Sustainable Golf - are we a solution or part of the problem?

[matt2020]

We have all heard of sustainable development by now, simply put, living on the planet today as if we mean others to stay here tomorrow! But how many of our Club’s have a sustainable strategy and are already exploring the key issues? What part can members play to help management committees deliver on environmental, social and economic aspirations?

Understandably, for the past few years like me, you have been escaping to the sanctuary of the Golf Club to worry about why we are consistently playing golf inconsistently, but the world is dramatically changing and at a scary pace. In a nutshell, global populations have exploded, consumption is increasing, climate is changing, and many natural resources are running out. Impacts of these stresses are already being felt here on the doorstep of the UK.

Let’s be realistic we are not going to reduce the world’s population from the Clubhouse and we are not going to lower the world’s consumption levels, but we can be creative and innovative to make what we already have more efficient, cleaner and sympathetic to the natural surroundings.

What can we do as members in our busy lives? Simply lets just ask the Club how we can help them think and act on four key sustainable steps;

1. Pollution prevention - how to stop the use of toxic substances on the course
2. Efficiency - be resource efficient with energy, recycling, composting and bio-diversity care such as bird feeders, bat boxes etc.
3. Clean technology - what are the opportunities for solar, wind, biotechnology, recycling operations within your Club?
4. Share our knowledge - the Club can benefit from our advice, ideas, suggestions, contacts and networks to galvanize people to change

The future could mean it will cost Golf Clubs more to be environmentally irresponsible, this will affect not only you as a member but also the business, the pleasure of the game and the wonderful community of players. So, go ask your Club how we can be part of the solution and share on this forum any great environmental ideas your Club are already undertaking - the more creative the better!

 

[haplesshacker]

Wow. Some first post. Welcome.

Whilst I understand where you're coming from. Is the financial impact no more imortant to a clubs survivability at the moment?

Eco and environmentally friendly options are often too expensive to implement, and ultimately it is us that has to pay for it. As it is we're, and our kids, will be paying for the latest recssion for many years to come. Just how deep are our pockets?

The state of this planet, through our (the human race) involvement has been nothing short of destructive. I just don't believe that whilst financial considerations are the be all and end all to our existence, that anything much will change. Though for my kids sake, I wish it would.

 

[Robobum]

When I am at home I take care of my enviromental responsibility to the best of my ability allowing for time and available cash.

When I go to work, I am taking care of my and their enviromental responsibility to the best of my ability and the company's allocated cash.

I don't expect to go to my own golf club, who I already pay a sizeable sum to every year, and start helping them with their enviromental responsibility too.

My, and the other member's subs, pay the wages of the staff at the club and, as a business, it is up to them to meet and exceed the required enviromental standards put upon them.

 

[AuburnWarrior]

I'm not convinced by all this I'm afraid. I'm fed up with being told on a daily basis that I'm ruining the planet - no I'm not!!! I live a basic life - the same as most people and my 'impact on the planet' is minimal.
Buy a hybrid car they say - their emissions are minimal - have you seen how much they cost? The Toyota Prius is £18,340 new - my Zafira was £12,000 new - why? If the climate is such a concern why aren't all of these hybrids no more than £10,000? The government or greenpeace or whichever climate group could cover the £8,000 shortfall.
Recycle your waste they say - why? It all ends up in landfill in China!!! How does it get there??? In the back of a Prius??? I doubt it - more likely a huge, diesel glugging super tanker!!!
Use energy efficient light bulbs they say - they last for years they say. No they don't!!! I had one pack up on me just the other day - I got 56 days use out of it. Where did it go then??? In the bin - heading for land fill in China.
Save the planet they say. I say save your money, buy normal stuff and spend the excess on new golf clubs!!!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Interesting first post. Obviously there is a need to move towards eco-firendly and sustainable golf course management but its going to take a lot of time, money and a serious shitf of emphasis from individual golfers and clubs. In these hard times I don't see it being too high on any club agenda.

