Azania Mosaka at the launch of Boity weight loss solution at Munro Boutique Hotel in Houghton. Image: Simphiwe Mbokazi
Media personality and television host Azania Mosaka helmed in-depth conversations surrounding environmental awareness to commemorate sustainability month.
The event boasted some of the most knowledgeable individuals who unearthed the complex concept of sustainability in simple terms.
Nestlé East and Southern Africa (ESAR) presented From Linear to Circular initiative, the progressing story of Nestle’s sustainability initiatives.
This initiative also made use of an art exhibition profiling three of its flagship sustainability initiatives that are part of its RE program.
During the conversations that took place, it was discovered that many communities are still not well informed about the topic of sustainability, and as a result, that tends to create a barrier in making efforts to help create change.
There was also a big question of how organisations then best unpack this conversation in a language that will be easily understood by all people, even the marginalised areas.
Speaking to an Environmental Education Consultant, Xoli Fuyani, she revealed that the only way people can understand these concepts is by using the language that they understand.
“I would look at their lifestyles and how they are living, especially looking at the people from the townships. So the first question that I would ask is: what do you do with a magazine tub after you have used it? Often they would say, “I keep it to store food”. And then I would start to talk about the importance of that and why it is good for the environment,” said Fuyani.
She added that if people start with something familiar that they are already doing, it becomes easier to relate rather than coming up with big concepts.
“A topic that is accessible is waste because it is something that we see everywhere. If you go to a township, there is a dump site. So that then becomes a tool or a topic for us to really speak about.”
Speaking on the body of work, artist Dillon Marsh said: “Capturing landscapes has been part of my creative language, and I have explored in many works elements that show how we as a species engage both deliberately and unintentionally with our environment.”