The era in which water could be treated as a guaranteed and uninterrupted utility has passed. Organisations that incorporate water into core ESG reporting demonstrate foresight, accountability and resilience within a constrained resource landscape.
The quality of sustainability reporting in South Africa has improved dramatically over the past decade, yet many companies still struggle to produce reports that are truly meaningful to their stakeholders. As sustainability disclosure requirements tighten, with the JSE now requiring ESG disclosures and mandatory climate reporting on the horizon, understanding what separates excellent sustainability reports from mediocre ones has never been more critical.
On December 19, 2025, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment published the draft National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) 2026 for public comment. Many were quick to scrutinise the targets; both the 2020 ones that were not met, and the new five year targets. We then asked ourselves, what ingredient is missing with the new NWMS? Why were we so far off from meeting the 2020 targets?We don’t think that the answer lies in an incredible innovation or new technology. In fact, we actually think that the biggest change lies in how waste sector stakeholders shift their thinking around the role of communication.
In sustainability work today, how we communicate is almost as important as what we do. In fact, almost every practice unfolds within a visually mediated world. Organisational work across sectors such as environmental management, education, business, local government and social development, increasingly depend on images and other media formats to convey meaning. Whether expressed through videography or sustainability reports, visual communication has become integral to how institutions articulate intent, demonstrate social responsibility and engage their audiences.