Courses Can Profit from Sustainability Practices

gb_weekly

By Steve Eubanks, Contributor, Golf Business  

For most, the whole thing seems squishy, the kind of concept that everyone talks about in vague terms, but no one can clearly define. Golf operators are no different. You hear speeches or go to seminars or read stories about “sustainability” and, deep down, you know this is something you should consider. But then the first foursome of the day shows up asking why there’s a frost delay, and suddenly slogans like “think green, live clean” or “reduce, reuse, reimagine” flee from your mind. Once you enter the front line of a golf operation, sustainability becomes a status symbol, a luxury purchase that puts you in a particular club, one that shows how much you care about the “right” things.  
 
But it shouldn’t be that way. The bad rap on sustainability stems from a few radicals who throw tomato soup on paintings to protest climate change. In truth, most companies, including those in golf, can and should implement some sustainability initiatives, not just for the environment and their customers, but also to improve their own bottom lines.  
 
“Generally speaking, sustainability is about preserving and maintaining your environment, including your golf course, for future generations,” said Eleanor Brown, the director of sustainability for Southworth Properties, which owns and operates courses in Scotland, the Bahamas, and along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. “The mission is to leave your environment better for your children and grandchildren.”  
 
Yes, but what does it mean for the day-to-day operator who understands, first and foremost, that leaving the golf course to his kids tomorrow means turning a profit today? How should that person think about sustainability? 
 
“At Southworth, when we talk about operations there are varying degrees of interest in sustainability, and that is perfectly understandable,” Brown said. “Everybody is busy, so sustainability is often on the backburner. That’s where setting goals with a concrete business reason for achieving them is vital to the process.” 
 
At Southworth, the goals are simple: By the end of 2025, the company hopes to reduce single-use plastic bottles by 200,000 over 2022 levels. And they hope to divert at least 30% of their food waste away from landfills.  
 
“The way we’ve implemented those goals has been different depending on usage and resources,” Brown said. “A lot of people have some understanding of the single-use plastic bottle issue because we have so much ocean waste. But, also, there are some significant health impacts from plastics.” 
 
Recent studies have shown an alarming increase in microplastics ingested by humans. Plastics are everywhere, from food processing and packaging to particles in the air. And the impact on the human body can be catastrophic. Hormonal imbalance, reproductive problems, metabolic and autoimmune disorders, even certain cancers can be traced to plastics in the bloodstream. As wonderful as it is to think about cleaning the oceans, most people put their own health ahead of the Atlantic dolphin. 
 
For the course owner, that’s an opportunity to do the right thing and save money. 
 
“Water stations are more economical and efficient than filling coolers with ice and plastic water bottles every day,” Brown said. “At one club where we only put water bottles out during events, we’re looking to transition from plastic bottles to aluminum. Aluminum bottles are getting very cost competitive. 
 
“We’re also looking to expand water stations throughout the courses. That’s a tougher ask because you must run waterlines and provide power, although we are looking to use a solar pack to power the water stations, which will take care of one aspect of that. But putting out plastic bottles takes a lot of work every day. Cutting out those with coolers or water stations cuts down on labor.” 
 
Glass is another alternative making huge inroads, not just because of the health and environmental benefits, but because they are, long-term, more economical.  
 
“At the Abaco Club (on Abaco Island in the Bahamas), we have an in-house bottling system to replace plastic bottles with reusable glass bottles,” Brown said. “Nordaq out of Sweden started out as a filtering company that decided to ship the system and the bottles out rather than creating one giant bottling plant and shipping the finished product all over the world. So, you bottle the filtered water on your site, wash those bottles and reuse them.  
 
“Our members are very excited about that and are already asking when they can put the bottles in their homes.” 
 
The other Southworth goal – reducing food waste in landfills by 30% - also has a huge economic component. 
 
“Organic food waste can be easily used for other purposes,” Brown said. “It’s a resource that we don’t need to be wasting given its other uses.” 
 
Those uses include fuel. A bit of history: when Rudolph Diesel invented what we now know as the diesel engine (it should be capitalized as it is a proper name), his goal was an engine that ran on alternative fuel derived from organic materials. It wasn’t until John D. Rockefeller created diesel fuel as a biproduct of crude oil that Rudolph’s dream died. But that fact is, for more than 125 years, we’ve had an engine that will run off liquified food waste. 
 
The other use is fertilizer. With organic farming making a comeback as more emphasis is placed on the quality or origins of food, industrial composting is a massive business.   
 
“We’re now renting a composting machine from a company called BioGreen 360,” Brown said. “The Ritz Carlton has been using them for the last couple of years. It’s a system installed in your kitchen that liquifies your food waste and sends it into a storage container outside. That is used as fertilizer. A lot of the compost can also go to local farms, which serves a lot of needs.” 
 
With farm-to-fork becoming a standard in many restaurants, the ability to send compost to a neighboring farm makes everybody happy and adds to your club’s bottom line. 
 
While there is no one magic bullet for sustainability that makes everyone happy, Brown’s philosophy for all operators is simple: “You should never let perfect get in the way of good,” she said. 
 
And in the real world, good sustainability practices can and should lead to a better and more profitable business.

 

🎙 Golf Business Podcast

** The views and opinions featured in Golf Business WEEKLY are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the NGCOA.**