Triple Bottom Line Thinking and the California Coastal Commission: Case Studies of Santa Cruz and Laguna Beach, CA

Abstract

The California Coastal Commission and the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) business model both use the same set of three main parameters to guide management. The Commission is mandated by the California Coastal Act of 1976, a state law that governs coastal zone management and passed to codify the efforts of a citizens’ initiative passed four years earlier. The Act explains that the state’s coastline should be managed to ensure that economic, social, and environmental needs of the state are met. Concurrently, the triple bottom line model originated in the mid-1990s from a United Nations sustainable development study and favors replacing a conventional method of measuring corporate performance using financial performance only (a single bottom line) with a performance model that measures community or social performance and environmental performance, as well as financial performance. This method would stress a more complete and accurate measurement of true corporate performance and its effects on society. Although constructed as a business model to be used by businesses, the triple bottom line works well for assessing the performance of a public agency like the Coastal Commission and its policy initiatives. Furthermore, because the Commission acts as the main regulator of coastal development for the state’s coastal zone management system, TBL is an effective framework for assessing the overall health of California’s coastal society and the coastal environment as used by its citizens. Two case studies are examined to show how the Coastal Commission considered environmental, social, and economic factors in policy actions in two coastal communities in California.