Justin Smith, senior manager for governance and sustainability at Nedbank...says his company is the only bank in Africa to have signed an environmental benchmark, the Equator Principles...Internally, the bank walks the talk, too...[However] Of the top 40 companies on the JSE, more than 40% have no identifiable sustainability officer and 16% have either a paltry or non-existent offering when it comes to a sustainability report. Standard Bank, Edgars, Mittal Steel, Naspers, Reunert, Steinhoff and Tiger Brands all appear to be lagging...[Christina] Wood...an environmental adviser at consultancy Sustainable Finance...and Smith both believe it was a failure on government's part not to work some of the tenets of sustainability into the empowerment charters and codes...On top of that...too many companies fall in to the trap of thinking that sustainability is purely about compliance. [also refers to Citigroup]