Conducting “Triple Bottom Line” AnalysisWithout Getting Your Economics Degree

Many utilities are trying to implement better decision-making processes for selecting the most beneficial capital projects to implement in any given year. Utilities desire to ensure that their capital projects help to advance the utilities' strategic priorities to the greatest extent possible. Further, many utilities are trying to make better capital project decisions providing social and environmental benefits, even in light of increased financial needs and constraints. Incorporating triple bottom line and risk management considerations into decision-making and capital project prioritization processes can be a challenge for many utilities without appropriate resources. Quantifying social and economic benefits for which there are no market prices and that are, in fact, intrinsically non-marketable is extremely difficult. Qualitative approaches can be used as an alternative to help the decision-making process.