How to create and manage sustainability plan blueprints for golf operations

Just as a detailed and thorough blueprint is critical for turning a building plan into sturdy reality, your facility’s sustainability success hinges on creating and executing a solid plan. At Audubon International, comprehensive, and science-based planning is at the heart of every certification program we offer, including our seminal Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf.

Before we embark on a certification path with a new partner, we make sure they have done one very important thing: Recognize that through the process and to continue their stewardship journey for years to come, it’s a team effort.  If you’re the golf superintendent or the property manager, it’s okay to acknowledge that you can’t do it all yourself. To build a sustainability program with deep, healthy roots, you want to involve your general manager at the very least, in concert with your maintenance team, your greens committee or other club- or community-level environment committee or group. Working together, with across-the-board buy-in, will keep your program on track and moving forward, and your goals in clear view. That teamwork element is vitally important to establish right away.

The foundation: site assessment

Every Audubon International certification blueprint begins with a thorough Site Assessment and Environmental Plan (SAEP). It’s the “foundation” portion of the plan. In the golf realm, this is where a golf course superintendent most likely takes the lead, as they are familiar with the property’s characteristics and needs both above ground and below ground, including soil health, turf health, water conservation and quality, and energy use. How many acres is the entire course footprint? How many acres are actually in play? How many water bodies/water features are there, and what is their condition and function? Is the cart fleet gasoline-powered or electric? Is the mowing and maintenance equipment kept in good repair?

Getting a baseline assessment of these and other elements of a property’s operations, indoors and out, reveals the clear path to certification. It also gives you the inside track to long-term sustainability success.

Building blocks: dialing in details

Throughout the certification process there are many opportunities to bring in an individual or group to help create a complete, detailed picture. Water testing, wildlife inventories, and case studies are great projects for college interns, club members, or HOA neighbors. Perhaps there’s a…