Sustainability and environmental reports of a mining firm in Ghana: A pilot study

Abstract

The need for environmental reporting for stakeholder decision making cannot be over emphasized, especially in the past two decades. This is a pilot study that investigates what environmental and sustainability information is reported in narrative, physical and monetary forms by two plant sites of a multinational mining firm operating in Ghana. The study combines the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the United Nations Division for Sustainability Development (UNDSD) models to benchmark the sustainability information found on the websites of the plant sites: Ahafo and Akyem. In all about 70 documents and webpages were examined. It was discovered that both sites mostly reported sustainability information in narratives. Quite a few sustainability physical measures are reported, especially by Ahafo site. There was limited information in monetary measures on all aspects of sustainability: economic, environmental and social. In addition, the plant sites differ in the content and details of reports even though the websites had the same headings. The study recommends further research into how sustainability and environmental accounting information are gathered at these plant sites and how they are used in decision making.