From the Fairways

By John Cockayne | From BG Magazine DISCUSSION WITH ALISTAIR COLLIER FROM THE JOHN COLLIER SURVEY JC: You are on record as saying that the sport of golf needs to be aware that environmental and governance-related legislation continues to be promulgated, at an ever-increasing pace, with the regulatory authorities building capacity to enforce compliance. In this same context, you have also said that it would be better to be ahead of the requirements in terms of compliance, as opposed to sitting on our hands now, and then trying to play catch-up, when we hear the inevitable knock on the door. In terms of environmental awareness and governance, as a sports community, in a summarised form, where are the key areas that you feel we need to ‘up our game’? AC: In the 2021 John Collier Survey for South African Golf Courses, the research indicated that in terms of good governance and environmental compliance, the level sat at just under 31%. The results for 2022 are due to be published shortly, and it will be very interesting to see where this number will be. Notwithstanding, that many of South Africa’s golf clubs have started the ‘journey’, and in fact are already well in step with the requirements, I feel that the summary would be best pitched at its most basic level, within which, I think that the following elements are key. First, club management needs to put in place a rigorous process that monitors, records and reports relevant data in and around the course. The mantra is; that which is not monitored cannot be managed. The second is participating in an independent third-party review of the aforementioned data. JC: We hear much said about the need for transparency, especially in terms of corporate and government activities. Where does this need fit into the golf sector and how important is it? AC: Simply put, and irrespective of the business sector – transparency is a cornerstone of good governance. It is therefore vital for golf, as this transparency builds confidence in the management team, and builds trust in the brand (i.e., the golf club) with its members, potential members, the general public and regulatory authorities. JC: We have covered this point, albeit in a fragmented form, through various FAQs segments within the John Collier Survey’s section, in previous issues of BGM, but I think that it would be well worth revisiting here, and possibly in more detail than we were able to before. In phrasing the question, it is from the perspective, as per your previous comment, of those golf clubs that might not have started the process at all, or who are behind where they should be. The question is in two parts: AC: The response to your two-part question above is; when last did your club management, and or board, sit down and carry out a formal risk assessment of the club? Risk management is an enabling process that supports management, and the board or governing body, in meeting its strategic and business objectives. Notwithstanding the size of a club, in terms of membership numbers, and or budgets, clubs need to make strategic choices, and the implementation thereof requires certain risk-taking. The risk management process is therefore an integral part of strategy setting requirements, and management process, as the information produced through it, along with other sources of information, informs management decisions. To underpin the risk management process, principles 11, 12, 13 and 15 of the King IV Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa 2016 (“King IV™”), issued by the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa, encourage all entities (including golf clubs) to adopt a risk management policy and framework that is based on best practices. It is this strong governance process that can help lead golf club management teams, to discover their own solutions to the aforementioned questions.

