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Governance & ESG Reporting
Prove your ESG story – before someone questions it.
Investors, regulators and customers want disclosure they can trust. We help you set an ESG strategy, report against the right frameworks, and put governance in place that stands up to scrutiny – backed by one accountable ESG team.
Delivered with
in the Alternative Prosperity group.
The problem
Everyone wants your ESG data. Few of them agree on the format.
Reporting demands are multiplying — and a weak or inconsistent disclosure now carries real reputational and financing risk.
External
Disclosure is now expected
Investors, lenders and large customers ask for ESG data against frameworks you may not use yet.
Internal
You fear it won’t hold up
Data is scattered across teams and you’re not confident it would survive assurance.
Philosophical
Credibility over greenwashing
A report should reflect real performance — not marketing that invites a backlash.
ESG reporting shouldn’t require a PhD — or invite accusations you can’t answer. We make your disclosure credible and defensible.
The SolveSA approach
Strategy, framework, report – built on real data.
With deep ESG expertise in one accountable team, we define what’s material to your business, build a reporting framework that fits, and produce disclosure that satisfies investors and regulators. We connect it to your transformation and carbon data so the whole story is consistent — and audit-ready.
WHAT YOU GET
- A material, business-fit ESG strategy
- Reporting against recognised frameworks
- Governance that withstands scrutiny
- Audit-ready, investor-grade disclosure
What’s included
Services across ESG governance & reporting
- ESG strategy & roadmap
- Disclosure frameworks (GRI, IFRS S1 & S2, and JSE Sustainability and Climate Disclosure Guidance)
- Integrated reporting (Six Capitals framework – IIRC)
- ESG Governance structures & policies
- Board & committee advisory
- Assurance-readiness support
- Stakeholder engagement
- ESG data systems & controls
- Sustainability report writing
The process
How we work with you
1
Assess your ESG performance
We assess what’s material and where your ESG data and governance stand today.
2
Design the framework
A reporting structure and governance model that fit your business and your stakeholders.
3
Report & engage
Credible, audit-ready disclosure – and the engagement to back it up.
The outcome
From scattered data to a story that stands up.
BEFORE
- ESG data scattered and inconsistent
- Unsure which frameworks apply
- Exposed to greenwashing accusations
- Reactive, last-minute reporting
AFTER SOLVESA
- A single, credible ESG narrative
- Reporting against the right frameworks
- Governance that withstands scrutiny
- Investor and regulator confidence
Related solutions
Often paired with Governance & ESG
Transformation (B-BBEE)
Bring your social and transformation performance into the same story.
Social & Consumer Education
Evidence your social impact with measurable, reportable programmes.
Let’s talk
Make your ESG story impossible to poke holes in.
Book a discovery call – we’ll show you what’s material, which frameworks matter, and how to report with credibility.
ESG reporting, in South Africa
Which ESG reporting framework applies to a South African company?
No single one, which is the difficulty. King V governance disclosure is effectively mandatory for JSE-listed companies through the Listings Requirements. IFRS S1 and S2 are voluntary. The JSE’s own sustainability guidance is voluntary. Meanwhile GRI, the Integrated Reporting Framework and the SDGs remain the most-used frameworks in practice.
| Framework | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| King V | Governance disclosure required of listed companies via the Listings Requirements | Effective for financial years commencing on or after 1 January 2026. Thirteen principles, apply-and-explain |
| IFRS S1 & S2 (ISSB) | Voluntary | On a formal readiness track: CIPC Notice 6 of 2025, then the National Adoption Readiness Working Group established August 2026 |
| JSE Sustainability & Climate Disclosure Guidance | Voluntary | June 2022 versions remain operative; the ISSB-aligned update is on hold pending the national process |
| Integrated Reporting Framework | Voluntary, widely used | The usual South African delivery vehicle for sustainability information |
| GRI | Voluntary, widely used | Impact-materiality lens, sits closer to King V than to IFRS S1 |
| ISSA 5000 (assurance) | Adopted by IRBA | Applies to engagements on sustainability information for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026 |
Why do King V and IFRS S1 pull in different directions?
Materiality. King V works on systems value and double materiality — financial and impact, through a stakeholder-inclusive lens. IFRS S1 and S2 use single, financial materiality: what could affect cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital. A company applying both is running two lenses over one reporting suite.
The practical answer is to run one materiality assessment that can be cut both ways, rather than two parallel exercises producing two different lists. Doing it twice is how companies end up with an integrated report and a climate disclosure that quietly contradict each other.
Common questions
ESG reporting questions we get asked
Do we have to report under IFRS S1 and S2?
Not in South Africa, not yet. The Companies Act does not mandate them, no adoption date has been gazetted, and IRBA stated plainly in March 2026 that they remain voluntary here.
What exists is a readiness track. CIPC ran a consultation in January 2025, commissioned a regulatory impact assessment, and established a National Adoption Readiness Working Group in August 2026. The FSCA has signalled a climate-first, phased approach starting with large listed entities. None of that is a mandate, but the direction is not ambiguous.
If it is voluntary, why would we start now?
Because the binding constraint is data, and data takes years. A defensible emissions inventory, Scope 3 screening across fifteen categories and internal controls over sustainability information are not assembled in a reporting season.
There is also a market answer. In the national sentiment survey published in July 2025, only 17.9% of respondents were applying IFRS S1 and 16% IFRS S2, and just 28.4% felt ready for mandatory compliance. Starting when it becomes compulsory means starting behind.
What does the JSE actually require?
For sustainability, nothing. The JSE’s Sustainability Disclosure Guidance and Climate Change Disclosure Guidance, both June 2022, are explicitly voluntary — not comply-or-explain, and not in the Listings Requirements.
For governance, the Listings Requirements do require disclosure against King principles. So governance disclosure is mandatory for listed companies while climate disclosure is not, which is an asymmetry worth understanding before budgeting.
What changed with King V?
King V launched on 31 October 2025, with disclosure requirements effective for financial years commencing on or after 1 January 2026. It reduces King IV’s seventeen principles to thirteen, drops the sector supplements, adds explicit AI governance, and retains apply-and-explain.
It also brings a Disclosure Framework alongside the Code, Foundational Concepts and Glossary. For most boards the practical work is re-mapping existing disclosure against thirteen principles rather than seventeen.
Do we need our sustainability report assured?
Not by law. Sustainability assurance is not a legislative requirement in South Africa, and IRBA has said so directly.
What has changed is that a standard now exists. ISSA 5000 applies to engagements on sustainability information for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026. That shifts what a board can reasonably expect to be told about the reliability of its own numbers, whether or not it commissions assurance.
Where do most ESG reporting programmes fail?
In the data layer, not the writing. South African ESG reporting is generally well written on top of thin evidence, and that works until a lender, a large customer or an assurance provider asks how a number was derived.
The second failure is governance that exists on paper. Policy that never reaches operational decision-making produces a strong governance section and no change in the business, which is exactly what a materiality-based framework is designed to expose.