Page 14 - GBC ENGLISH spring 2024

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Golf Business Canada
Using the lens of sustainability for business decisions can lead to more efficient, popular and profit- able golf businesses, which are promoted and supported for the role they play in fostering nature, conserving resources, strengthening communities and taking climate action.
“The GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation is a progressive world- wide organization working towards ensuring that the game of golf con- tinues its transition to a model that benefits the environment. Having ourselves transitioned away from the industrial/conventional mindset of turf management and increased our ‘Working with Nature rather than against it’ paradigm, we are reaping many benefits both envi- ronmentally and fiscally. Having a universal voice is of the utmost importance to assist others in making the transition to a more sustainable and regenerative busi- ness,” says Randy Booker, Director of Turf Operations, Otter Creek Golf Club, ON.
MAKING SUSTAINABLE GOLF LESS COMPLICATED
Over many years of collaborative work, a framework for sustainable golf has come together, making it easier to understand, more action- able to deliver, and clear and im- pactful to communicate.
Everything in the Sustainable Golf Initiative and the pathway of support and recognition for facili- ties is framed around these four Sustainable Golf themes - Fostering Nature; Conserving Resources; Taking Climate Action; Strengthen- ing Communities - and the 12 Action Areas that sit within them.
The initiative also includes the Sustainable Golf Pledge, On- Course® Canada online program, annual Sustainable Golf Scorecard reports, the knowledge-sharing Highlights Hub, and the Sustain- able Golf Certification.
By seeking to integrate a few key sustainability goals into the running and promotion of your golf business, and then applying best practices and some innova- tions across a range of action areas – through a combination of no-cost, low cost and wise investments – you will, over time, become a more efficient, nature-rich and sustain- able golf facility.
Fostering Nature
Goal: Understand, protect and enhance the biodiversity and land in our care.
Action areas: Landscape and bio- diversity; Turfgrass management; Pollution prevention.
Golf is perhaps the sport with the most intimate connection with landscapes, ecosystems and biodiversity. The game is played out in nature, and the experience is better with nature.
Some 2,300 courses in Canada span an area of roughly 200,000 hectares, and at least 50% of that is natural or semi-natural habitat.
Golf courses often appear in important contexts – acting as green oases in towns and cities; protecting sensitive coastal strips; and providing buffers adjacent to wetlands, in watersheds and next to nature reserves.
Exploring ways to enhance ecosystems, conserve species, manage turfgrass responsibly and prevent pollution are all key in this area.
Conserving Resources
Goal: Conserving water and energy, purchasing responsibility and lowering waste.
Action areas: Water; Energy; Materials.
Natural resources, materials and products contain a wealth of direct and embodied environmental and social impacts. The goals are to avoid the consumption of non-re- newable resources – particularly
fossil fuel energy, potable water and single-use materials. As water, energy and raw materials supply become ever more expen- sive – adaptation and innovation make considerable business sense.
Taking Climate Action
Goal: Striving for a net positive climate impact.
Action areas: Carbon reduction; Increased sequestration; Mitigat- ing unavoidable emissions.
Golf has a role and responsi- bility to do all it can to minimize direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions; help sequester as much carbon as possible; and inspire awareness and action amongst hundreds of millions of people in hundreds of countries.
There are several specific actions golf can take to reduce climate impacts, from emissions re- ductions to maximizing carbon storage and sequestration and credible mitigation through Driving Net Zero.
Strengthening Communities
Goal: Providing health and well- being, engaging ethically, and playing a part in developing sustainable communities.
Action areas: Accessible golfing and employment; Outreach and innovation; Education and communications.
Sustainability is also about social responsibility, equity and overall value generated. Golf is extremely well placed to build on hundreds of years of community engagement and social value, at a time when there is a genuine need and opportunity to provide more. Issues of human rights; diversity, equity and inclusion are vital and can be wrapped up in access to the playing of the sport, to a whole host of wider points of respect and contribution to indigenous groups, local people, families, schools, producers and suppliers.