Walking the sustainability assessment talk — Progressing the practice of
environmental impact assessment (EIA)
Internationally there is a growing demand for environmental impact assessment (EIA) to move away from its
traditional focus towards delivering more sustainable outcomes. South Africa is an example of a country
where the EIA system seems to have embraced the concept of sustainability. In this paper we test the existing
objectives for EIA in South Africa against sustainability principles and then critique the effectiveness of EIA
practice in delivering these objectives. The outcome of the research suggests that notwithstanding a strong
and explicit sustainability mandate through policy and legislation, the effectiveness of EIA practice falls far
short of what is mandated. This shows that further legislative reform is not required to improve effectiveness
but rather a focus on changing the behaviour of individual professionals. We conclude by inviting further debate
on what exactly practitioners can do to give effect to sustainability in EIA practice.