As a sustainable enterprise, Blue Wave measures its success by the triple bottom line: Financial profitability, ecological integrity, and social equity. Many descriptions of the triple bottom line use the three words people, planet and profit. This is what drives us to provide higher quality water (liquid and frozen) for people by improving distribution with an immediate impact on the planet and a significant potential for profit.

John Elkington, who coined the phrase ‘triple bottom line’ in 1994, later expanded upon it in his book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. At the root of this concept is the idea that companies should examine their ecological and social performance in addition to financial performance in evaluating what they accomplish.

Another idea in this context is the differentiation between shareholder and stakeholders. By definition, stakeholders include anyone affected by the actions of a company. Entities that measure themselves by the triple bottom line consider how well they are acting in the interest of these stakeholders. This does not replace or minimize the requirement to maximize shareholder profit for owners and strategic partners (in our case, Access H2O, convenience stores, university campuses and other organizations). Rather, shareholders are among the stakeholders for whom we focus on maximizing returns financially, ecologically and socially. Hence the three Ps: People, planet and profit.