Article

AKOBEN: Ghana's New Initiative for environmental performance rating and disclosure in the mining sector

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Abstract

The AKOBEN program is an environmental performance rating and disclosure initiative of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Government of Ghana. Under the AKOBEN initiative, the environmental performance of mining and manufacturing operations is assessed using a five-color rating scheme. The five colors are GOLD, BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, indicating environmental performance ranging from excellent to poor. These ratings are annually disclosed to the general public and the media, and it aims to strengthen public awareness and participation. AKOBEN ratings are evaluated by analyzing more than one hundred performance indicators that include quantitative data as well as qualitative and visual information. These ratings measure the environmental performance of companies based on their day-to-day operations once they have successfully cleared their Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and obtained their environmental permit to operate. These ratings indicate how well companies have met the commitments they made in their EIAs at the planning stage. AKOBEN, therefore, complements the EIA process and serves as a monitoring and verification program to ensure that companies follow environmental regulations on a continual basis.

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... Ghana's EPA in collaboration with the World Bank subsequently introduced the Continuous Environmental Improvement Awards in Ghana in the year 2000. The Continuous Environmental Improvement Awards an awards scheme for manufacturing industries initiated by the Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana which rewarded companies with continuous environmental performance throughout a particular year under review was a highly subjective scheme, which made it a target of massive scrutiny and criticisms from participating firms (Sekyi, 2011;Darko-Mensah and Okereke, 2013). With adherence to compliance with stringent guidelines and the non-recognition of the commitment of firms in solving critical environmental problems as persistent complaints, Ghana's EPA adapted a system that reflected the Ghanaian concept of environmental disclosure rating with a combination of stringent but flexible measures culminating in the birth of the 'AKOBEN programme' in 2010 (Allotey et al., 2011). ...
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