I recently attended a week-long workshop on green jobs, which was organised by the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the International Labour Organisation. Attendees came from different spheres of government, the private sector, and civil society. There was consensus from all that the ideals of the job economy were not going to be realised in our lifetime unless we re-energise all stakeholders towards the transition.

According to the South African Institute of International Affairs, green economies are defined as economic systems that take into account holistic remedial measures incorporating economic, environmental (including ecological) and social challenges that stop or reduce economic activities and growth.

South Africa has a myriad of policy frameworks to aid the transition into the green economy, which includes the National Development Plan (NDP) Green Economy Accord. It is required of all government entities to always benchmark their own planning processes against the NDP and the same is asked of the private sector.

The benefits are plenty, including job creation, improved resource efficiency, environmental health, product diversification and new business opportunities. Our challenge currently is low levels of requisite awareness from societies, businesses, government and all other stakeholders. It is clear that the green economy agenda, in order to succeed, needs proper understanding and buy-in of all citizens – at an individual level.

It becomes important that we simplify the language to the point that everybody appreciates that they do have an important role to play in transitioning SA towards a green economy. Every sector of business and of our society needs to sit back and think what role they need to play and put forward concrete plans to achieve the same.

We are experiencing low growth in the economy and are not making big strides in the job creation arena. Greening of the economy could prove to be the right tonic to get us back on track!