The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) has announced plans to enhance its focus by establishing a new sustainability business unit to drive sustainable growth of the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and external services for the infrastructure delivery programmes, which include operations in the rest of Africa.

The unit will be headed by a newly appointed chief sustainability officer at executive level.

As a player with a global outlook, the CDC seeks to position itself in a manner that provides it with the agility to respond to complex global challenges and opportunities as they evolve and sees sustainability as one of the key focus areas.

The CDC notes that global factors force companies to act, retain, regain or sustain their competitive advantages for long-term survival – a factor which has helped persuade the CDC to embark on this important journey to realign itself.

The global sustainable development agenda, embodied in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is affecting strategic decisions and operations of businesses around the world.

These are complemented by the South African government’s response following the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change by the Minister of Environmental Affairs in New York in 2016.

South Africa’s Presidency has established the Presidential Climate Change Coordinating Commission to coordinate and oversee the just transition towards a low-carbon, inclusive, climate change-resilient economy and society working towards a net-zero economy by 2050.

Further, the CDC notes that the Presidency has also identified hyper-scaling of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment to support social and green economy objectives as one of the five big frontier investments for South Africa.

Therefore, as a company that is in the business of enabling investments, implementing infrastructure development solutions and facilitating integration with other African countries that are part of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the CDC says it has to integrate its approach and align to this agenda.

Important to this alignment, the CDC says, is the ability to anticipate and develop solutions that respond to the global environment and the evolving needs of its investors and clients while ensuring innovation and continuous improvement.

CDC corporate services executive manager Bonginkosi Mthembu says the newly established sustainability business unit will focus on the organisation’s values and governance model and embrace the linkage between organisational strategy and its sustainability strategy.

“Moreover, the CDC’s ESG will be incorporated into corporate purpose, strategy, goals and remuneration of employees in line with the King Report on Governance for South Africa, Principle 3,” he adds.

In addition, the King Code for Responsible Investing in South Africa formally encourages institutional investors to integrate sustainability issues, such as ESG, into their investment decisions.

As a result, Mthembu says, the CDC takes ESG very seriously as it has a significant impact on investor sentiments and on its ability to grow the number and value of investors in the Coega SEZ.

“Sustainability will continue to be key to the CDC’s business, and success in this area will enable the organisation to make a significant impact in the economy in line with its vision of being a leading catalyst for championing socioeconomic development.

“We appreciate that today’s businesses deal with complex challenges of social, environmental, market and technological trends, which require sophisticated, sustainability-based management solutions that go beyond the single view of focusing on projects but on ensuring that sustainability is embedded in all elements of the value chain,” he concludes.