A discernible trend indicates that the standards for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance, including in sustainable golf, continue to rise.
Consumers are increasingly aligning their spending habits with their values. Today, it is not an exaggeration to say that most people – cca. 60% – make purchasing decisions based on sustainability and ethical considerations.
Together, Generation X and Millennials hold the largest share of global spending power. Hence, Nielsen’s findings matter a lot.
75% of Millennials are eco-conscious to the point of changing their buying habits to favor environmentally-friendly products.
Furthermore, consumers are willing to pay a premium for ethically sourced and sustainably produced products.
I strongly recommend to golf clubs to focus on the following three key topics moving forward:
- Water security,
- Protection of biodiversity,
- Food system sustainability.
GEO Foundation: The Sustainable Golf Pledge
To assist golf clubs in achieving sustainability, the GEO Foundation has improved and simplified its support and recognition programs for golf courses.
This initiative promotes a more effective transition to environmentally friendly practices within the golfing community.
The Sustainable Golf Pledge – customized for both clubs and country — is now live at sustainable.golf/pledge.
The pledge enables any golf facility to make a clear and meaningful commitment to sustainability, helping engage staff, members, and local stakeholders.
The Pledge is a direct pathway to the complimentary OnCourse software program, enabling clubs to evaluate best practices, monitor essential data, access customized sustainability reports, and compile the necessary information for certification.
In conjunction with these tools, the Sustainable Golf Highlights Hub provides insights and showcases innovations throughout the industry.
Carole Kerrey, Director of Impact, GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation, says
“This round of improvements are driven by adding more value to course and club managers, while also delivering on the ever increasing credibility expectations of governments and communities.”
Several significant upgrades have been made to OnCourse, including:
- Tools, Templates, and Guidance: The guidance has been completely updated, including new calculators for waste estimates and pesticide use, as well as templates for resource management and biodiversity policies.
- Personalized Action Planners: Updated ‘best practices’ make possible the introduction of tailored action plans, complementing the existing Sustainable Golf Scorecard reports. Bespoke action plans will help clubs prioritize improvements based on the actions recorded in OnCourse — like a “Sustainability Strokesaver” — helping facilities to see where they can improve their performance.
- Updated Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Updated turfgrass management resources align with evolving IPM principles and regulatory requirements, helping courses adopt best practices and anticipate changes.
- Powering Data Insights: Upgraded software architecture also enables the integration and analysis of diverse data sets — ranging from club performance data to open-source climate data. New themed surveys can also now feed industry databases at local, national, and international levels. These further improvements, tested over recent years, strengthen data tracking and visualization for both facilities and industry groups to put golf at the forefront of sustainability data insights and reporting.
- Alignment with Global Initiatives: OnCourse provides frameworks for tracking and enhancing biodiversity, as well as calculating and reducing carbon footprints. The OnCourse upgrades, alongside other tools in the Sustainable Golf Pathway, now strongly demonstrate how golf’s contributions align with global environmental efforts, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, UN Sport for Climate Action, the movement towards ‘nature positive’ land uses and businesses, and rapidly evolving Green Claims regulations.