Effectiveness of planning and implementation stages of the ISO 14001 standards EMS at the Obuasi gold mine, Ghana
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Date
2010
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Academic Journals
Abstract
This paper evaluated the effectiveness of the planning and implementation stages of the ISO
14001 Standards Environmental Management System (EMS) at the Obuasi gold mine in Ghana.
The purpose was to identify growth factors, challenges and opportunities for improving process
efficiencies through ISO 14001 Standards EMS implementation. A modified ISO 14031 Standards
criterion for performance evaluation at the Plan-Do stages was adopted. In all, planning and
implementation at eighteen business units were evaluated over a two-year period. Nine out of ten
systems procedures evaluated scored above certification audit pass mark of 90%. Environmental
Aspect and Impact Identification, and Competence training improved in performance over the
study period by average values of 151% and 104%, respectively, while significance rating and
environmental observations respectively dropped by 12% and 64%. Environmental training and
awareness creation, good aspect and significance rating schemes, establishment of performance
reward system for meeting environmental objectives, among others, could serve as key factors
that can sustain the ISO 14001 standards EMS. Notable challenges of the EMS were: lack of
guide tools, apathetic attitudes, group certification concept, cost constrains, legacy issues and
complexity of company’s operations.
Description
This article is published by American Journal and is also available at doi:10.5251/ajsms.2010.1.1.1.12
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doi:10.5251/ajsms.2010.1.1.1.12