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ESG – driving impact and sustainability

Abel Sakhau, Chief Sustainability Officer, Sanlam Group, South Africa, discusses the need for a paradigm shift in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices, arguing that they should be implemented on the ground, rather than merely discussed in corporate boardrooms.

“I think that what needs to change about the word ESG so that we can avoid greenwashing, is that it has to be practiced outside the boardroom.

“Because most of the activities are discussed inside the boardroom but when you go to where the impact is supposed to happen, you don’t see it.

‘”People use it as a branding tool, people use it to popularise their strategies, but at the end of the day it means nothing. Because when you look at the actual physical projects that are associated with the concept of ESG, which is supposed to be from an impact and sustainability side, you don’t see that evidence.

“We should remove it from the boardrooms and take it where it’s supposed to live in communities,” said Sakhau on the sideline of Africa’s Green Economy Summit (AGES).

Sakhau stressed the importance of real impact over greenwashing and highlighted the potential of innovative funding mechanisms such as impact investing and crowdfunding.

He suggested that these approaches can effectively drive sustainable development in Africa by focusing on local solutions to community issues, including job creation, women empowerment and poverty alleviation.

Africans investing in Africa just needs to be done on a much larger scale, in Sakhau’s opinion.