Why ESG Must Speak Human

For PPS, sustainability has never been a new chapter, it is the story it has always told. Founded on mutuality, PPS exists to create long-term value for its members, South Africa’s graduate professionals, in a way that benefits not only individuals but the society around them. Its first standalone Sustainability Report, released this year, does not mark the start of a journey but a formal reflection of what has been embedded in its purpose for decades: success that is shared, ethical, and enduring.

In 2024, PPS supported the financial well-being of 164 891 members across South Africa and Namibia. It paid R5.95 billion in benefits and allocated R5.59 billion to members’ PPS Profit-Share Accounts™, reinforcing the idea that growth within a mutual organisation benefit everyone connected to it. More than 1 700 members now hold over R1 million in their Profit-Share Accounts™, a reflection of how shared success can accumulate through time and trust.

This philosophy extends beyond the balance sheet. PPS invested over R20 million in solar infrastructure during 2024, increasing its solar energy output by 66% compared to the prior year and achieving a total installed capacity of 250kWh. These investments are not simply about reducing environmental impact; they are about ensuring the organisation’s operational resilience and energy security for future generations.

Human capital remains central to PPS’s sustainability journey. The organisation invested R28.2 million in employee training and development, facilitated more than 8 000 learning enrolments via the PPS Academy, and supported 75 employees with school fees for their children. For PPS, sustainability starts at home, with its people, before it extends outward into the communities it serves.

Through responsible investment, PPS continues to focus on creating long-term value that benefits society at large. In 2024, it invested R150 million in the EduFund, supporting school infrastructure and quality education, and allocated R300 million to the Ideas Fund, which targets energy, education, and social infrastructure projects. These are not traditional investments aimed solely at return; they are deliberate choices designed to build futures.

Education remains one of the most visible reflections of PPS’s social impact. Since its founding in 2016, the PPS Foundation has worked to expand access to education and employability opportunities for young South Africans, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds. In 2024, the Foundation spent R9.78 million on education and student support, awarded 51 bursaries, and supported more than 200 students through its LEAP Work-Readiness programme.

Kapish Singh, Corporate Social Investment Manager for the PPS Foundation, explains, “We’ve learned that true sustainability cannot be measured by financial metrics alone. It’s seen in a student who graduates against all odds, a professional who gains a sense of security through our mutual model, or an employee who can support their child’s education. ESG only becomes meaningful when it speaks to a person’s lived realities.”

This people-first view of sustainability is reflected across PPS’s broader business practices, from integrating climate risk into decision-making, to strengthening governance and aligning with King IV™ principles, to investing in renewable energy and education-based initiatives that drive measurable social value. PPS’s sustainability framework, approved by its Board in 2023, provides the structure to guide these efforts. But at its core lies something far more enduring, a belief that doing the right thing is not a strategic pillar, but a moral compass.

The mutual model has always been about circular value: every rand reinvested benefits members, communities, and the economy. In this way, mutuality can be seen as one of the earliest forms of ESG, a system where ethical governance, social progress, and economic stability are inseparable.

For PPS, sustainability is not a corporate project or an annual report. It’s the everyday act of balancing financial growth with societal good of ensuring that success is powered by mutuality, and that wealth is not the privilege of a few but a shared and renewable resource.

“If ESG is to mean anything,” Singh concludes, “it must move beyond checklists and certifications. It must speak human, because that’s where real impact lives.”