A major survey of 210 of South Africa's largest and most important companies has revealed unexpected levels of concern about the environment.
It shows most companies to be eager to step up sustainable practices.
Many already have such programmes in place, but they would like government to take a stronger lead.
They want it to level the playing fields for pro-active companies by setting clearer uniform standards and in general providing better assistance to those already running their business along such lines.
The view is that public policy should be shaped to support the emergence and growth of businesses engaging in sustainable activities.
Domestic market structures should be created to assist them, and South Africa's international influence should be used to secure export markets for sustainable goods and services.
One of the countries said to be offering a golden opportunity is China.
A study has found a growing demand among its companies for goods and services which improve their environmental performance.
The survey was done by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).
The programme's broader aim is to identify and co-operate with interests within the so-called BRICS group of key emerging economies (South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India and China) to encourage sustainable international trade and investment.
The South African survey shows that 61 percent of the largest companies believe environmental sustainability actually leads to cost savings.
The majority of companies already have continuous improvement programmes in place for energy and water use, and many have such projects for paper use, transportation, waste and recycling.
But while most of these companies consider themselves leaders in environmental responsibility, they feel their peers to be lagging behind to the point of non-compliance.
A strong call was made by 64 percent of the large companies for improved environmental reporting and monitoring.
The report suggests the government should take advantage of this business appetite to explore ways of implementing more rigorous reporting requirements.
One difficulty for companies implementing improvement programmes is that they find themselves constrained by a lack of clarity on how such improvements should be defined.
There are no proper eco-labelling schemes and standards in place for the environmental performance of companies.
All the companies surveyed would like to give preference to certified "green" products or services in their procurement.
Only half of them expect the cost of these products to match that of less sustainable options.