Milton Segal, executive director of standards for the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica), says the KwaZulu-Natal floods have brought home the devastating economic impact of climate change and why businesses need to make sustainability front and centre of their operations as a matter of urgency.

“There's been an acknowledgment by boards, audit committees and risk committees that incorporating sustainability into their strategy, their functioning and their reporting needs to happen. The KwaZulu-Natal disaster has driven home the urgency of it happening sooner rather than later...