St Andrews Links, the Home of Golf, has received a top award for its commitment to developing sustainable practices across its world famous living landscape.
The world’s largest sustainable certification programme of its kind, Green Tourism, whose mission is to encourage and enable people to make sustainable choices that reduce their impact on the planet, awarded St Andrews Links the GOLD award for the wide and diverse range of sustainable practices.
Sustainable practices have long been recognised on the courses with the Home of Golf the first Open Championship venue to receive the Golf Environment Organization certified ecolabel in 2011.
Alongside these on-course practices a range of colleagues at the Links have worked extremely hard in recent years to develop sustainable practices across the Links business, which includes the seven golf courses, three clubhouses, five shops and golf academy.
Green Tourism praised the Links for practices such as the use of Voltage optimisation, solar panels and ground & air source heat pumps. The team have also installed a fully induction operated kitchen and the menu provided to all within the clubhouse has been awarded the Taste Our Best award.
Waste has also been a big area for the team’s focus with an internal campaign resulting in bin numbers being reduced and onsite composter developed for all food waste.
Green Tourism CEO Jon Proctor commented: “The green team at St Andrews Links have worked exceptionally hard to implement a number of our sustainable recommendations and we are so proud to award them with a highly rated GOLD award, positioning them as one of the leading green businesses in Scotland.
“Working closely with suppliers to reduce packaging waste, switching to eco-friendly cleaning products, installing Solar PV panelling and updating the kitchen facilities to feature LED lighting and induction hobs are just some of the measures that has enabled the St Andrews business to exceed targets, save money and achieve the highest Green Tourism grade.”
Ewen Bowman, Operations Director, St Andrews Links said: “Across our organisation one of the values underpinning our day-to-day work is to be responsible custodians of this special place, this is reflected in a number of ways not least our commitment to ensuring environmentally friendly practices preserve and nurture the living landscape.
“That commitment exists beyond our golf courses and has been a dedicated element of our work here for a number of years. In recent years colleagues from across the Links and throughout our facilities have focused on many ways to elevate our sustainability practices and it is hugely satisfying to have these efforts recognised and rewarded by Green Tourism.
“I would like to thank everybody who supported this work, recognising that these practices are not only the right way forward but fundamental to what we do at the Home of Golf.”
St Andrews Links www.standrews.com