Cover Story: Belinda Carreira CA(SA) – Making mobility matter

PICTURE THIS. You’re a farmer, struggling to produce crops without a steady water supply. That’s not your only challenge, though: when you are able to produce a good harvest, it’s a battle to get your fruit and veg to the market.

Creating the right conditions for sustainability – by building a dam close to the farm, to channel rainwater – could definitely help, says Belinda. But what if you went one step further, going beyond sustainability, to offer regeneration? Belinda explains what this would look like: It starts by linking the dam to an irrigation system on the farm. Sustainability is ensured by harnessing AI to, for example, make sure that the system works only at specified times, preventing evaporation of the precious water. Next, you help the farmer access markets by connecting them with an app that links to a logistics company that uses low-carbon transport solutions. Finally, the app could also connect the farmer to consumers – so, while the farmer benefits from market access and more stable income and the environment is looked after through water and transport efficiencies, communities also benefit from access to nutritious food. This is the shift from sustainability to regeneration. Sustainability makes the system work, ensuring the farm has water and can operate properly, while regeneration connects the system end to end so that it gives back more than it takes in a commercially viable way.

THINKING SMART

This kind of scenario might sound like an ideal, but it’s perfectly plausible, says Belinda. It’s simply a matter of thinking smart and using the resources that we have in a manner that allows us to create more connected systems. ‘The reality is that we’re never going to stop consuming, or extracting. And we shouldn’t. We need to extract resources from the earth, and we need people and energy for our organisations to operate. At the same time, we need to consume to live comfortable lives. In fact, consumption will increase as living conditions improve and inequality is addressed, including as people move into better housing.’

If that sounds like a counterintuitive observation, coming from someone who has dedicated her life to sustainability, Belinda has added a caveat: ‘We need to start making sure that sustainability is built into every aspect of operations. For instance, by applying circular economy principles to the designing of processes and products, we can prevent waste from being created in the first place and ensure resources are reused, repurposed or recycled. Done properly, the system becomes more abundant, not depleted.’ SustainableDNA is a case in point, as it has a zero-waste policy in place that applies these principles.

How did Belinda’s concept of sustainability evolve to this level? It all starts with her family, she explains: ‘Values were very important to my parents. They raised us to look for ways we could help others.’ Belinda never grew out of this mindset; in fact, it amplified as she advanced along her professional path.

Although Belinda never expected to fall in love with accounting (having chosen the profession on the advice of her father, who was also a CA), she proved to have a natural aptitude for it. She was recognised as one of Deloitte’s top-rated auditors during her articles, with her drive and insistence on excellence seeing her selected for international assignments. That’s how her passion for the environment came about: during her travels, she was astounded by the beauty of the world and moved to do what she could to protect it.

Belinda found a channel to do just this when she attended FinBiz 2030 in 2020, an event which brought her into contact with members of One Young World. The serendipitous connection with others who shared her enthusiasm for sustainability led to the establishment of her first platform: #SustainableSA, a project to help South Africa achieve the SDGs. The initiative was sponsored by SAICA and published on its platform, marking her formal entry into the domain.

This built on a foundation she had already established in 2018 when she founded WELL, a company focused on employee health and wellbeing. This work was important to Belinda, since she had personally experienced burnout, and reflected a long-standing commitment to supporting people through various initiatives and mentorship.

‘#SustainableSA made it possible for me to connect all the dots,’ she explains. ‘I had always been focused on people, and my background as a CA meant I was also addressing financial sustainability. The SDGs then formally brought in the environmental dimension, enabling me to do this work in a more structured and impactful way.’

The next step? The establishment of SustainableDNA. Belinda says that, while her work with WELL focused on employee health and wellbeing, she was eager to expand this work into a broader sustainability focus, incorporating environmental and financial dimensions in a more strategic way.

SUSTAINABILITY AS A DIFFERENTIATOR

This means that, since 2020, Belinda has been working to make CEOs realise that sustainability is not a tick-box exercise or something that should be addressed purely as a matter of compliance. Her goal is to help them see it as something that is embedded in every aspect of operations, and she does this by targeting several different areas, from developing organisational strategy rooted in sustainability to training (Belinda believes that education is the critical starting point for any sustainability-related initiative), as well as reporting. The company also provides software to guide clients’ approach.

‘We help companies harness sustainability as a differentiator,’ Belinda notes, ‘and we do this by shifting the focus: rather than viewing it as something that can be driven by implementing fragmented projects, it becomes the foundation on which the company is built.’ The objective is to make sure that sustainability is considered ‘business as usual’ – and, from there, to take even greater strides by moving towards regeneration. ‘Sustainability is about establishing equilibrium and restoring balance; it’s putting back what we take out of the earth or from communities. Regeneration goes further. It’s about adding value and giving back more than we take. If you think about alchemy, it’s transmuting a resource into something even more valuable, like using solar and wind to create energy.’

EVERYBODY DESERVES A CHANCE

Creating the connections required for regeneration might sound like a daunting task, but Belinda insists that it’s within reach. ‘The truth is that we have access to a wealth of resources; plus we have a tremendous asset in the form of Africa’s youth,’ she notes. This, she maintains, makes the SDGs imminently achievable, and puts South Africa – and the rest of the continent – in the running to become an example to the rest of the world.

She’s also confident that South Africa’s business fraternity will come to share her view. ‘Essentially, sustainability is about ensuring that your business remains a going concern into the future,’ She points out that developments such as IRBA’s adoption of ISSA 5000, the global sustainability assurance standard developed by the IAASB, are creating additional incentive for organisations to take a proactive stance on sustainability reporting and assurance.

Belinda is also adamant that the accounting profession has a critical role to play here. After all, CAs occupy positions as trusted leaders. ‘We have both the privilege and the responsibility to create opportunities for entities to not only survive, but thrive.’ With this in mind, she urges industry players to apply the rigour they have developed throughout their careers to the issue of sustainability: simple actions like asking whether organisations are doing what they said they do, whether this is supported by data, and whether it can be improved on (and how) are all integral to this. Ensuring that sustainability-related projects are able to attract investors is also key.

‘I have always approached sustainability with a simple philosophy: everyone deserves a chance. This highlights the need to work towards an inclusive economy. As CAs, we need to understand that sustainability is not separate to the work we do, it’s central to it. We need to use our influence to make sure that people move from dialogue to action.’

Author
Lisa Witepski