Responsible Business Conversations with Namhla Saba

Namhla Saba in this discusses the objectives of ESG and how it is applicable to business leaders and their day to day activities. It is becoming increasingly crucial for business leaders to understand ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and its day-to-day application to business operations. Although ESG started as purely a risk management tool used by investors, it is swiftly moving into the core of business operations. It endeavours to encourage businesses to adopt sustainable business practices that 
- strengthen long-term ROI,  
- protect and preserve the environment,
 - unlock symbiotic relationships with communities and 
- build strong business ethics throughout the organisation.

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Namhla Saba and co-host Renoud Willemsen unpack "GREENWASHING" as it relates to business. We discuss

• What is greenwashing
• How greenwashing manifests its self
• The current incoming regulations and how they can affect business as usual
• How business can avoid the greenwashing trap 

For the past two years, global regulators have been adopting laws that will heavily fine organisations found guilty of intentionally or unintentionally misleading consumers in their labelling, advertising and promotions."Greenwashing is regarded as false, unsubstantiated claims that are more marketing spin than transparent, traceable credentials".

 A 2022 study conducted by The Harris Poll for Google Clouds and reported by Axios noted that 58% of 1,491 “C-suite or VP-level executives at global corporations admitted their companies have engaged in some form of greenwashing. 

Understanding the different formats in which greenwashing manifests itself will allow you as business leaders to make informed decisions and create processes within the organisation that ensures greenwashing is avoided Terra Marketing in 2007 published the 7 ways organisations can avoid unintentional greenwashing

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Namhla Saba discusses impact measurement for SDG signed financing, with Reinoud Willemsen a partner at Embedding Impact. Approximately $3trillion-$4trillion are required per year to meet the SDG agenda. However, we understand that financing is an impact enabler; it does not always drive real change in communities. Hence understanding the importance of the impact value chain from deal-making to monitoring and review is essential to complement and support the impact driven by the financed projects and investments.

The discussion tackles the following questions, in an endeavour to equip investors make better-informed decisions about their investments:
- What should investors look for in the prospectus as it relates to the impact value chain?
- What is the impact value chain?
- What are the advantages of incorporating impact at the beginning of deal making?
- What can the investors use the impact reports for?

If you have any further queries or suggestions of topics you'd like us to pursue, contact us at [email protected]

In this episode, Namhla Saba (MD of Integrated Thinking Solutions),  interviews Zintle Raziya the founder of Igniting Humanity who is a  Mandela Washington Fellow and One Young World delegate and has been selected as a representative for South Africa to receive an award as a New Leader for Development for the international organization Crans Montana Forum.  

Youth unemployment is one of South Africa's stubborn significant challenges, we discuss the benefits and opportunities in effectively alleviating youth unemployment  through the demand led approach, inclusive growth and co-creation. 

In this episode we discuss 

• her vested interest and experience in supporting inclusive growth, economic and social justice, and delivering youth employability initiatives in a socially and environmentally responsible manner, to create shared value.  
• Igniting Humanity the NPC and its core objectives around youth development
• the merits of the  "demand led approach" to Youth employment and how it fosters youth employability by setting youth up for national and global work opportunities
• the importance of co-creation between the private sector and communities  for social impact driven imperatives

For more information or request for topic discussion email [email protected]
Find Igniting Humanity at www.ignitinghumanity.co.za

The host, Namhla Saba, brings awareness to investors who want to understand what and how their investments, managed by asset managers and investment companies, contribute to sustainability.  This enables investors to understand better the contribution they themselves are ultimately making to sustainability. This episode also helps investors have clarity of their investment companies ESG strategies.

Namhla unpacks some of the predominantly used sustainable finance strategies by financial institutions and investment companies in their quest to contribute to social, environmental or economic sustainability. The host unpacks how these different strategies contribute to meeting the SDG's.

This episode is as follows:
03:36- 10:00 Recap on the core objectives of sustainability
10:01-30:01 Sustainable Finance Strategies used by Investment Companies as they             contribute to sustainability

For any improvement suggestions and topic requests you'd like us to discuss for you, email us at [email protected]

In episode 1, Namhla Saba, the host, spends the first 11 minutes articulating the purpose and contextual background of the podcast.  The remainder of episode 1, Namhla unpacks the “sustainable development” definition as the initial building block to gaining understanding of the sustainable development universe. She repackages the definition  in such a manner that it becomes a generic framework for listeners to use and  filter subsequent topics. 

This podcast of unpacking “sustainable development” definition answers the following questions?

 -what is “sustainable development”  aiming to achieve and why?
 -why is it essential  for business, asset managers, institutional investors, financial institutions?
 -what role can and should individuals play in, holding brands accountable?