Golf Business News – European Tour Group celebrates winners of Sustainability Awards

The winners of the inaugural European Tour Group Sustainability Awards for the Middle East have been announced at a ceremony in Dubai ahead of the DP World Tour Championship.

The awards are designed to honor Tour suppliers who have demonstrated leadership and innovation in helping to bring sustainable golf tournaments to the Middle East. It was open to all suppliers who have worked on DP World Tour, Challenge Tour or Legends Tour events in the region for the 2023–2024 seasons.

The judging panel included a mix of experts from the golf industry and golf sustainability, including independent experts from the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf.

Across the five categories, the winners were as follows:

Food Prize

• Winner: The Fluid of Life
• Liquid of Life won for its work to introduce beverage dispenser solutions in competitions that combine ease of operation with an eco-conscious footprint. Technology has played a major role in avoiding the use of single-use plastic water bottles at events.

Event Stage Award

• Winner: They are not bad
• Highly recommended: Arena team
• The judges were impressed by Wicked's innovative approach to the creation of the Earth Lounge at the DP World Tour Championship. Located on the 16th hole, this hospitality building is made of palm board, integrates nature inside the building with rental plants, and recycled materials inside. The lounge is powered entirely by solar and hydrogen, reduces carbon emissions by 100%, and redefines what a premium event space can do.

Event Performance Award

• Winner: Greek
• Aggreko's commitment to finding new and more environmentally friendly solutions for conventional temporary power supply units, such as the adoption of biofuels instead of diesel, and creating more opportunities to make an impact was an outstanding entry with impressive data to reduce development.

Place Award

• Winner: Emirates Golf Club
• In the most immediate category, Emirates Golf Club's increased support for environmental programs including habitat and species restoration, in addition to sustainable efficiency, sets itself apart.

Award for Innovation and Functionality

• Joint Winner: Averda and Flow
• After much deliberation, the judging panel found the submissions from Averda and Flow too close to call, so both organizations collected the Award.
• Averda won for its innovative waste management solutions, including using on-site food computers to reduce food waste, with ORCA's digestion technology that uses micro-organisms to turn food waste into a nutrient-rich liquid. A total of 35 tons of waste was removed from the landfill thanks to their solutions.
• Flow won with their ambitious vision to power the Earth Lounge, creating a sustainable, hybrid solar and hydrogen energy solution that set a new standard for sustainable event energy.

Speaking about the Awards, Maria Grandinetti-Milton, Director of Sustainability at the European Tour Group, said: “Across our various tours we play over 100 tournaments a year in over 30 countries. As part of our Green Drive programme, we aim to be the most sustainable golf course in the world, committing to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero carbon by 2040. That's not a bad thing if you're a real person. global operations.

“Getting there will be a full team effort and with over 2,500 suppliers, it's important that this group of stakeholders buys into our work. We are delighted with the number of entries for the inaugural Awards and the judging panel had a difficult task in selecting the winners.

“Congratulations to those who took the award – they showed true resilience. We are excited to take these awards to other locations next year and look forward to seeing the impact of sharing and celebrating these cutting-edge solutions.”