COVER STORY: Change driver

While environmental and financial reasons are forces contributing to the reduction of golf’s carbon footprint, another is on the horizon -- legislative.

Until the last few years, energy was so darn cheap that no one thought twice about its consumption. It’s similar to how no one worried about water usage until drought and water restriction became headline news across the nation.
Attitudes toward golf’s carbon footprint are following that same trend, and it’s a trend superintendents, managers and owners must take seriously before they’re forced to make changes.

“The various climate change bills on Capitol Hill only go down to 25,000 tons of carbon per year, which involves big manufacturing mills, power plants, that sort of thing,” says Stuart Cohen, an environmental scientist and founder of Environmental and Turf Services, an interdisciplinary consulting firm whose area of expertise includes the turf and golf course market. “In comparison, a golf course may emit only 150 to 300 tons [of carbon] per year, so right now it doesn’t apply to them.

“California, though, passed a bill [HB 32] in 2006 that is slowly being phased in and over the next year or two it may begin to have an impact on golf courses,” he adds. “California typically is ahead of EPA efforts, so there may be regulatory drivers for golf courses to look at their total emissions, their total sequestration and their net sequestration in the near future.”