I know greenkeeprs are ahving to ditch a lot of their chemicals under EU rulings and most are pretty switched on to their environmental duties. My club already does a lot for wildlife and is pretty switched on regarding recycling. It will become a subject that inevitably will require more attention but at present I think its not seen as a priority

 

[USER1999]

Most golf clubs are already moving towards sustainability, with less watering, and less chemicals (fertilisers and pest control). They also provide a great environment for wild life (often with protected areas).

There are many other businesses that are not going green that should be looked at first, before people pick on golf clubs.

Don't get me started on hybrids. A small diesel does less environmental damage during manufacture, uses less nasty metals (batteries) and is more economical to run. It's carbon footprint is about half that of a hybrid, and yet they seem to be driven by idiots who think they are saving the planet.

Golf clubs are doing their bit.

Not all recycling goes to landfill in china. Most of it is recycled. Makes me laugh that we sort coloured glass out though. Ooh, brown in that bin, green in that one. Where does blue glass go? And then they combine it all together for making roads. Class.

 

[AuburnWarrior]

One further thing on hybrids - then I'll go back to my corner...
I hate the sanctimonious way people tell you that they drive a hybrid - "I drive a hybrid (with eyebrow raised a la Roger Moore) - I'm saving the planet don't you know." No, you're not!!! You've fallen for a superb marketing ploy and anyway, your six holidays a year, your eight bedroom house and your 5.4 litre Range Rover (for the weekend) smashes apart your 'carbon footprint'!!!
Sorry...

 

[AuburnWarrior]

Anyway, sticking to the subject of sustainable golf - no clubhouse can be considered bone fide without a huge, roaring log fire!!! Not too sure they're good for the environment but I'd never join a club without one...

 

[viscount17]

recycling as practised in most of the country is a joke.
sort the rubbish at the point of creation, the office, then what - it all goes in the same skip.
the local tip was separating out plastic bottles then stopped - why? because they couldn't get a high enough return on it.
methane is a big eco enemy - why? it's a naturally occurring fuel - just walk by a cow shed. you've got it, can't get rid of it - use it to run power stations.
eco needs less running around banning everything and more lateral thinking - dumped cars? crush them and use them as the basis of the flood barriers that keep being promised and never built.
most golf courses have already reduced toxins, probably always composted, and are reducing water use, and are a haven for more wildlife than any number of parks and gardens - there are lot more and bigger eco enemies to worry about than golf.

 

[USER1999]

But once fox hunting was got rid of, what was left? Golf. Percieved as a rich persons sport, it needs to be persecuted. Where as maggot drowning and torturing fish, a working mans sport (involving killing swans with discarded tackle, littering, and lead poisoning in rivers). Fine. Leave that one alone.

 

[birdieman]

Anyway, sticking to the subject of sustainable golf - no clubhouse can be considered bone fide without a huge, roaring log fire!!! Not too sure they're good for the environment but I'd never join a club without one...

Burning wood is carbon neutral and the production of wood is sustainable so no probs with a log fire. We need heat and burning wood is way better than burning fossil fuels or using electric generated by burning fossil fuels.

Everyone seems to forget that the earth, like any planet will eventually die when our finite energy source, the sun, conks out anyway, albeit a long time from now. By then we will possibly have gone through several life extinction events and re-evolution processes of life so humans will have to adapt and find other planets to colonise longterm regardless of what we are doing to the planet now, in order to survive as a species.

All this panic over climate makes the scientists work that bit harder to discover new technologies to enable us to survive.

Without the industrial revolution we'd all still be living to about age 20 and working in fields. The climate would be stable but we'd all be miserable. Progress comes at a great cost it would seem. You can't stop population increase, technological advancement and demand on resources, we either learn to adapt or perish as species.

We're a' dooooomed! (said like Fraser from Dads Army! )

 

[AuburnWarrior]

Anyway, sticking to the subject of sustainable golf - no clubhouse can be considered bone fide without a huge, roaring log fire!!! Not too sure they're good for the environment but I'd never join a club without one...

Burning wood is carbon neutral and the production of wood is sustainable so no probs with a log fire. We need heat and burning wood is way better than burning fossil fuels or using electric generated by burning fossil fuels.

