can reduce the cost
of production .

In 2015-16, 194 farmer schools were functional that educated about different types of agropractices for more than 5,000 farmers through 1,578 demonstration plots cumulatively covering
18,935 hectares under different crops till date.

(ITC - Sustainability in Action | Corporate Sustainability, n.d.)

Conclusion:although the company does a lot of social initiatives but the company is short on
the environmental and waste management issues it does not work effectively to
reduce the industrial waste and pollutants in the atmosphere and does not
effectively promotes recycling lifestyle with in its organization. The company can
focuses more on these areas to cover quadruple bottom line in more holistic way.

Bibliography:Bendell, J., & Kearins, K. (2005). The political bottom line: the emerging
dimension to corporate responsibility for sustainable development. Business
Strategy and the Environment, 14(6), 372383.

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Bratt, R. G. (2012). The quadruple bottom line and nonprofit housing organizations
in the United States. Housing Studies, 27(4), 438456.
Corporate Social Responsibility. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2016, from
http://www.itcportal.com/sustainability/corporate-social-responsibility.aspx
ITC Ltd - FMCG, Hotels, Paperboards & Packaging, Agri-business and IT. (n.d.).
Retrieved March 25, 2016, from http://www.itcportal.com/
ITC - Sustainability in Action | Corporate Sustainability. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25,
2016, from http://www.itcportal.com/sustainability/
Luckman, P. G. (2006). KiwiGrowa new approach to sustainable development
reporting. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 13(4), 261
271.
Sneirson, J. F. (2008). Green is Good: Sustainability, Profitability, and a New
Paradigm for Corporate Governance (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. ID 1276925).
Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. Retrieved from
http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1276925
sustainability-report-2015.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.itcportal.com/sustainability/sustainability-report2015/sustainability-report-2015.pdf
What is business sustainability? - Definition from WhatIs.com. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 25, 2016, from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/businesssustainability