Unless a company systematically tracks its performance in authentic triple bottom line terms, it cannot possibly be sustainable. How could it be? Most of what matters will be hidden from view. You can’t manage what you can’t see!

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Generally Neglected Accounting Principles

Whereas in financial accounting, we have Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (or GAAP), in mainstream sustainability accounting, we have generally neglected principles instead. What, then, are the missing principles and how did they come to be that way? See this new article by CSO Director, Mark W. McElroy, in Directorship magazine, in which he explains the problem and how the world’s leading standards makers are largely responsible for it: Generally Neglected Accounting Principles

Calibrating the Carrying Capacities of Capitals

The increasing acceptance of Context-Based Sustainability and multiple capital accounting has led to growing interest in how the carrying capacities of capitals can be quantified, measured and reported. Having originally developed the concept in 2008, we are pleased to provide a short primer on the subject: Calibrating the Carrying Capacities of Capitals

What is Context-Based Sustainability?

If you’re new to Context-Based Sustainability (CBS) or just a little rusty on the subject, take a look at this short tutorial: The Essence of CBS, and also this Wikipedia page that explains CBS in more detail.

Context-Based Biodiversity Pilot Announced

May 5, 2021 – CSO is pleased to announce its collaboration with Cabot Creamery Cooperative, Manomet, r3.0 and others to help develop the world’s first context-based biodiversity metric for organizations. Other organizations interested in participating are encouraged to contact us. See here for a prospectus on how to get involved, and here for a background paper: A Context-Based Biodiversity Metric for Organizations

Time to Declare a Planetary Accounting Emergency!

As if the Planetary Climate and Coronavirus emergencies were not enough, we now have a Planetary Accounting Emergency to contend with – a chronic and widespread failure of performance accounting in the public and private domains. See this important article on the subject in the journal Solutions (Dec. 2020), co-authored by CSO Director, Mark W. McElroy: Time to Declare a Planetary Accounting Emergency

CSO Submits Comment Letter to IFRS Foundation

CSO is pleased to have submitted a comment letter to the IFRS Foundation on December 31, 2020 regarding its proposal to create a new Sustainability Standards Board (SSB) for sustainability reporting.

Finally, a Proposal for Non-Financial GAAP (GAAP-NF)

CSO is very pleased to put forward a pioneering proposal for the world’s first articulation of Generally Accepted (Non-Financial) Accounting Principles (GAAP-NF). A short presentation of our thinking on this topic can be found here.

CSO Creates Scorecard for Doughnut Economics

We are happy to announce that we have created a special implementation of the MultiCapital Scorecard for use in the pursuit of Doughnut Economics: Scorecarding Doughnut Economics. Economic developers, administrators and public policymakers now have an open-source performance accounting tool to turn to as they attempt to guide their economies towards Triple Bottom Line sustainability.

Report Released on New National Well-Being Index

After a 3-year embargo, we are pleased to announce the results of a pilot application of the Aggregate Capital Sufficiency (ACS) methodology, a tool created by CSO as an alternative to GDP for assessing the sustainability performance and well-being of whole countries. Initially applied on a project funded by Ernst & Young in 2017, ACS – a variant of the MultiCapital Scorecard – was successfully tested in four countries.

Say Hello to Certified Triple Bottom Line Organizations

First came Certified B Corps and Benefit Corporations, now come Certified TBL Orgs, a new credential for organizations whose managers systematically measure, manage and report their Triple Bottom Line (TBL) performance using context-based tools. We are very pleased to announce that we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Social Accountability International (SAI) to help develop and implement this program (see press release). 

CSO Launches World’s 1st Below-1.5°C Carbon Metric

December 22, 2018 – CSO is pleased to announce the release of its newly updated, well-below 1.5ºC Context-Based Carbon Metric for organizations, the first of its kind in the field of corporate sustainability – freely downloadable for end-user application here.

Introducing Certified Sustainability Zones

We are very pleased to announced the launch of our latest new initiative, Certified Sustainability Zones (CSZs), the first certification program to recognize whole populations (e.g., municipalities) for their commitments to sustainability and their cutting-edge use of context-based, Triple Bottom Line performance accounting tools.

MultiCapital Scorecard Endorsed for B Corps

B Lab has listed the MultiCapital Scorecard (MCS) as a 3rd-party standard for measuring and reporting the performance of B Corps. The MCS is the world’s first and only context-based Triple Bottom Line accounting system and is specifically adaptable to the reporting requirements of Benefit Corporation statutes in the U.S. and elsewhere.

CSO Work Inspires MultiCapital Scorecard

CSO is pleased to announce a major application of its R&D in Context-Based Sustainability to the development of the world’s first context-based integrated measurement, management and reporting method, the MultiCapital Scorecard (MCS). Grounded in the economic doctrine of multicapitalism, the MCS was jointly developed by CSO’s Executive Director, Mark McElroy, and Martin Thomas in the UK.

Introducing the Von Carlowitz Project

We and many others sometimes speak of the need for a kind of Manhattan Project in sustainability, a go for broke initiative aimed at transforming commerce from its currently unsustainable form to a new more tenable one. For us, multicapitalism provides exactly the sort of vision we need, and The Von Carlowitz Project can help us get there from here!