Measuring the performance of and tradeoffs within the triple bottom line

ABSTRACT

In this article, we use the data of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) trucking industry to illustrate a new analysis framework based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) using the concept of the triple bottom line to show the internal tradeoffs among economic, environmental and social issues within individual Decision Making Unit (DMU). We evaluate the various efficiencies of each national trucking industry by comparing it to its peers and develop indices that allow us to investigate the internal tradeoffs among the three areas of the triple bottom line. These measures help us understand how each country can choose to emphasize certain inputs and outputs to increase efficiency. The framework can be extended to other applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainability
• triple bottom line
• data envelopment analysis

Acknowledgment

The first author thanks the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, for financial support (101-2628-E-009-009-MY3 and 104-2410-H-009 -026 -MY2).