In Pursuit of the Triple Bottom Line

Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farm, and Starbucks Coffee Company are three food and beverage companies that serve as role models to others in pursuit of the triple bottom line: all take into consideration economic, social, and environmental returns and have received public recognition for their success in all three areas. Representing three different corporate structures, they share a reputation of demonstrating that it is possible to do good and to do well simultaneously. The topic then turns to causality: do their social and environmental initiatives make them more profitable? Are their CSR initiatives enhancing their profits or are they doing well financially despite their commitment to social and environmental causes? At the end of the day, does Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) make good business sense?