In the next issue of our Sustainability Certification Series we profile the non-profit organization based in North Berwick, Scotland that has, alongside experts from many backgrounds, facilitated the international voluntary standards for sustainability in golf for over 16 years, the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf. To read the Sustainability Certification article on Audubon International, please click here. 

The GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, or GEO (which stands for Golf Environment Organization), was established in 2006 and is the only international non-profit entirely dedicated to providing a credible and accessible system of sustainability standards, support programs, recognition, and capacity building for the golf industry. GEO’s reach spans more than 75 countries and is steadily growing.

GEO’s mission includes enhancing golf’s added societal and economic value, broadening the game’s appeal to non-golfers, empowering the industry to take action to address climate change, and enabling sustainable collaboration across diverse stakeholder networks from both inside and outside of the golf industry. 

One of GEO’s primary forms of impact comes from its certification framework developed to help golf course operations, golf course developments, and golf tournaments generate maximum positive impacts via their OnCourse® platform. OnCourse® is designed to help golf industry stakeholders establish and track metrics to improve operational efficiencies, inform decision making and understand the positive and negative impacts their operations have on surrounding communities and ecosystems.

Notable GEO Certified® venues include Brazil's Rio Olympic Golf Course built specifically for the 2016 Summer Games, Florida’s Broken Sound Club which is the first GEO Certified® facility in the United States, and Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, the home of the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage Open.

To get a better understanding of GEO’s impact on the industry, we will give a short overview of each of their three industry certifications: Developments, Tournaments, and Facilities. For more details visit sustainable.golf or get in touch with GEO using hello@sustainable.golf.

GEO Certified® Golf Courses

The OnCourse® program for golf courses is designed specifically for the managers and daily operators of resort, public, private and municipal golf courses across the world. This framework employs the logic that simple actions across thousands of golf courses can provide valuable and meaningful impact for the golf industry and its stakeholders. The OnCourse® platform is free and easy to use with guidance provided along every step of the way. 

The most important caveat to take away from the OnCourse® program is that golf courses are allotted the freedom to develop programs and initiatives that fit into the context of their operation like resources limitations (financial, staff, environmental), environmental habitats, operational structure (private, public, resort or municipal) and local, regional and national governmental policies and regulations.

As with the other two GEO Certification systems, golf course operation best practices are aligned across the themes of fostering nature, conserving resources, and supporting communities. OnCourse® users review and record actions across 124 different best practices topics that include golf and employee communication and outreach; water, energy, and waste resource management; and turfgrass management, habitat and biodiversity enhancement ,and pollution prevention and mitigation.

The platform then aggregates annual data and allows the user to produce sustainability reports that show project implementation progress, receive recommendations for improvement and track the operation’s carbon footprint. OnCourse® also provides tips for creating internal communications for greater operational buy-in and public relations plans to share sustainability achievements.

The list of notable golf courses that are GEO Certified® is very long and exhaustive and includes PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; St. Andrews Links in Scotland; and Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club. One of the joys of following GEO on social media is seeing the continuous highlights from members all across the world that are implementing progressive and innovative solutions to climate, environmental, and social inequities. 

GEO Certified® Developments

This program aims to embed sustainability into golf course developments before the first shovel breaks ground. The GEO Certified® Development status is underpinned by the International Social and Environmental Labeling (ISEAL) Alliance which ensures the certification process follows the highest standard of sustainable development codes, provides credible reporting and results, is peer reviewed, and independently assessed and in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The focus of each step in the process is to support the practical themes of sustainable golf of fostering nature, supporting communities, conserving resources and taking climate action.

GEO provides guidance or full support for a wide-ranging set of developmental parameters including processing permitting applications, hosting public and stakeholder engagement events, helping project teams engage with investors, and lastly, providing mentorship of sustainability reporting, decision making, project coordination, and operational preparations.

Visit the GEO Developments page to see some of the outcomes of the certification process that add social and environmental value to these golf course development projects, including:

• Grassroots community engagement initiatives that help to integrate the local workforce into the project from the get go. 

• Project teams that develop an acute understanding of local horticulture practices and synergies to help knit the manicured green space into its surrounding native ecosystems.

• Partnerships with local governments and non-golf stakeholders are created to improve community relationships and help to foster climate action collaborations and positive legacies.

GEO Certified® Tournaments

The Tournaments framework, which was adapted from the Council for Responsible Sport’s standards framework, was formed to develop voluntary international sustainability standards for activities included in planning, staging, and hosting a golf tournament. This framework demonstrates how to align sustainability initiatives with various tournament stakeholders and delivery partners to create a unified commitment to implement best practices into tournament operations and execute a plan to achieve a net positive impact on the host community and ecosystem.

Tournaments receive their certification based on a scoring method determined by their baseline performance, demonstrated successes, and commitment to achieve beyond industry benchmarks. Scoring criteria fall under six various stages of hosting a golf tournament and align across GEO’s three best practice themes of fostering nature, conserving resources, and supporting communities. The six stages include planning and communications, nature, procurement, resource management, access & equity, and legacy.

Notable golf tournaments that proudly display their GEO certification status include the PGA TOUR’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (courtesy of the great work from DTG’s own Alex Baxter and his team at Blue Strike Environmental), the LPGA’s Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, The Solheim Cup, the Ryder Cup and The Open Championship. Additionally, GEO works hand-in-hand with the R&A, the Ladies European Tour, the LPGA and the DP World Tour to help each governing body develop sustainability plans of their own for greater societal impact.

Driving the Green Takeaways:

The GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf was one of the first organizations I learned about upon entering the golf sustainability market. The value held in the products and services GEO offers is found in their ability to effectively communicate the need for social, environmental and climate action to golf’s stakeholders. The framework that GEO uses is not a reinvention of the wheel but a foundation from which meaningful action can take place because it can be adapted and applied to the context of any golf course development, operation or tournament. 

I would advise any golf industry stakeholder that is either interested in beginning their sustainability journey or looking to take their sustainability programming to the next level to start a conversation with the GEO team. The time for action is now and the resources for you to make a difference in your community exist, all you need to do is take the first step.