The Multicapital Scorecard ─ Rethinking Organizational Performance

For decades a growing number of companies and other organizations have been asking how they can combine social and environmental responsibilities with their economic obligations. In other words, they want to create a triple bottom line (3BL), reflecting impact on people and planet as well as profit. Those interested in assessing 3BL have struggled with how to best measure the parts in meaningful ways.

An international standard framework for 3BL/integrated corporate reporting has emerged, bringing the parts together, but it fails to provide specific guidance on exactly how to meet the principles. Organizations have been left to figure that out on their own.

In this book, organizational sustainability performance experts Martin Thomas and Mark McElroy introduce the world’s most advanced triple-bottom-line (3BL) performance accounting method: The MultiCapital Scorecard. It is the first context-based integrated measurement, management, and reporting system that can help answer the questions all organizations should be asking themselves: How much is enough? And are we sustainable? The answers to these questions set internal performance standards.

This open-source scorecard provides an accessible, standardized methodology that complies with international standards for 3BL/integrated reporting. Whereas the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)address the external financial reporting needs of organizations, they apply only to the United States and are always complemented internally with relevant information for management’s decision-making. The MultiCapital Scorecard has been developed by the authors to help organizations around the world assess their impact on the vital natural, social, and economic capitals that together influence their 3BLs.

The authors describe how and why business is gradually shifting from a narrow focus on increasing the value of only one type of capital (economic) to managing its impacts on multiple types in an evenhanded way. They also offer detailed examples of how the MultiCapital Scorecard can be applied. And they discuss the issues that the scorecard raises for organizations truly exploring their overall impact.

The MultiCapital Scorecard is a comprehensive guidebook to this new and necessary performance measurement tool for the new economy.