Open Collections

AKOBEN : Ghana’s new initiative for environmental performance rating and disclosure in the mining sector

Tailings and Mine Waste Conference (2011 : Vancouver, B.C.); University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

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.[All papers were considered for technical and language appropriateness by the organizing committee.]

Text

2011-11-04

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/38761

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/