Big Owners Balance Triple Bottom Line Major companies now report on social and environmental as well as financial performance
Can construction embrace sustainability? Jim Lammie, director emeritus of Parsons Brinckerhoff, has charged the Construction Industry Institute to "develop best practices and innovative ideas" in the field. Sustainable development requires a change in ethical values and company culture, which he defined as "what you do and what your company does when no one is looking."
CIIs annual members event drew 500 major owners and contractors to Vancouver, B.C., July 27-29. Conference chairman J. Norman Lockington, technology vice president for Canadian steel maker Dofasco, Hamilton, Ontario, introduced sustainability as "the interdependence of economic success, social well-being and environmental protection, or the triple bottom line." He said leading businesses now report annually on social and environmental performance as well as their financial performance because "they know it provides a more complete measure of long-term value creation and strategic opportunity."