Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore has announced that it has become the world’s first carbon neutral golf club, delivering on a commitment made during golf’s HSBC Women’s World Championship in 2021.
As part of its sustainability commitment, and to complement ongoing carbon abatement efforts identified during its carbon profiling, the Club has offset 5,000 tonnes of CO2, the annual equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions from 12.4m miles driven by an average petrol-powered car and CO2 emissions from 630 homes’ energy usage [1].
Since April 2021, the Club has with the support of its members set aside $1 from every round of golf to procure high quality carbon credits from the Katingan Mentaya Project (Indonesia) and Cordillera Azul National Park (Peru).
The Cordillera Azul National Park project helps restore degraded forestry, preventing 25.2 million tonnes of carbon being released into the atmosphere to date, as well as supporting 665 jobs in the local community, 40% of which are held by women; whilst the Katingan Mentaya Project protects more than 150,000 hectares of peat swamp forest, generating 7.5 million carbon credits; its impact is equivalent to removing two million cars off the road each year.
Following on from its initial pledge, Sentosa Golf Club’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality formed part of its commitment to the UN Sports for Climate Action Race to Zero initiative, as well as the Sentosa Carbon Neutral Network, with a number of steps taken to compensate its carbon footprint, all under the umbrella of its sustainability campaign, GAME ON.
The Club was also the first in Asia to introduce carbon products in the form of Biochar into their agronomy programme to help remove more carbon from the atmosphere.
Other initiatives, pioneered over a decade of work, were identified to help with the reduction of scope 1-3 carbon[2], including a state-of-the-art irrigation system and agronomy equipment that creates efficiencies and minimises product wastage seen by over fertilisation and watering.
The introduction of an all-electric golf cart fleet powered with lithium batteries, car charging stations and waste digesters, also helps to grind down food and horticultural waste to reuse as fertilizer on the golf course. Further initiatives were also introduced to increase energy efficiency, resulting in the Clubhouse being awarded the Green Mark Certification.
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These complement other on-course efforts that saved over 300 different species of trees during the redevelopment of the Club’s Tanjong course, and the introduction of stingless bee colonies on-site that thrive in an ecosystem alongside otters, peacocks, long-tail macaques and other migratory and native birds. Endangered mangrove species situated in The Serapong Lagoon and heritage sites such as Fort Berhala Reping have also been preserved within the natural landscape of the golf courses.
On achieving the carbon neutrality goal, General Manager and Director of Agronomy, Andrew Johnston highlighted the importance of this historic milestone for the golf industry, saying: “We are proud to see that Sentosa Golf Club has achieved/become the world’s first carbon neutral golf club and are extremely proud of this achievement. Ever since we began to share the importance of our sustainability journey back in 2018, we have always been focused on becoming an industry leader and inspiring others to follow suit by implementing eco-friendly initiatives to help reduce our overall carbon footprint. Hopefully this is just the beginning and more clubs around the world will commit to becoming carbon neutral in the near future.”
Sentosa Golf Club joins others in the sporting world, such as English Football League side, Forest Green Rovers, who became the world’s first carbon neutral football club, with the likes of Formula 1 and World Athletics both making carbon neutral pledges in recent years.
For more information on Sentosa Golf Club visit www.sentosagolf.com
About Sentosa Golf Club:
Sentosa Golf Club is recognized as one of the most established golf clubs in Singapore and Asia, with two world-class championship golf courses, The Serapong and The Tanjong, excellent practices facilities and a contemporary clubhouse. Both courses are considered to be amongst the most challenging and exciting in the region. Situated on the premier island of Sentosa, with a breathtaking backdrop of Singapore’s iconic cityscape, the Club regularly receives world-class accolades and is enjoyed by 1,500 distinguished members. Since current General Manager, Director of Agronomy and Resident Golf Course Designer, Andrew Johnston joined the Club in 2010, Sentosa is currently ranked inside the ‘Top 100 World’s Greatest Golf Courses’ by Golf Digest and the ‘Top 100 in the World’ by Platinum Clubs of the World. Whilst The Serapong occupies the top spot in Golf Digest’s latest biennial rankings for ‘Singapore’s Best Courses’, which it has done for 10 years, with The Tanjong placed third. The Serapong was also named ‘Asia’s Best Golf Course’ at the 2022 World Golf Awards. The Club was awarded the ‘Best Golf Club in the World’ title at the 2019 World Golf Awards, and ‘World’s Best Eco-Friendly Golf Facility’ for three consecutive years from 2020-22. As well as its thriving reputation, the Club has played host to several high-profile professional events, including eight Barclays Singapore Open’s and six SMBC Singapore Open’s, seeing many of golf’s biggest names compete on The Serapong for one of Asia’s biggest prize funds. The Club is also home to the HSBC Women’s World Championship, the marquee LPGA Tour event dubbed ‘Asia’s Major’. Offering more than a memorable golfing experience, the Club has excellent meeting and banqueting facilities for corporate networking, as well as high-end dining options. Following on from becoming the first golf club in the world to sign the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Initiative, the club continued to accelerate its sustainability credentials by becoming the world’s first golf club to commit to carbon neutrality by 2022. Sentosa Golf Club was also named ‘Sustainability Champion of the Year’ at the Britcham 22nd Annual Business Awards, organized by the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore. At the Asian Golf Awards in 2022 Sentosa captured the accolades of ‘Best Championship Course in Asia-Pacific’ and ‘Best Golf Course in Singapore’ for The Serapong.
