CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY   Introduction

This section of the long essay discusses the background and problem statement of the study, research aim and research objectives, research questions and significance of the study, theoretical perspectives as well as organization of the research work.

  Background to the study

In recent times, rapid population growth, the drive for industrialization and economic growth coupled with the need for poverty reduction and development in general has led to an unimaginable surge in the level of activities that impact negatively on the environments in all its various forms. Rising growth in the corporate sector with their attendant impact of environmental unfriendly activities has led to rising global temperatures, greenhouse effect, melting magma or ice and encroaching seas amongst others. These have impact on the health and safety of organizational employees and world’s population at large. Meanwhile, health and safety of employees as well as nation’s people are considered an essential prerequisite for national growth and development.

The activities of organization’s and their impacts to the health and safety of employees and citizens in general has led to a general outcry on the need for implementation of various environmental management schemes. Common among the agenda for environmental management has been the environmental movement which occurred in the sixties resulting in the publication of the book, “Silent Spring” authored by Rachel Carson (Wenk 2005), the Earth day summit in the 1970’s where almost 150 countries participated (Christofferson 2004).

This outcry has seen an increasing pace of introduction of Environmental Management Systems (hereafter referred to as EMS) both in the local and International stage. Among the list of globally recognized Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are the Internationalization Standardization Organization (hereafter referred to as ISO) 14001 (ISO 14001),British Standard 7760 (BS 7760) and the European Eco-Management and Auditing Scheme (EMAS), (Hunter et al., 2007).Aside the International recognition for environmental management, individual countries have also signed various international declarations and formulated laws and policies that seek to govern the environment. The primary objective of the need for institution of environmental management systems is to offer a systematic and administrative mechanisms or structure that can be employed to incorporate a vibrant environmental management system in organizational settings.

In the case of Ghana, for instance, the government in 1999 formulated and adopted the Environmental Assessment Regulations (EAR) law. The law which forms part of the mechanisms by the Environmental Protection Agency (hereafter referred to as EPA) requires various environmentally related co-corporations to develop and implement Environmental Management Plans (hereafter referred to as EMP) with the aim to reducing the environmental impact of their operations. The EAR section 24 sub-sections 1, 3 and 4 states that;

(1) The person responsible for an undertaking in respect of which a preliminary environmental report or an environmental impact statement has been approved shall submit to the Agency an environmental management plan (EMP) in respect of his operations within 18 months of commencement of operations and thereafter every 3 years

3) The environmental management plan shall be a document in such form as shall be determined by the Agency.

(4) The environmental management plan shall set out steps that are intended to be taken to manage any significant environmental impact that may result from the operation of the undertaking.

By the promulgation of this law then, it becomes mandatory of all public and private sector organizations whose operations impact on the environment in one way or the other to prepare, submit and implement their EMS or EMP as a means to safeguarding their employees, citizens and the general state of the environmental in collaboration with the national Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA). To this end, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), an environmentally operations-based agency has instituted an EMS towards its operations.

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