The Triple Bottom Line and Progress toward Ecological Sustainable Development: Australia’s Coal Mining Industry as a Case Study

Aleta Lederwasch and Pierre Mukheibir
Additional contact information
Aleta Lederwasch: Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, 235 Jones St, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Pierre Mukheibir: Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, 235 Jones St, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia

Resources, 2013, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: A common goal shared by the world is to achieve well-being for the planet—for this generation and generations to come. The world formalized this common goal when it accepted the concept of ecological sustainable development (ESD) at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and through the adoption of the United Nation’s Agenda 21. This paper explores the capacity of New South Wales’ planning system to deliver on this shared goal. It does this through an evaluation of the triple bottom line (TBL), as an impact assessment framework, in the context of coal mine development proposals. The evaluation is performed against ESD principles, and draws from the experience of the authors in reviewing a recent coalmine expansion application in New South Wales, Australia. During this review the authors encountered opportunities to improve the impact assessment process. The opportunities identified relate to the process of robust and consistent drawing of impact boundaries and selection of scales (geographic and temporal), in which to conduct an impact assessment. The findings are significant, as they offer a path toward greater discussion around, and realization of, opportunities for achieving development in each TBL domain, i.e. , social, environmental and economic.

Keywords: triple bottom line; ecological sustainable development; mining; mineral resources; environmental impact assessment; social impact assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/2/1/26/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/2/1/26/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jresou:v:2:y:2013:i:1:p:26-38:d:24423

Access Statistics for this article

Resources is currently edited by Ms. Donchian Ma

More articles in Resources from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().