Q: What are the European Tour Group’s main sustainability initiatives?
Maria: We started the Green Drive, our sustainability programme, three years ago. Although we had championed sustainability for a long time before that, launching the Green Drive formalised our commitment to priority issues such as climate change.
Green Drive focuses on four key areas:
- Resource efficiency – What natural resources are we using? Can we use fewer?
- Nature – Golf courses cover many hectares, how can we preserve and promote the natural habitat? Can we increase its biodiversity?
- Social responsibility – Sustainability is not just about the environment. It also encompasses inclusion, accessibility, community and charity.
- Climate action – Focusing on reducing carbon emissions and embracing innovations that can help us achieve this is a core part of our Green Drive.
In addition to our events, we also look at our business footprint – our staff, how we travel, how we impact the community and where we stay during tournaments.
The Green Drive’s approach aligns directly with the United Nation Sports for Climate Action Framework, a cohort of around 280 signatories globally – of which we are the first professional Golf tour to have signed up – aiming to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 and hit net zero by 2040.
Q: What practical examples can you share?
Maria: There are around 40 events on the DP World Tour schedule, of which we own or operate around half, meaning we have almost full operational control of them.
We set high benchmarks and try to engage with our suppliers around their role in the event’s footprint, encouraging stakeholders to calculate everything they are using and its impact.
There are some areas where we are seeing significant innovation and progress. As an example, in many markets now we have moved away from depending on diesel, instead using biofuel or HVO fuel.
The broadcast of the 2023 BMW PGA Championship was entirely powered by hydrogen, which was a world first, and will be replicated this year. At the 2023 DP Tour World Championship, one of the lounges was powered by a hybrid of solar and hydrogen.
Elsewhere within operations, the team has also done an incredible job at reducing the use of timber. Where previously we might have had a structured wall with branding, we now use significantly less timber for the structure and have been working with a lot more mesh as opposed to vinyl.
Recycling is a huge part of Green Drive too. It’s amazing what you can do with leftover materials. Wood and screws might go to a charity, we can recycle the mesh, what can go to agriculture we take to be used again in the fields. The 2023 BMW PGA Championship generated more than 3,000 meals for a local food bank, and we were able to carpet 20 homes with leftover material from the event.
Q: Do current or prospective tournament venues have to commit to certain sustainability measures in order to host an event?
Maria: When we choose a championship venue, our Tournament Operations teams and agronomists are heavily involved in assessing aspects such as course quality and infrastructure around the venue. The agronomists are especially well versed in environmental considerations and know what is required, but at present we don’t prescribe anything from a sustainability perspective to venues.
I think that in time there will be sustainability measures included in venue agreements – which is the case with other supplier agreements that now have reference to our Green Drive.
Q: What practices can ETD venues implement to demonstrate their own commitments to sustainability?
Maria: Sustainability can be an overwhelming term sometimes, but it’s often minor changes that add up to make a bigger impact.
A good example is looking at how golf courses are managed. You could let perhaps 10% of the land grow wild which could have little to no impact on play but a huge impact on biodiversity.
Irrigation is another area of consideration. At many network venues, 99% of irrigation water is from non-potable sources – and they’re implementing innovative ways to source water. Le Golf National in Paris is the perfect example of this, having invested heavily in reservoirs and pumps to be completely self-sufficient.
At Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, they decided not to reseed the Earth course year on year, so not only does it negate the carbon footprint of the seed being flown over from the US, it also saves 20 million litres of water a year – extraordinary for a Middle East venue.
Another worthwhile exercise is looking at your suppliers – are you sourcing items from abroad, when you could acquire them locally?
If every golf venue in the world made a small positive change to its course management, its accessibility and inclusion or its carbon footprint, the cumulative effect would be phenomenal.
Q: Why is it important for European Tour Destinations venues to be GEO Certified?
Maria: Given the sheer volume of land golf courses occupy, it has to be sustainable to survive as a sport. Like all golf resorts, clubs and courses around the world, European Tour Destinations venues have a responsibility to be sustainable, to be guardians of their environment and to make it accessible for all so the sport has a healthy future.
GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation provides brilliant support to courses with their sustainability initiatives, and the certification they oversee is the industry standard. It’s also the only certification in sport to have achieved iseal code compliant status, adding credibility to venues claims and communications.
We trust the organisation completely and we’re very lucky to have it in our industry, offering their expertise and programs that help drive and measure golf’s performance while also providing an inclusive platform that connects all our efforts.