Most businesses are judged on profit alone. The triple bottom line judges them on three numbers: People, Planet and Profit. Can you keep all three healthy at once?
You are taking charge of Wildgood, a British outdoor clothing brand. Over four big decisions you will shape what happens to the people who make and sell the clothes, the planet the company affects, and the profit that keeps the doors open.
Some firms really do run this way. The outdoor brand Patagonia publishes reports on its impact on people and the planet, not just its profit, and in 2022 its founder put the company into a trust so that profits not reinvested go to environmental causes. Whether that goes too far or not far enough is for you to judge. Your job here is simpler: run Wildgood, and decide how to weigh all three.
Vita leans over your new desk:
"Forty years I built this place on three numbers: how we treat People, what we do to the Planet, and the Profit that keeps the lights on. You are the new managing director now. Make the calls. We will see how they land."
Patagonia: founder Yvon Chouinard and family transferred ownership in September 2022 to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective, so that profits not reinvested in the business fund environmental work; the company has long given 1% of sales to environmental groups and published its first combined impact report in 2025 (sources: CNN Business, Fast Company, Patagonia Works, B Lab). Used here only as a neutral, real example of a business reporting across people, planet and profit. No endorsement or partnership is implied.
Wildgood, Vita Marsh and all staff and clients in this simulation are fictional. Figures shown are illustrative, not exact, and framing is neutral. Example data, as of June 2026.
The triple bottom line says a business should track three results, not one. People covers staff, suppliers and the community (the social result). Planet covers pollution, waste and resources used (the environmental result). Profit is the money the business makes (the economic result).
Pushing one number as high as possible is easy. Cut wages and use the cheapest, dirtiest materials and Profit jumps, for a while. The hard part, and the real skill, is weighing every decision against all three at once, and thinking past this year. A choice that looks brilliant on the profit line can quietly run up a bill on the other two.
This is why some firms, like Patagonia, report on people and the planet alongside money: they treat all three as part of staying in business for the long term. As you weigh a decision, ask who gains, who pays, and whether it still looks good in five years.
Is a decision that is great for Profit but poor for Planet acceptable, and for how long?
A short burst is one thing: a struggling firm might take a cheaper, dirtier option for a year to survive. But as a long-term plan it is weak. Pollution invites fines and rules, unhappy workers leave and quality drops, and customers move to cleaner rivals. The costs come back, often bigger.