The team at GEO have been prioritising a number of strategic projects, delivering on key goals for 2017, and preparing for greater roll out of programmes with partners in the future.
OnCourse® for Facilities and Federations
The comprehensive upgrade of the OnCourse technology platform is ready for international and national launches this autumn and winter. The platform is now truly multi-functional and of real value to both grass roots facilities and national associations. No longer just for Certification, OnCourse provides business value to a golf facility every year—full of new guidance, tools and resources that help facilities to record their best practices, data and highlights, and then promote their work to foster nature, conserve resources and support the community. Facilities can also take the optional step of gaining the GEO Certified® label if they choose to, having provided all the information needed through OnCourse.
GEO will be working with several countries on translation, and there is also a new option to add regionally specific content or guidance. OnCourse Sweden, OnCourse Scotland and OnCourse Switzerland will be ready this year, with Portugal, Italy, Flanders, and Netherlands up next, and several other countries interested.
By promoting OnCourse in your country, you also gain opportunities to co-brand the platform; generate revenue through sustainability sponsorships; offer a robust self-regulatory solution; and access highly valuable data and evidence for sustainability reporting and national communications.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the Partnership Agreements available to National Federations or promoting OnCourse to your member clubs, please get in touch with jonathan@golfenvironment.org.
OnCourse® Tournaments and OnCourse® Developments
In addition to the work on OnCourse® for facilities and federations, significant progress has been made on the other OnCourse® programmes for tournaments and new developments, including:
- Completion of voluntary standard for sustainable golf tournaments for the industry
- Launch of new GEO Certified® Tournament label - with pioneering tournaments including the European Tour Scottish Open
- Portugal’s West Cliffs Links Resort became the first GEO Certified® Development in Europe
- New government strategy projects to help guide sustainable golf development— demonstrating how government agencies can integrate sustainability into the long-term policies and planning criteria for golf, and thus helping countries who are trying to increase the number of facilities to grow the sport.
- For further information on golf developments and government strategies contact sam@golfenvironment.org, and for OnCourse Tournaments, lucy@golfenvironment.org
Thank you from GEO!
The team at GEO would like to say a big thank you to all those that we have worked with this year. As a stakeholder and partnership driven non-profit, we really enjoy supporting you and helping make sure golf is recognised as the sport most active in sustainability. In particular our thanks to the EGA, The R&A, European Tour, LET, PGAE, FEGGA, EIGCA, CMAE and EGCOA. At national level we have connected with many EGA members this year, large and small and hope to work with many more of you going forward. As a result of all of that collaborative work we continue to sustain our accreditation from the ISEAL Alliance (and golf remains the only sports based member); and receive endorsements and credit from bodies outside golf, such as Birdlife, WWF, EC, UN and the IOC.