Following leadership from The Federation of
European Golf Greenkeeper Associations, greenkeepers all over Europe have come
together in a pledge for responsible and sustainable golf course management.
All of FEGGA‘s 22 European national
greenkeeping organizations have agreed to promote and endorse a clear, detailed
and ambitious strategic vision that embraces golf‘s potential to produce
multiple benefits for nature and man.
Included within this collaboration were
representatives of the R&A and the GEO Foundation, and the result is the
FEGGA Statement of Responsible Golf Course Management.
“To put this Statement into context, many
ordinary people throughout Europe in the course of their everyday lives have
major concerns relating to consumption of energy & resources, and the
release of particulates and emissions,” says FEGGA board member Paul Worster,
himself a Golf Course Manager.
“We are all familiar with the terms climate
change and global warming and every industry is required to deliver a clean and
non-polluting service. However, very few regular golfers would have any concept
of any standards within the Golf Industry to prepare a golf course for play,
each and every day. The Statement sets these out and looks for ways to
improve.”
According to FEGGA Board Chairman, Kamil
Pecenka, the purpose of the FEGGA Statement is not to rigidly dictate to every
greenkeeper how to do their job. Rather, the aim is to communicate the job that
is done, and the solid reasoning and environmental principles behind it. The
Statement is to give guidance and direction to the greenkeeping team, and is to
be regarded as a tool with which to communicate with members, visitors and
owners.
The FEGGA board aims is to translate the
document into all the member Associations native languages, and with six
completed 2 of which are available to view below, a real positive start has
been made. This will certainly allow the document to reach more people, and for
them to see the commitment FEGGA is making once again to Sustainable Golf
Course Management.
Another build on to the document is to make it
electronically interactive, providing links to simple but important information
and guidance for greenkeepers and golf clubs to help them with their own
journey of sustainable management. It then becomes a real resource within the
FEGGA toolbox.
FEGGA Executive Officer Dean Cleaver says that
FEGGA plans to continually build on this initial statement and include case
studies from successful projects and working practices. “We will not pull any
punches here. As well as inspiring our people to improve environmental
performance, the package needs to be a sensible, useful, practical working
guide as to how to make improvements, and how to answer questions and scrutiny
from those who pay for the maintenance of our courses. In short, we need to be
credible and convincing and the document needs to be exactly that.”
