ESG CONFERENCE HELD AT THE SANDTON CONVENTION CENTRE ON 1 and 2 OCTOBER 2024

By Alistair Collier | The Business of Golf Magazine

ESG CONFERENCE HELD AT THE SANDTON CONVENTION CENTRE ON 1 and 2 OCTOBER 2024

Given the increasing importance of ESG in day-to-day business, when I heard that Alistair Collier (AC) had attended the Environmental, Social, Governance Africa Conference & Expo in Johannesburg at the Sandton Convention Centre I asked him to share his key take-outs from the event.

BG: Was this your first visit to this conference, and if yes, had it changed from previous visits?

AC: No, I am a repeat attendee, and this event saw a gathering of many of the impactful and forward-thinking minds from across Africa, in respect of a drive to a more sustainable future.

The increase in the number of delegates from the previous ESG conference, must surely indicate that ESG has become a key consideration for many organisations.

The conference saw over 75 speakers from across Africa and was attended by over 450 delegates, and there is growing impetus for African-based ESG initiatives and solutions.

BG: How would you summarise the conference’s key purpose, and over how many days was it held?

AC: The conference was over two days, and provided a platform for industry pioneers and experts to discuss the common challenges associated with embedding ESG practices within organisations.

The core theme, “Sustainable Future Through Leadership,” emphasised the essential role that leaders play in ensuring that their organisations align with ESG principles, and integrate them into their overall strategy.

BG: How would you summarise the events on days 1 and 2?

AC: On a day 1, speakers discussed the importance of making a case for ESG in hard times, which included the importance of the ESG principles, and that in essence the “G” or governance is the driver for ESG.

One speaker emphasised that there are 32 references to “integrity” in the King IV Governance Principles, followed by “competence, reliability, accountability and transparency”, but that integrity is at the heart of it.
It was said that integrity is essentially living in accordance with your stated beliefs.

BG: Just to interject – isn’t that a little simplistic?
I offer the comment, because your stated beliefs, important though they may be to you, might not actually align with societal norms?

AC: Yes, I thought so too, and so a more complete definition might be: the quality of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values, while in ethical terms, integrity is regarded as being the honesty and truthfulness or earnestness of one’s actions.

From a corporate perspective, the speakers emphasised the importance of integrating those stated beliefs, or ESG principles, into the corporate business strategy.

One of the more informative sessions dealt with the role of the chief sustainability officer, and the move from compliance to meaningful impact.

Many of the speakers, who were representing major multinationals and large companies in South Africa, emphasised the point that ESG disclosure, and reporting, is evolving beyond a compliance practice to focusing on impact performance.

In addition, they opined that ESG is a journey where one would look deeper into one’s organisation from a materiality perspective. This would be to see what the burning issues are, coupled with understanding stakeholder engagement, not only on an internal level, but also external, by including and understanding what the perspective can be like when you are an observer on the outside and looking in.

Speakers also emphasised the importance of data underpinning ESG, but qualified this by saying that when anyone starts on the ESG journey, it is more than just the data, it is also about the people who actually collate and present the data. It is important that the data collators have the skills to understand the value in gathering that data, understanding how it can be interpreted, and then how it can be used to build the business case.

What was interesting, was that the session chair focused most of the questions from the panel members and delegates on the issue of where were organisations are in terms of moving from compliance to impact.

In this regard 22% of delegates indicated that their organisations were making progress towards impact.

Given this low number, it may have been more productive, if more time had been allocated during the session to understanding the role and the importance of appointing a chief sustainability officer within an organisation.

Yours in Sustainable Golf
JOHN COLLIER