This year’s Sustainable Golf Week is taking place between 11 and 15 November and again provides a chance for people and organisations across the sport to celebrate the good that golf does in society.

This time, the week spotlights another key aspect of golf’s responsibility and its value in sustainable development, focussing on how golf serves, supports and strengthens communities.

With previous editions exploring other priority topics such as climate (#DrivingNetZero) and nature (#BetterwithNature), for 2024 the emphasis is on #GolfforCommunities.

Jonathan Smith, Executive Director of GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation – the international non-profit that helps facilitate and coordinate the week said: “Golf is not just a game. It’s a sector with the power to make a real dfference in people’s lives. Serving and supporting people from a wide diversity of ages, backgrounds, and cultures in a wide variety of ways – that are often not well recognised.

When it comes to sustainability, where equity is a central pillar, it’s not only about saving the planet, it’s about giving everyone a fair shot. And as much as golf gives people access to healthy lifestyles in fresh air and nature, there’s still open space for the sport to benefit more people in more ways.”

Alan Grant, Director of Partnerships at the Foundation added: “Sustainable Golf Week is a time to celebrate, and also to stop and think about how golf can go even further to build fairer, greener communities – not just on the course, but in cities and towns everywhere. It’s about taking big swings for a better world!”

“We invite everyone, no matter how large or small they think their contribution, to share stories and ideas about golf’s relationship with diverse communities around the world. To offer perspectives on the game’s strengths and weaknesses around such key topics, and to help inspire and guide the next key steps we can all take to maximise the sport’s positive impact. The more we all share, the more the world will know golf cares, and the more ideas and inspiration will be provided to others”.

During the week content will cover a raft of ways golf can and already does, contribute to society, including touch points on:

• Lifelong health, wellbeing and social interaction
• Employment, investment and skilled careers
• Volunteering and lifelong education
• Community outreach and charitable initiatives
• Multi-functional use of land
• Local environmental protection, nature restoration and nature-based solutions
• Influence in low carbon, nature rich and circular economies; and
• Golf as a source of inspiration for billions of people.

Getting Involved:

You can find out more about the agenda for the week and access the Sustainable Golf Week Toolkit HERE.

Please use the graphics, hashtags and handles to share and celebrate your own achievements, commitments and perspectives.

@sustainablegolf
#golfforcommunities
#sustainablegolf
#sustainablecommunities

The 2018 U.S. Kids Golf Venice Open has been officially recognised as a GEO Certified® Tournament for its inspiring leadership to advance sustainability in and through golf.

The initiative was led by the voluntary leadership of the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation and Golf della Montecchia, with strong support from the other two host venues – Golf Club Frassanelle and Galzignano Terme Spa & Golf Resort. The event is also backed by the Confederation of Professional Golf.

Dan Van Horn, Founder and Chief Executive of the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation said: “We are thrilled to have achieved this world first. Innovation is ingrained in our DNA, as demonstrated by the approach we take at our home base in Longleaf, so it made absolute sense for us to push the boundaries on environmental sustainability and community value at our events. The GEO Foundation has been a credible and knowledgeable partner, providing support and now recognition that enables us to promote this important message more widely. We’d encourage all golf venues and tournaments to get involved.”

Paolo Casati, President of Golf della Montecchia and of PlayGolf54 Group said: “Together with all my family we are honoured by this result. It was a long journey, based on a commitment to environmental values that started many years ago. Thanks to a valued collaboration with the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation, we are very proud to spread this important message to the new generation.”

Coordination and delivery were overseen by sustainable golf expert, Stefano Boni – who used guidance and resources provided by the GEO OnCourse® Tournaments program to liaise closely with the organisers, venues, hotels, transport companies, caterers and also the children and their families. The award has been made following a robust third-party verification, which was based on all the evidence that Stefano gathered and reported.

Jonathan Smith, Founder and Executive Director of GEO Foundation added: “We are delighted to extend this well-deserved recognition to the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation and the team that stages the Venice Open. Perhaps the most inspiring part is seeing the children and their families getting engaged and expressing such a clear desire to see the sport they love embrace environmental stewardship and social responsibility. We congratulate all the partners on leading the way, and expressing what golf can do to foster nature, conserve resources and build inclusive, healthy and sustainable communities.”

Susie Tomson, the independent, expert verifier said: “The organisers used the international certification criteria to guide all their planning, and then broke it down into very specific and practical tasks, spanning a wide range of actions and issues. In a relatively short time, and without huge capacity or resources, they have managed to engage a lot of different stakeholders, and the players themselves, to generate real results. They are a model example of a smaller, non-professional tournament that can make a big difference”.

