3BL’s media division TriplePundit is celebrating 20 years as a newsroom with a new multimedia campaign exploring the past, present and future of the corporate sustainability field.
3BL’s acquisition of TriplePundit (3p) in 2017 marked a formative moment in our journey to collaborate with the leading voices in responsible business. TriplePundit has helped propel 3BL forward, and we are proud to support them as they honor their legacy and look ahead to what’s coming next.
Shortly after the development of the “triple bottom line” framework, 3p launched as a side project of MBA candidates at Presidio School of Management in San Francisco, the first accredited business master’s program with a focus on sustainability. Fresh off media architecture stints at Mother Jones and Treehugger, Nick Aster founded the site to spread the word about the emerging concepts he was studying and recruited a few classmates to contribute. They described themselves as “critical optimists,” aiming to grow TriplePundit into a resource about the development of sustainable organizations, brands and workplace cultures.
Within a few years, it was one of the world’s most well-read websites on the subject of responsible business, with an audience of over 100,000 readers a month and bolstered by a vibrant community of professionals, advocates and curious minds. In keeping with a history of listening and responding to their community of readers and contributors, TriplePundit pivoted to solutions journalism in 2023, with a focus on telling the under-told stories of people and organizations making measurable progress on complex and seemingly intractable challenges.
Along the way, 3p’s journalists have seen it all — covering some of the most significant developments in the space as they happened, from the launch of pioneering corporate frameworks like Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan and Marks & Spencer’s Plan A, to the adoption of the Paris climate agreement and the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
“Having joined a few years shy of TriplePundit’s first decade, our 20th year as a newsroom is a milestone that means a lot to me, but the nature of the time we’re in — and the questions it inevitably brings forward about the measurable outcome of corporate sustainability — puts the occasion in a different perspective,” TriplePundit’s executive editor, Mary Mazzoni, wrote on the site this month. “In some areas, we’ve come a long way. In others, not so much.”
The Long View: 20 Years of Sustainability in Motion looks back on the pivotal moments, breakthrough technologies and disruptive ways of thinking that shaped the corporate sustainability field. Veteran journalists will take stock of what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong, and leaders, experts and advocates will share their projections and hopes for the future, while an accompanying social media campaign puts the progress and pitfalls into stunning visuals and invites our community to take part.
Check out the campaign here on TriplePundit’s brand new website, and follow along on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky and Instagram.
