Written by: Avani Patel
2023
A major tenant of Greenway Golf’s environmental ethos is managing resources to mitigate climate change, and we are exploring walnut shells as a 100% biodegradable alternative to concrete. Concrete, vital to modern life and the backbone of our buildings, roads and bridges, also generates 8% of all planet-warming CO2 emissions.
Nearly 6 billion pounds of hull waste is generated every year in California alone, with limited practical application. By diverting secondary agricultural by-product to create an ecologically sustainable cart path surface, we're working to reduce our carbon footprint.
We experimented with shell grinds and cart path depth on holes 15 & 16 of the South Course in order to determine final specs. All 18 holes are now lined with walnut shells.
We are exploring natural sealants to bind the surface. The winter months will also be an important period of discovery on the viability of the surface in seasonal weather as we continue to refine it.
