Social Sustainability
Triple Top Line
Definition
The triple top line is a concept from William McDonough challenging the triple bottom line's accounting logic: rather than minimising negative impacts across economy, equity and ecology after design, it asks designers to generate value in all three dimensions from the top of the design process — products and systems conceived so that their very operation is beneficial (cradle to cradle: waste equals food, materials as nutrients). Fractal logic: value at every scale, not trade-offs at the bottom line.
References
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Overview
How it is used
The concept structures cradle-to-cradle design, regenerative development framing, and critiques of eco-efficiency in sustainable design education.
Why it matters
The triple top line is the design profession's answer to sustainability-as-damage-limitation: don't balance harm, design it out.