Sustainable golf course development

For a sustainable golf course development, choose an EIGCA architect

As a golf course developer, you have a responsibility to minimise the negative impacts of your development project on the environment. On the other hand, you need to achieve this in balance with maximising the return on your investment and creating a course which people want to play.

A sustainable golf course design, whilst a complex development project covering all areas from initial site selection to the choice of maintenance machinery, will marry all the demands placed on you, and deliver positive outcomes in four key areas:

1. Commercial Advantage

• Improved development cost control: avoids wasted initial capital expenditure on materials and energy
• Operational efficiency and resource savings: the facility will be cheaper to manage and run in the long term
• Customer attraction and loyalty: targets the type of consumers who bring long term repeat business

2. Efficient Planning

• Fast tracking: viewed favourably by regulatory authorities smoothing the path through bureaucratic procedures
• Avoids unforeseen planning and permitting delays: unlikely to be halted by protracted environmental disputes
• Reduces planning costs: limits unnecessary expenditure on legal and other professional fees

3. Positive Legacy

• Market profile: position your development alongside some of the most prestigious and celebrated venues in the world of golf
• Reputation building: "doing the right thing" by sustainability enhances your brand identity

4. Recognition

• Enjoy the benefits of credible, international certification through the GEO Foundation’s programmes (the GEO Foundation is a full member of the ISEAL Alliance, giving wider international credibility outside the golf industry)
• Registering your project with the GEO Foundation’s OnCourse® Developments programme leads to GEO Certified® status (a prestigious and trusted symbol of the quality of golf environments worldwide)

Why choose an EIGCA member?

Through their training, knowledge, and experience, EIGCA members are at the forefront of golf course sustainability. EIGCA's comprehensive and innovative CPD training programme, Sustainability Programme, provides members with specialist in-depth knowledge of all aspects of golf course sustainability, and more importantly, gives members experience in applying this knowledge in a pragmatic and realistic way to enhance your project.

The EIGCA members who have successfully completed the Sustainability Programme are added to the EIGCA Sustainable Design Register and recognised as achieving the gold standard in competency for sustainable golf course design.

EIGCA members are in a unique position to promote sustainable golf course development, being at the heart of the development process with specialist knowledge and content. Appointing an EIGCA member to create a sustainable golf course development gives you credibility, support and the confidence and assurance of a well-designed sustainable golf course coupled with widespread recognition of your development’s sustainable credentials.

FIND AN EIGCA MEMBER

EIGCA SUSTAINABLE DESIGN REGISTER