International CSR consultancy Between-us has revealed the results of the second Sustainable Golf Index, a benchmark measuring the perceived sustainability of professional golf tournaments.
The Netherlands’ KLM Open, an official tournament on the PGA European Tour, is ranked as the most sustainable golf event on the tour after a close finish with the Belas Clube de Campo Senior Open de Portugal.
The Sustainable Golf Index allows tournaments and their sponsors to benchmark their progress in sustainability. Many of the companies sponsoring professional golf tournaments are faced with increasing demands on reputation and sustainability. Between-us believes that these standards should also be maintained at events that companies associate their name with, providing consistency in the approach of corporate social responsibility.
Jan van der Kaaij, Managing Director of Between-us, says: “Due to the temporary nature of major sports events, they often focus on the organisational and economic execution of the event, foregoing sustainability issues such as the carbon footprint, waste management, local community involvement, and other key indicators. The aim of the Sustainable Golf Index is to raise awareness of this issue amongst golf events and to help them develop a more sustainable approach.”
Tournaments were scored according to three domains: People, Planet and Virtues, with each domain comprising seven indicators.
The KLM Open achieved the highest score of 82.9%, a strong increase in comparison with last year. During the 2011 event, the organisers showcased a number of initiatives such as efficient waste management on site with so-called ‘walking bins’, electric vehicles on the golf course, fuel-efficient vehicles to transfer players, green energy for the event, biological catering, and protection of the flora and fauna on the golf course. With its remaining emissions being offset, the KLM Open is a carbon neutral tournament.
Other events that performed well included the Belas Clube de Campo Senior Open (Portugal), Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (Scotland), and the Deutsche Bank Ladies Open (Switzerland).
The Sustainable Golf Project www.sustainablegolfproject.com