Challenges of Environmental Management Systems Implementation in Ghanaian Firms

Environmental management can be described as a methodology by which organizations acting in a structured manner assess their operations to ensure that they are functioning in an environmentally legitimate way. This study seeks to investigate barriers of environmental management systems implementation in Ghana. In all, fifty three environmental representatives were surveyed and the results show that the top most important factors hindering the implementation of environmental management implementation were: implementation cost and "too much paper work", the cost of certification, the quality of consultants, the time involved and the exposure of the organizations to regulatory bodies. Lack of human resources, the understanding of the system, the effect of environmental management system on the existing structure and its intended benefits do not seem to be barriers in Ghana.