You can’t turn on the TV, open a newspaper or browse the Internet without reading or hearing about how to make your home, business or community more sustainable. This is going to be an important topic from now on, and if you are not yet doing anything to make your operation more sustainable, it is time you start. Not because it is some radical left-wing, new-wave idea, but simply because it is good business. As our long-time contributor Peter Gourlay stresses in this month’s Offshore column, “Sustainable manufacturing is not a tree-hugging initiative.”

It is becoming increasingly important to focus on the “triple bottom line” of companies’ social, environmental and economic successes, commonly stated as “people, planet and profit.” It makes sense that companies that work to improve the impact they make environmentally and socially will, in turn, also become more economically successful.  Most organizations operate on a global scale in some way now, so it is important to see that your company’s actions don’t just impact your business; they have an effect on every link in your supply chain, which can stretch around the world and impact an endless number of communities.

So get going. This issue of Manufacturing Today could act as a guide to developing a stronger triple bottom line for your  business. Libby John’s news feature highlights the Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Program, which can help a typical manufacturing plant in cutting its energy bill by 10 percent, saving more than $2.5 million in the process, and the Offshore column gives examples of how some Maryland manufacturers have successfully embraced sustainable practices. Once you are doing well in your own community, W. Ted Revis of The Norelli Group explains how to establish a safe and profitable business overseas.

The success of business has always depended on the health of the financial bottom line, but improving the environmental and social aspects are nothing to ignore.