Venues:

• Golf della Montecchia GEO Certified® for 7 years and winner of IAGTO Sustainability Award
• Golf Club Frassanelle and Galzignano Terme are in OnCourse® sustainability program and working towards GEO Certified®
• All courses are pioneering organic management of new, warm-season grasses; and studying sustainable turf, biodiversity and water conservation, and reduced carbon footprint in partnership with NGOs and universities.

Event:

• Players, caddies and families completed an environmental questionnaire and environmental information family orientation packs
• Sustainability themed signage across all venues and hotels
• Hotels and restaurants committed to the tournament’s sustainability policy
• Recovery of all recyclable materials and water refill stations
• Forty bicycles were provided to families by the JSH Group hotels
• Local sourcing with wine, meat, dairy and most of the vegetables from local farmlands (supplier Nautilus Fish and Wine has very comprehensive sustainability policy, more on their website)
• Local schools helped organise and stage the tournament, cooperation with local museums to promote the area’s history and culture, and fundraising for local charity, ‘Team for Children’.

Read the full Venice Open GEO Certification report to learn more…

Here we look at just a few examples of how anyone involved with a golf facility can make impactful and sustainable changes leading to economic, environmental and social benefits…

Electric Equipment Initiative

Bear Trace at Harrison Bay, USA

GEO Certified® 04/2014

Conversion of 18 pieces of gasoline powered golf course maintenance equipment to fully electric powered units allowed The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay to eliminate the use of over 9,000 gallons of gasoline in a single year saving over $27,000, cutting point source CO2 emissions by over 182,000 pounds of CO2, and eliminating possible contamination from leaking or spilled oils or fluids.

More Biodiversity, Greater Savings, Less Maintenance

Carnoustie Golf Links, Scotland

GEO Certified® 12/2013

By minimizing the amount of amenity turfgrass and increasing the size of habitat corridors Carnoustie Golf Links has saved between £2–3,000 since becoming GEO Certified®.  Apart from the cost savings, the creation of habitat corridors acts as a buffer zone between sensitive landscapes and has ensured that habitat fragmentation is kept to a minimum.  With scrub management programmes, the club continues to identify further ways in which to increase these areas.

Reduced Mowing Results in Cost and Nature Benefits

Golfpark Nuolen, Wangen, Switzerland

GEO Re-Certified® 12/2012

By reducing the mowing of the out of play areas by 15%, Golfpark Nuolen has saved €2-3,000 annually.  Subsequently this has encouraged the re-naturalization of native areas and the creation of wild life corridors.

On top of this, any fertilizers that are required for the course have been purchased in bulk in conjunction with 3 other clubs.  This has resulted in savings of €8,000 to each club and bulk purchasing allows for attaining a better product at a 15-30% lower price.

Finding Cost-savings Through Efficient Energy

Coventry Golf Club, West Midlands, England

GEO Certified® 05/2012

Looking to lower electricity use – and costs – Coventry Golf Club completely re-lamped the club’s buildings with low energy, sensor lighting. Solar panels were also installed to help reduce costs, with the excess electricity produced being sold back to the energy company. In the first full year since the work was done, the club cut their electricity costs by 28.5%, amounting to £8,000, which will offset their investment quickly.

OnCourse to Cost and Water Saving at The Home of Golf

St Andrews Links, Fife, Scotland

GEO Re-Certified® 12/2014

After an audit of the irrigation system prompted by their participation in the OnCourse programme, some simple steps were taken to become more efficient. For example, the arcs of water nozzles were altered to avoid watering rough while some others were removed altogether. Overall they accomplished a 25% reduction in water use on a greens cycle and a 20% reduction for the fairways; Subsequently the energy use for the pumping system has also reduced.

Turning Waste into Savings

Broken Sound Club, Florida, USA

GEO Certified® 07/2014

As part of their overall commitment to sustainability Broken Sound Club invested in a Central Composting Facility, to turn all available biodegradable waste into sterilized organic mulch. This is spread on the fairways and used in the landscape beds. $12,000 was saved on fertilizer expenditure in year one and the money invested in the composting facility will be recouped within 4-5 years.

Cost-savings No Rough Task

Hill Side Golf & Country Club, Vihti, Finland

GEO Certified® 07/2012

Finland’s first private golf club considered the amount of rough being maintained and with a more efficient rough maintenance plan they achieved cost savings of €3,500 in 2012. 392 fewer hours were spent mowing rough while fuel and machinery use was reduced. Savings in fuel were part of overall net savings of over €10k from the overall improvements in club resource and management efficiencies.