By John Cockayne | From BG Magazine DISCUSSION WITH ALISTAIR COLLIER FROM THE JOHN COLLIER SURVEY Our weatherproofing discussion continues with Alistair Collier (AC), who is the founder of the John Collier Survey, and the backdrop to the discussion is the need for venues, resorts and facilities to adopt a more anticipatory thinking process, and to try to be proactive, whenever possible, practical or when budgets will allow. A tumultuous 2022, in climate terms, was capped, at least for the USA, by the bomb cyclone, which literally froze huge swathes of the USA, to bring record low temperatures across many states – 46.5 in Montana at one stage! – but the lead up to this had been no easier: Storms hit Southern Africa – Storm Ana hit Malawi, Madagascar and Mozambique in January (Rijasolo/AFP via Getty Images) A third of Pakistan was under water in September (Shahid Saeed Mirza/AFP via Getty Images) The Bordeaux region in France suffered devastating wildfires (Thibaud Moritz/AFP via Getty Images) Lightning strikes Kolkata in May (Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto via Getty Images) California hit a record 116F in September (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) Typhoon Nanmadol hit southern Japan in September (Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP via Getty Images) JC: All in all, it doesn’t make for very ‘happy’ reading, does it? AC: No, it does not, and the stakes are getting higher every year. It goes to the very core of sport environmental sustainability (sport-ES), where the research is indicating on the one hand vulnerability from exposure to stresses associated with climate change and this vulnerability’s counterpart – resilience, which is the ability to absorb shocks and still maintain function. JC: We shall be returning to these shores, but at the start of the new year, and as we are about to embark on the Eco-Diary with Sabi River Sun Resort GC in the next couple of months, I’d like to take a strategic and almost dispassionate re-look at the whole question of weatherproofing, or to put it differently, the concepts of adaptation and mitigation.We have been bombarded with bad weather news almost continuously for a year, and the pick of the crop of weather-related news stories shown at the beginning of this discussion proves it. In the preamble, we talk about the need for a change of mindset, and although I know we have covered this before, please repeat what the ideal mindset should be for golf to become more environmentally aware. AC: Using the term ‘mindset’ is key, as one needs to understand that the capacity of humans to damage planet earth’s ecological systems, has been widely acknowledged. In this same context, the global scale of the impacts, on the natural environment, are now so pervasive that human activities are primary drivers of environmental change. In this same regard, sport in general, including golf, has had and continues to have a significant impact on the environment. JC: Are we not continually in danger of looking at our environmental impact from too narrow a perspective, or even one-dimensionally? In this context, I would use an example where a club golfer will tend to see golf from the perspective of his or her club, and their monthly game of golf. However, the broader picture in golf terms, shows that golf tourism (which we shall deal with in more detail later in this discussion) is set to rise to US$ 4.8 billion by early 2023, and with these revenues will come a price to be paid environmentally. The linear nature of our thinking was also really brought home to me by the volcanic eruption in Iceland (Eyjafjallajökull) in 2010, where the grounding of European flights, over that ‘no go’ period at the height of the eruption, avoided us from generating about 3.44×108 kg of CO2 emissions per day, while the volcano emitted about 1.5×108 kg of CO2 per day over the same timespan! AC: Indeed, we are ‘guilty’ (if that is the right word) of seeing things from personal perspectives. This makes these types of discussions platform so essential, in keeping everyone updated, as to the real status and the ‘bigger picture’. As for the broader activities encompassed by sport, there is a growing body of literature in sport-ES that has noted the capacity of sports activities to adversely affect the natural environment. In respect of golf, this includes, for example, clearing of land, water usage, turfgrass management, and greenhouse gas emissions, not only from golf course equipment but also the travel aspect, which you have mentioned. All this information needs to be managed, in order to get a comprehensive picture. Research in the sport-ES field indicates increasing levels of sport environmental measurement tools, certification and reporting. From a South African perspective, the John CollierThe survey tool is ideally suited for this country’s requirements, but of real importance is the trend in international research, pointing to entities starting to calculate their carbon footprint, with a goal leading to zero carbon. Embracing a programme of environmental measurement, certification and reporting, and understanding one’s carbon footprint, illustrates a positive mindset. JC: Where does the World Cup in Qatar sit in all of this, and were the bold claims about a zero impact in environmental terms, real, just window dressing, or the result of selective and or wishful thinking? AC: Ever since the 1994 Winter Olympic Games at Lillehammer, called the “green games” the International Olympic Committee have been striving to govern host cities in delivering environmentally friendly games. The research indicates that host cities fell well short of the commitments they made. This includes the so-called environmentally compliant golf courses, such as the Olympic Golf Course in Rio de Janeiro and the Kasumigaseki Country Club at the Tokyo games. Similarly, with the World Cup Soccer, FIFA has also set out environmental standards and criteria, which bid cities need to adhere to. In respect of the FIFA World Cup held in South Africa in 2010, research by Govender, S., Munien, S., Pretorius, L., & Foggin, T., they concluded that