The Triple Bottom Line Cost of our Fossil Fuel Addiction

Posted on 21. Nov, 2009 by in Triple Bottom Line

The mission of EcoPotential is to improve the quality of life through green building and sustainability education and practices. Within the DNA of sustainability is the Triple Bottom Line (TBL).  What is the Triple Bottom Line?  Simply put, it is the expansion of our traditional accounting systems to include the environment and people when calculating our return on investment (ROI). TBL accounting requires that we invest not only in financial, but environmental and social capital as well.  Often the TBL is referred to as Social, Economic and Environment or People, Profit and Planet.  Click  Triple Bottom Line to learn more.

When we continue to harvest and burn fossil fuels irresponsibly, we are focused only on the financial bottom line or economic return on investment. The social impacts of environmental degradation and dependency on foreign oil should be considered in the ROI calculation.

The documentary, Crude, considers the environmental and social impacts of our fossil fuel addiction.

The documentary is about a landmark case between 30,000 indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador and the oil giant, Chevron.
“The plaintiffs allege that the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments.” Of course, there is much debate on both sides of the lawsuit, as there will always be when large amounts of money are at stake.

Crude: Movie Trailer