By Alistair Collier | The Business of Golf Magazine
Previously
BG: If the overarching theme is the environment, we assume that there will be a special focus each year – is this correct?
Continued
AC: Yes – and the 2024 day’s focus is on land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience.
There is a worrying intensification of what is termed, the triple planetary crisis: the crisis of climate change, the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss, and the crisis of pollution and waste.
In terms of the triple planetary crisis, land restoration can reverse the creeping tide of land degradation, drought, and desertification. This type of restoration boosts livelihoods, lowers poverty and builds resilience to extreme weather, while increasing carbon storage and slowing climate change. Restoring just 15 per cent of land, and halting further conversion, could avoid up to 60 per cent of expected species’ extinctions.
In this regard attention to the drivers of land degradation, drought, and desertification, such as climate change are important. Last year, temperature records were shattered, and much of the world felt the impacts, not just in heat but in storms, floods, and drought. Restoring land without tackling climate change would be like giving with one hand and taking away with the other.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become the common language of sustainability, which are supported by the three pillars of sustainability namely, environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies and objectives. Strategic alignment with the goals has become standard practice in sustainable businesses. For example, the
World Business Council for Sustainable Development recently reported that 94% of its members referenced the SDGs in their 2022 sustainability reports. Investors are also using the SDGs framework to mobilize, direct, and steer capital.
BG: How did Elements ‘catch the eye this year?
AC: What Elements did so well, in their survey questionnaire, was to illustrate its stewardship of the land is linked to the WED focus areas on land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience, and their attention to ESG and SDG and in particular Sustainable Development Goals 15 (Life on Land) and 13 (Climate Action). In addition, Elements illustrated an
understanding of the triple planetary crises of: climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
What the board of trustees and management also illustrated, in their survey questionnaire, is their understanding of the relevance of the ESG and the importance of the SDGs for
Elements itself. It is this understanding that has laid the groundwork by setting a sustainability approach that takes into consideration the positive and negative impacts of their business on the ESG risks and opportunities, and the setting of short and long-term environmental compliance, social responsibility and good governance goals, which are aligned with the ESG and SDGs, and then overseeing the progress on them, reporting back, and engaging with stakeholders.
BG: Could other South African clubs learn from Elements, and indeed the other top clubs?
AC: Without doubt, and Element’s understanding of and implementation of the three pillars of ESG, sets a standard that many clubs in South Africa would want to emulate.
Your mention of other top clubs is important, because notwithstanding Elements’ award, special mention must also be made of the Umhlali Country Club and Olivewood Private Estate, and their efforts towards ESG and environmental sustainability.
BG: How much of a team effort is winning an award such as this?
AC: I think that it is all about teamwork, and winning a top club award can only be achieved with the support of committed and passionate people, who wholly embrace the benefits of environmental compliance, social responsibility, and good governance. Therefore, special congratulations must go to Elements Private Golf Reserve’s Chairman Mr Waldo Du Toit, the board of trustees including Mike Engelbrecht, Johan Smith and Nico Hager as board portfolio holders and subcommittee members, the residents, the general manager Gerhard Lombard, club manager Charles Smith, and Tshepiso Mabena and the Matkovich team.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email ajcollier@telkomsa.net or visit the John Collier Golf website at www.johncolliergolf.com