Looking to Locals for Supplies Cuts Costs and Footprint

Highlands Country Club, Tennessee, USA

GEO Certified® 09/2014

Situated in a remote part of Tennessee, the new outlook Highlands Country Club took to make its supply chain more local has been very successful. For example, the uniforms and sanitary products are now purchased from local suppliers who opened the door to negotiate a better deal for the club; while boosting the local economy and thereby strengthening the outside view of the golf club; and a new point of pride in being part of lowering overall pollution from transport.

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For more ‘Real Results’ examples visit www.golfenvironment.org/get_involved/real_results.

Governments, environmental and community-based organisations around the world are using new tools and concepts to try to determine how much and what forms of economic and leisure development can be deemed ‘sustainable’ in locations. It’s recognised as important for society to try to understand at what point development moves from being beneficial to damaging.

Of course, none of this is an exact science, nor is it rigorously and consistently applied around the world, and much depends on the type of development being considered.

However, the following methodologies are being applied to help stakeholders gain a better understanding of when development will start to exceed the aesthetic, biological, energy, water, social and cultural capacity of our surroundings.

Cumulative Impacts

Cumulative impacts result when the effects of one action are added to or interact with other effects.

For example, several golf developments in close proximity may give rise to significant landscape, ecological or resource effects in combination, when none would have by itself. Analysis of cumulative impacts is important in identifying the carrying capacity of a bio-diverse area under threat by humans, known as a hotspot, to accommodate multiple golf developments. Such analysis can also help reveal appropriate thresholds for sustainable development.

On the other hand, clusters of golf facilities that have been well planned, designed and constructed can help to preserve the landscape and ecosystem fabric of larger units of land, and bring them under conservation-based management for decades and centuries to follow. Golf can be associated positively with increasing the ecosystem and resource-carrying capacity of a region.

Carrying Capacity

Broadly, carrying capacity refers to the amount of an activity or resource use that a system can support sustainably, without showing economic, social and environmental deterioration and decline in the longer term.

This fundamental concept underpins modern-day approaches to sustainable development. Strategic planning now seeks to define the capacity of areas to accommodate various levels of development of different types, and when accumulated.

Carrying capacity studies can be beneficial to developers in anticipating and addressing competition for limited resources and customers. Such studies can also help in phasing development. Energy and water capacities might increase through the use of new technologies, increasing the amount of permitted development.

Thresholds

By better understanding the carrying capacity for golf development for a defined area or region, taking into account its other land and resource use needs, it is possible to
begin to identify thresholds for sustainable development.

Although not usually precise, given the complexity and subjectivity involved, this concept is increasingly tied to strategic land-use planning decisions.

For example, when governments release parcels of land for macro-scale tourism development, they often set a pre-determined ratio for the number of golf courses and density of residential units for that area. Doing so creates a planning framework that protects sensitive and vulnerable ecological and cultural zones. This approach also ensures that soft landscapes will be present amongst harder elements of development.

Threshold-guided plans for development are often of great interest to the local community, which may wish to see economic development and the creation of employment and wealth, but which also wants to protect other valued assets, such as access to green space, protection of historical sites and biodiversity hotspots.

A Common Language for Discourse

In many places where concern about the sustainability of golf development exists, the concepts of cumulative impact, carrying capacity, and threshold level can be used to help understand whether the concerns are legitimate or unfounded. Often people simply want to know that thoughtful consideration of environmental issues has guided the types and overall levels of economic and tourism development.

Within reason, the application of these concepts can help everyone generate an understanding of issues that need to be considered when seeking to evaluate sustainable levels of golf development.

Le Golf National’s highlights of contributions for nature and people:

• 40 hectares – 30% of the site – are dedicated to grassland habitat and the area of unmaintained rough has increased to improve habitat connection.
• Significant reduction in maintained turfgrass areas to enhance shrubs, wetlands, and other natural areas critical to wildlife protection
• More than 50 beehives surrounded by planted wildflower areas
• Biological pest control and compost teas used on fairways
• Investment in water efficiency with new storage reservoir, irrigation system and sustainable drainage installation over the next two years
• Strong, mutually beneficial community links including long-term local business relationships
• A free practice facility for school students available during parts of the day
• Winners of the first Generali Trophees du Sport Responsable in the golf category of 2012
• Inclusive golf atmosphere that promotes golf for a wide range of players through a diverse offering of golf courses

Click here to view Le Golf National’s full GEO Certified® Report