For today’s chart of the day, Johan Hanekom counted how the words ‘sustainability’ and ‘profit’ appear in South African bank annual reports each year to gain insight into how banks are balancing financial goals with environmental and social responsibilities. We also normalise the frequency of these words to account for variations in the length of annual reports. We observe an increase in mentions of ‘sustainability’ and a decline in the frequency of mentions of ‘profit’, highlighting a fundamental shift in how South Africa’s banks view their purpose and responsibilities.
