
Creating Sustainable Cities of the Future: Seeking Stellenbosch’s Most Innovative Ideas
South Africa is urbanising rapidly: 67 per cent of South Africans are already living in urban areas and this statistic...

From seed to reality: A three year reflection of the Living Soils Community Learning Farm
When the Living Soils Community Learning Farm was launched in March 2019, it had three focus areas where it hoped to...

Introducing a pragmatic guide to climate risk for business leaders
Although climate-related risks are among the top three global risks identified by the World Economic Forum over the...
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Team Mahali: Rethinking the housing of Africa
THE ESSENCE of this story is about imagination, inspiration and co-creation. Eighteen months ago, Team Mahali embarked...
Growing a new story about food
There is a need for a new story in South Africa around how we grow, distribute and consume food. About a quarter of...
Taking a closer look at a sustainable food basket
The Sustainability Institute was invited to exhibit at the 2019 WWF Living Planet Conference. This annual conference...
First planting at the Living Soils Community Learning Farm
The Living Soils Community Learning Farm, an initiative between partners Woolworths, Spier and the Sustainability...
Knowledge garden inspires outdoor learning
The Knowledge garden, funded by the Ackerman Pick n Pay foundation, was established within the precinct of the SPARK...
The Wisdom of the Wild
In late April a group of six Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) students and myself embarked on a five day immersive learning...
Food For Us: Developing a mobile phone application to reduce food losses and waste
The Sustainability Institute (SI) contributed specialist food systems research expertise to a consortium of...
Pictures worth a thousand words
The Lynedoch Children’s House situated at the Sustainability Institute in the Stellenbosch winelands, has partnered...
Living Soils Community Learning Farm launched!
This week we celebrated the launch of the Living Soils Community Learning Farm, an initiative in partnership...
Reflections during the research process – music and sustainability
This blog post covers Siraj Jardine's thoughts and reflections while exploring the connections between music and...
What to do about palm oil – many sides to a slippery coin
What do we do about palm oil? Boycott the products, look for ‘sustainable’ labels, challenge manufacturers, or wait...
Traditional medicine for today: why we should pay attention
Traditional medicine and herbal remedies have been part of cultures around the world for Millenia. The first written...
Nutrition in the townships
Our failing food system Our current food system is riddled with polarities. According to the World Health...
From cotton to khadi
Being immersed in Wardha, India for two weeks is an unforgettable experience Before setting off for India, I did not...
A system built by people
This past winter two engineering students, Shalli Mbwette and John Twesige, chose to spend their required...
The cost of remedying environmental degradation: The Proposed Domestic Carbon Tax
There has been a lot of talk about the proposed domestic carbon tax and it has been a long process. This process...
Alumna explores the linkages between feminism and climate change
Neoka Naidoo is a PGD alumna and is currently completing her MPhil in Sustainable Development. Neoka has recently...
Experiencing sustainability in a Post-Apartheid South Africa: my time at the Institute
We recently said farewell to Caroline Florence, who interned with us for eight weeks. She is currently halfway through...
New study into state capture lifts the lid on SASSA
The State Capacity Research Project today released a new report, How One Word Can Change The Game: A Case Study Of...
Graduate gaining valuable experience at the United Nations in Rome
Olive Zgambo graduated with a Master of Philosophy in Sustainable Development Planning and Management from...
Communicating Climate Change
Climate change communication needs to encourage new ways of thinking and of understanding the world to bring about the...
AgroEcology students are changing how Kayamandi eats
The AgroEcology programme at the Sustainability Institute is producing passionate and driven young people changing the...
Reflecting on our academic and research programmes
The academic programme has been delivered over the past 17 years by a unique partnership between the Sustainability...
Rooftop solar: While municipalities focus on feed-in tariffs, a much larger problem persists
Putting up rooftop solar is a topic of conversation that is gathering momentum in South Africa. Increasingly,...