UNIDO / Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Demonstration Project
Background
In the latter part of the 1947 an organisation by the name General Agreement of Trade and Tariff (GA TT) was formed to negotiate an international trade agreement and to establish a permanent International Trade organisation. GATT began operations in January 1948 with a membership of 23 countries. By the year 1992 it had a membership of 96 countries of which three-quarter were developing countries. Major GATT agreements were negotiated in conferences, known as "Rounds". After the eighth round (The Uruguay Round) a resolution was adopted and GATT was renamed as The World Trade Organization (WTO). The first meeting of the WTO was held on 8th January 1995 in Singapore. One of the first proposals of the WTO was to introduce conditions on trade agreements. Two main conditions that were proposed to adopt were the Environment protection and Health and Safety of the workers at workplaces.
Trade Ministers from Asia opposed this proposal, at the first meeting of the WTO. They pointed out that there are two other international organisations namely; the United Nation Environmental Programme (UNEP) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) to look after the two conditions in the resolution. Therefore, they argued that the WTO should not include such conditions. Second attempt to pass the resolution in 1998 in Geneva too failed. The third meeting, which was held in Settle in 1999, ended abruptly due to the protest of various international civil organisations.
Failure to pass these resolutions paved the way for several new organisations to establish themselves in Europe and USA to develop schemes for voluntary reporting on the environmental and social issues.
Some oganisations such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which started in 1997, collaborated with UNEP. Another organisation, Social Accountability International adopted ILO conventions in the standards they published. Beside this some buyers started sending inspection teams to local organisations to check the condition prevailing in the local organisations.
Wherever they found certain shortcomings, such organisations were given time to remedy the situation. Therefore, the buyers through voluntary participation, are now achieving what the WTO could not achieve politically. In this context, if local exporting industries fail to keep up to the required standards of buyers, they will not succeed in the competitive global market. All these attempts are based on the opinion that Asian industrialists make undue profits with-out spending on pollution control and suppressing workers’ rights.
The TBL concept
Triple Bottom Line concept is a new thinking to overcome the above opinion by promoting industrialist to achieve financial viability while controlling the environmental pollution and promoting the social issues. John Elkinton (1977), a management consultant is the figurehead of this concept. This concept deals with an integrated approach of improving the performances of an organisation in relation to the three bottom-lines namely, financial, environmental and social. Through this concept, an organisation can improve the financial line by minimising waste generated in the production process and improving the working condition to have a satisfied work force who. will in turn give a better productivity to the organisation.
UNIDO assisted project
The UNIDO has taken a positive step by introducing this new concept to South Asian countries through their "Triple Bottom Line Demonstration Project in South Asian Countries"
Small and Medium Enterprise Developers (SMED) hosted the inauguration of this UNIDO project on 26 March 2001 at the FCCISL auditorium Mr. Nihal Abesekara, the chairman of the Project SMED and vice president of the FCCISL, chaired ceremony. Two experts from UNIDO, Mr. R. Luken and Rodney Staers, explained the concept and how it will be implemented in Sri Lanka and in other countries in South Asia. This inauguration session was followed by a three-day workshop to main the consultants from Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan who were assigned to handle the project in their respective countries.
The main purpose of the demonstration project is to implement the concept in few selected industries in each country and to develop an integrated indicator for three bottom lines for future comparison with the international benchmarks.
Implementation of the project in Sri Lanka
Implementation of the project in Sri Lanka was started in April 2001. With the consent of the management, project SMED is now introducing the TBL Concept in the following export oriented industries.
- Richard Pieris Natural Foam Ltd, EPZ, Biyagama.
- Orient Garments Ltd, # 78B, Mattegoda, Polgasowita.
- Marie de Classique Attire (Pvt) Ltd. # 1/ 12, 1′1 Lane, Saman Mawatha, Galawilawatta, Homagama.
- Ceylon Biscuit Ltd, P.O. Box 3, High Level Road, Makumbura, Pannipitiya.
- Oacianic Kinitters, # 4, Kandawala Mawatha, Rathmalana.
- Kandygs Handlooms (Exports) Ltd, # 25, Neelammahara Road, Maharagama.
- Richard Pieris Exports Ltd, # 40, Raja Mawatha, Ekala, JaEla.
With nearly 40% of the project work been completed some of the organisations are of the view that they are already making financial gains in implementing the TBL concept.
At the end of the project the results will be disseminated at a national seminar to be held in November 200 1. Thereafter SMED will extend its experiences to other industries that are keen to stabilise in the export business.
