Indalo Yethu, the national environment agency, have been mobilising the country around environmental and sustainability issues since 2006. We have made several key interventions in line with the South African government’s priorities since 2006: sustainable job creation and economic growth - along with the environmental focus on greening and sustainable town-management, the war against waste and a bid to lower demand-side energy use. 

Our key focus areas are in climate change, conservation, the green economy, jobs and skills as well as environmental justice.

A significant component of the transition to a green economy in South Africa is building the green skills base that would have to underpin less carbon intensive green jobs.

While we promote reduced consumption and waste, Indalo Yethu is also leading a process to promote greener and less harmful production processes through our eco-endorsement scheme.

Indalo Yethu is a legacy project of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development held in South Africa and an implementation agency of the Department of Environment. In order to shift human activity on the planet onto more sustainable tracks, interventions are needed at all levels and scales – from the international to the local. The magnitude of the problem, however, often obscures how much could be done even at neighbourhood level and this is where our Eco Towns programme is piloting a new job-intensive model that also restores natural habitats.