19 Dec 2022
Throughout golf, 2022 has brought stronger collective focus and visibility for golf and sustainability around the world, identifying the issues and building ever greater energy to golf’s contribution.
In collaboration with partners throughout the industry momentum is building, from the clubs and associations at the grassroots of the game through to elite professional sport.
The 150th Open played over the historic Old Course links at St Andrews was one of the highlights of the golfing year, and GEO Foundation was delighted to support The R&A in delivering a range of new and enhanced sustainability actions through the Greenlinks initiative.
Consistent approaches across venues, staging, legacies and communications were rolled out across the events throughout Scotland’s wonderful summer of golf, which also included the AIG Women’s Open, the Genesis Scottish Open, Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open, Senior Open presented by Rolex, Hero Open and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The range of tournaments, played over iconic venues, highlights the breadth of collaboration across the sport with the leading organisations across the men’s and women’s game all stepping forward.
Renewed commitments from the European Tour Group through the relaunched Green Drive strategy saw a raft of actions implemented across all events as well as carbon footprinting eight key tournaments and credible offsetting of unavoidable emissions at four in a programme set to grow in 2023, a year which will spotlight the Ryder Cup in Rome. This leadership extended to joining the UN Sport for Climate Action framework with a commitment to 50% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2040, a journey GEO Foundation are excited to support.
The LPGA launched their new Celebrating the Green website, in partnership with Dow, aligning with the Ladies European Tour to showcase actions and highlights throughout their community. Dow’s support led to the launch of new LPGA Accelerator Grant, enabling tournaments across the LPGA to kick start their sustainability journey with support from GEO Foundation and the new OnCourse® Tournaments program.
Events all around the world are stepping forward, including the WM Phoenix Open leading growing momentum with the PGA Tour, the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational continuing to set the standard on the LPGA, leading events on the DP World Tour such as the Dubai Desert Classic, Omega European Masters, or Alfred Dunhill Links Championship driving forward and LET events including the Aramco Team Series and Saudi Ladies, alongside the Saudi International, playing a part.
In June, the world’s leading golf course architecture associations signed a joint pledge — strengthening their commitment to climate action, and helping the sport towards a net zero future. The signing came at the end of an annual conference hosted by European Institute of Golf Course Architects (EIGCA) and held in Iceland. The event was also part of a wider ‘Driving Net Zero’ programme of activities that was kicked off by GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf at COP26 in Glasgow, and which ran through 2022.
Indeed It has been a significant year in terms of sustainable golf development, with an increase in the number of developments looking for help and setting out with sustainability at the forefront of their ethos.
Excellent examples of this include the Marey development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Cuatro Cienegas in Coahuila, Mexico, both of which have recently started working with GEO Foundation. The two developments have shown encouraging commitment to sustainability, leading to optimism that they can push the boundaries of sustainable golf development and become global leaders in this field.
Two other developments achieving GEO Certified Development status this year were New Craigend Golf Course, which is part of Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland, and Rumanza Golf and Country Club in Pakistan. Both clubs worked with GEO Foundation for several years, from the design stage through to the opening day, to ensure that the golf course was designed and built in the most sustainable way possible. These golf facilities become the seventh and eighth developments certified by the GEO Foundation since the first in 2015.
At a national level, significant strides continue to be made. Visit Scotland became the first national tourist body to partner with GEO Foundation, aligning outlook and policies for sustainable tourism, communities, pathways to net zero and sustainable golf, and supporting advocacy, showcasing around major golf events in Scotland, and programs that help grass roots clubs.
GEO Foundation was pleased to work with the EGA and their sustainability committee to help create a position paper on the use of pesticides in golf in Europe in response to an EU consultation which could have wide-ranging inpacts on the industry.
Many national associations have accelerated sustainable golf including Austrian Golf Association, Swiss Golf, the Dutch Golf Federation, Golf Canada, Golf RSA, Finnish Golf Union, Golf Saudi, Singapore Golf Association, England Golf, Scottish Golf, Swedish Golf Federation, Wales Golf among those integrating and developing sustainability strategies into the heart of their organisations and supporting clubs on their sustainability journey.
Groups such as BGL and Troon Golf expanded their commitments with renewed certifications across their network of courses.
The actions and more can be found on the Sustainable Golf Highlights.
