15: Critique of the Triple Bottom Line

The chapter includes a critique of Triple Bottom Line (3BL) sustainability development model (Profit-People-Planet), for reducing everything to a monological measurement of Profit as the only measurable, therefore only “real” bottom line. The consequence of the 3BL model is a shallow understanding of the “true” multidimensional nature of sustainability from an IWOK (Indigenous Ways-of-Knowing) view. For contribution to theory, I will develop a dialectic approach to how spiritual ecology is being opposed by Western spirituality, which separates People, Planet, and Profit, such as in 3BL. Finally, by way of practical application, I will discuss the formation of a School of Sustainability (SOS) at my university, as a dialectic of thesis (Western spirituality of separation) and antithesis (IWOK of spiritual ecology).