Macroeconomic policy should be guided by a long-term strategy based on the needs of the country. This is an essential message of the term ‘sustainable development’. It is, therefore, inevitable that the country’s natural and environmental resources should be considered when shaping such a policy. Current macroeconomic policies in South Africa have tended to ignore, rather than incorporate, these issues. This paper provides a framework for integrating environmental values into macroeconomic policy-making in South Africa. This is done by focusing on 1) the different theories on the linkage between the economy and the environment, 2) conceptualising the input of environmental values in the macroeconomic policy arena and 3) making recommendations for incorporating environmental factors into South African macroeconomic policy.