Students and teachers explore running a social enterprise that makes raincoats.

Multiple Bottom Lines can be used for exploring different decisions a school council might be considering. The columns can be different interest groups:

If the school council wants to make a decision it can use the multiple bottom lines as a way of looking at how the different groups will respond to it.

For example if the school council wants to lobby the senior staff to provide lockers for them. The school council and students might want lockers so they can store stuff without carrying it around all the time, but there are issues of cost, position, maintenance, security. One school got rid of its lockers as they became a focus for vandalism and stealing.

Another example might be the food provided on site. If the senior staff and govenors have a policy of only supplying healthy food, and the students want a wider choice and the school council wants to run a tuckshop to raise money…

Doing a bottom line analysis allows for looking at issues from different perspectives, and how different stakeholders see the success of an idea. It leads onto looking for resolutions that can satisfy all stakeholders.