Economic development succeeds at the interface of people, place, and prosperity. Thus, incentive goals increasingly address social, environmental, and economic performance – what’s referred to as the triple bottom line. Today’s blog highlights a resource that can help organizations incorporate a triple bottom line (TBL) into incentive design and evaluation.

In a previous post we wrote about the Triple Bottom Line Tool commissioned by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The Triple Bottom Line Tool (TBL Tool) provides a standard definition and framework that can be used to assess and describe economic development alignment with triple bottom line goals. The framework is research based, industry vetted, and highly responsive to project and community context.

A new Practitioner’s Guide has been posted to the TBL Tool website, providing an accessible introduction to the concept along with triple bottom line goals and measures. Organizations can use this resource to help configure incentives for optimum results (smart design) and ensure that promises made are delivered upon (smart evaluation and accountability). The resource can be applied both to alternative incentives or traditional incentives.

Questions about the Practitioner’s Guide or economic development for triple bottom line performance can be directed to Janet Hammer, Founder of The Collaboratory and Project Director for EDA’s Triple Bottom Line Tool at janet@gocollaboratory.com.