Arguably they might have a point, but let’s not be defeatist. There is inspiration in what some companies are doing and a number of international and local rating agency indexes to judge them by.

SUSTAINABILITY ASSET MANAGEMENT (SAM) TOGETHER with Dow Jones Indexes and STOXX runs a series of sustainability indexes that track the performance of companies seen to be industry leaders in sustainability. Only four South African companies are currently listed on the index – African Bank Investments, Investec, Nedbank Group and Bidvest Group.