Source: BBC Radio 4: Today Programme
URL: N/A
Date: 25/09/2014
Event: Sustainability, golf and the "greenest Ryder Cup ever"
Credit: BBC Radio 4: Today Programme
People:
Rob Bonnet: With the opening ceremony at 4 o'clock this afternoon, momentum is building here, at Gleneagles, towards the staging of the 40th Ryder Cup. This most certainly is a beautiful part of Scotland but it'll have something like 45,000 spectators trampling around the PGA Centenary Course on each of the three competition days, so... there's clearly potential damage to the environment. Enter Jonathan Smith, CEO of the Golf Environment Organisation, who's been telling me why this will be the greenest Ryder Cup ever.
* * *
Jonathan Smith: This is the most concerted effort ever to integrate nature conservation and resource efficiency and extended community engagement into the Ryder Cup, to take that sustainability agenda and make it part of the decision-making behind the Ryder Cup. So, there's been a more concerted effort around the venue, around Gleneagles, both on the day-to-day management but also on the site protection plan and the site restoration plan for after the event - all of those things have been very carefully looked at, to make sure that the ecology of the site is better, after the Ryder Cup, after the work's been done, than it was before.
Rob Bonnet: Give us some examples, can you, of, specifically, what you're doing.
Jonathan Smith: At Gleneagles itself, you know, it's one of those glaciated landscapes, covered in heather, and over the years that changes the ecological value of Gleaneagles' golf courses. And that's been something we've been working on, for a while. So, certain species that enjoyed the heather and lived in the heather uniquely, don't live there any more. So, the restoration plan, post-Ryder Cup, is to get those back into better ecological state, so an idea of having like a net gain from the Ryder Cup, on the ecology. There's a short-term impact, of course, but let's make sure that, ecologically, the golf courses are in better state after the Ryder Cup.
Rob Bonnet: So what's your blueprint, then, for a "green" golf course?
Jonathan Smith: It's one that is the right type of golf course, in the right place. One that is using entirely renewable water and resources, one that is as close to organic as it possibly can be, one that is full of nature, not just for golfers but for other people - it, sort of, multiplies benefits out into the local community. I think, you know, if it's done well, golf can be a social and economic and environmental asset - that's not always been the case, but the industry is investing in the standards and the activities and initiatives now, to make that the case in the future.
Rob Bonnet: How much do golfers care?
Jonathan Smith: Well, that's a good question, and that's the next phase - is to make this relevant to the day-to-day golfer, so that they feel more proud or enjoy their golf course more, something that golfers do care about. There's been some surveys recently that show that golfers do care, but I think that -
Rob Bonnet: Golfers care about their handicap.
Jonathan Smith: Yeah, actually, interestingly there was a recent survey that highlighted that quite a high percentage of golfers, surveyed 3,000 people, said that playing on a natural golf course was more fun. We can equate some of these things to the products, the actual course that golfers play on, but that communications plan to get down into golfers is really the next phase.
Rob Bonnet: Jonathan Smith, thanks very much.
Jonathan Smith: Thank you.