Everyone seems to forget that the earth, like any planet will eventually die when our finite energy source, the sun, conks out anyway, albeit a long time from now. By then we will possibly have gone through several life extinction events and re-evolution processes of life so humans will have to adapt and find other planets to colonise longterm regardless of what we are doing to the planet now, in order to survive as a species.

All this panic over climate makes the scientists work that bit harder to discover new technologies to enable us to survive.

Without the industrial revolution we'd all still be living to about age 20 and working in fields. The climate would be stable but we'd all be miserable. Progress comes at a great cost it would seem. You can't stop population increase, technological advancement and demand on resources, we either learn to adapt or perish as species.

We're a' dooooomed! (said like Fraser from Dads Army! )

In my dim and distant past I seem to remember my geography teacher telling us that we are currently between two ice ages meaning that the earth's climate will go through a number of changes before turning a tad chilly. This will result in downtown Croydon being submerged in Tundra and global warming being a well needed thing...

 

[matt2020]

OK - great points so let’s look at it another way?

Golf is a business around people (consumers) and the natural environment (the product), (all due repect to Wii / Playstation et al). As a business they should be responsible for managing both in an optium way to make a profit. Celtic Manor is a case in point, to win the Ryder Cup they needed to demonstrate and have competency and responsibility for both managing people and the environment.

One factor is to purchase goods and services in the most cost effective, most efficient and most risk adverse manner to enhance the product for the consumers. Therefore, seeking to achieve a financial profit for the economic sustainability of the Club. But these purchasing actions can also contribute to an environmental profit, less toxic chemicals in the Clubhouse for example, so enhance the Club’s natural surroundings.

This is my point, simply to achieve both in the most efficient mannner, Golf Clubs need support, advice and help from us the members as well as the information from R&A, BIGGA or GEO. It is not easy. But in our varied walks of life we are creative and innovative in our businesses and at home about saving money, so why should we not share these and have our say.

Take time in the bar over a pint (beside the fire) to talk to the Club Captain or Secretary about ideas for improving the Club’s ‘profits’ both financially and environmentally. Plus, seeing what simple great ideas are out there on this forum to help ...............!

 

[AuburnWarrior]

What???
Look, I appreciate your point and good luck in saving the planet but I've got a wife and two small children, a proper job, a house that needs continual maintenance and a golf addiction that needs feeding. All of that does not fit into seven days very well so, when I'm afforded the time to go and play golf, I'm not going to waste valuable time chewing the fat with the top knobs at my club about poor Mr Floopsy-woppsy-bunnypoos getting poisoned or a tree being pulled down to make the 7th green more accessible. Maybe I will when I retire...or win the lottery!!!

 

[MarkE]

Or how about just going to your club, forgetting your troubles for a few hours and enjoy a round.
I can safely say, the last thing on my mind when playing golf is anything 'environmental'.

 

[Robobum]

Matt - did you know that smoking weed in the sort of quantities you seem to be consuming is extremely bad for your health. Plus the Captain & secretary at our club don't approve of such recreational drugs so that cosy chat is out the window too.

I'd think about looking after your own mental health before saving the planet.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

I blame the likes of Al Gore for the damage to the environment, just like I blame Robert Peston for the collapse of the world economy.

If they didn't bleat on about it all the time we wouldn't know about the problem. Thus, it wouldn't be a problem.
Simple.

Something about a tree falling on a golf course & no body being there to hear it........must be lady captains day

 

[USER1999]

If I get to talk to the Captain, or ant other comittee member or board member, the last thing they need is me bleating on about the environment. They are in the bar to have a beer and a laugh, same as me.

 

[viscount17]

when I play golf I get terribly environmental, in the trees on the left, the bushes on the right, the lake - that's as well as avoiding the eco-friendly deposits from the swans and geese, and the half-eaten carp left by mink (or might be otters)

don't be put off mat2020, we love the outdoors or we wouldn't play golf but I refuse to be made to feel guilty.

 

[DCB]

Yes, we are part of the problem and we should be part of the solution.

There now

Seem to remember another 1st post a couple of months back along the same lines mmnnn