It's difficult to make decisions that simultaneously consider each of the elements of the 'triple bottom line' — the social, financial and environmental soundness necessary for sustainability. Some decisions may be economically sound, but are implemented at the expense of the environment or the well-being of the people involved. Other decisions may be environmentally sound, but economically unfeasible or harmful to human welfare. Many of our decisions can have undesirable or sometimes even disastrous results because we are unable to consider and manage for all three aspects. While not every decision can benefit all three aspects of the triple bottom line everywhere all the time, our actions and decisions cannot take us below a threshold for any of these aspects over time.

Fortunately, Holistic Management provides us with several context checks, or filters, to help ensure our decisions are socially, environmentally, and economically sound.

"Context Checks" are where the rubber meets the road. These checking questions help us sift through the many factors and complex variables to get to the heart of the matter.