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Greener Golf:
Promoting a More Sustainable Game

David C. Ginn
School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
April 12, 2020

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Executive Summary
At a confluence of accelerating climate change, unprecedented technological
advancement, and increasing corporate and government transparency, global systems are
reaching a level of complexity never seen before. Much about how the future will play out is
unknown. But what is clear is the need for a more sustainable structure to all organizations, and
only those that are willing and able to adapt will survive. Few industries have a greater need for
this change than golf, a sport that has shown significant decline in social and cultural relevance
in recent decades due to controversial business practices and varying perspective on
environmental impact. For this reason, Greener Golf was formed. Greener Golf seeks to help
businesses prepare for this needed level of resiliency, and any organizations or individuals
willing to partner with us will not only adapt but flourish in what many have dubbed the “next
industrial revolution”.
Greener Golf aims to address one of the least sustainable industries in one of the least
sustainable cities, Phoenix, Arizona. Golf was chosen as the specific focus due to its significant
impact on both the landscape of the state and its water reserves. The proposal began by calling
for several improvements to water irrigation infrastructure and landscaping at one golf course in
the valley. In time, however, new opportunities were identified, and the project took on a
different form; one that had the potential to get at the core needs of the golf industry while
reaching a larger audience. It was at this point that Greener Golf was reestablished as a driving
force for sustainability advocacy and education. The vehicle for this advocacy is now
GreenerGolf.org, a platform where golf managers, workers, vendors, players, and entrepreneurs
alike can come to learn about sustainability efforts and solutions in the golf world. It also serves
to connect a network of like-minded individuals with the common goal of bringing sustainability
to the sport they love. With the right vision and partnerships, a robust, adaptable, resilient, and
inclusive business model can be achieved, elevating the game for future generations.

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This serves as a detailed report of strategies implemented to tackle one of the most
significant environmental, economic, and social challenges in Arizona: sustainable water
consumption in the golf industry. Keeping in mind the myriad of waste issues that challenge
most golf courses, the project began with an ambitious approach to address them all. Initially
favoring a holistic approach, the intention was to address not only water consumption, but also
energy use, waste reduction, and to incorporate a large campaign for community education and
sustainability advocacy. But as things progressed, the scope narrowed, instead focusing on the
core issue of water combined with a robust community sustainability education and advocacy
plan. This was due to two significant revelations.
First was the recognition that water was truly central to most sustainability challenges,
and therefore required the most attention. Water dictates how land is used, what plants can grow,
and what wildlife can inhabit it. These are of particular importance in Arizona where the natural
desert landscape has been so drastically altered over the past millennia to suit the growing
civilization. “Besides climate change, how we manage water for our collective use will be the
largest challenge of this century” (Winston, 2014, p. 42). There is truth to this prediction that
elevates the necessity of this focus. When analyzing water statistics, it is good to gain some
perspective on the true size of demand. An average golf course in the U.S. consumes
approximately 300,000 gallons of water per day for irrigation. However, a typical desert course
like one in the Southwestern U.S. uses closer to 1 million gallons per day. If the average U.S.
citizen uses around 100 to 200 gallons of water per day, the amount of water used by a single
such course would be equivalent to the water use of all the individuals in a small town (Hiskes,
2010). As the global population increases, so too are the expected water demands. There is a
correlation between the diminishing reserves of potable and farm irrigation water and the
increased demands and privatization of water by non-essential and for-profit organizations. As
such, the UN Environment Programme has recently stressed the need to decouple water use from
economic growth in order to prevent nearly two billion people from experiencing water scarcity
by 2030 (United Nations Environment Programme, 2015).
The second revelation was that developing a sustainable mindset is largely a practice in
human psychology. McNall and Basile (2013) highlight the challenges with overcoming human

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nature stating that “we underestimate risk, we resist altering our beliefs, attitudes, and habits”
and “we look for facts to confirm what we already know” (p. 299). At the core of any
sustainability initiative is the need to change minds about many practices that have become
normalized by society and to help people rethink what is possible. This takes time and hard work
and must happen through education and advocacy. If individuals can overcome their own biases
and habits in one area, like water conservation, it is much more likely they can also apply these
same disciplines in important areas like energy and waste. This area between the problem of
water scarcity and the need for education is where Greener Golf would find its opportunity. And
this was the basis for Greener Golf’s web-based education and advocacy campaign which seeks
to provide golf stakeholders the resources and support to make informed decisions about their
impact on the environment and community. In order to provide adequate supports, it was
important to first understand the golf sustainability landscape which involved discovering
stakeholders’ pain and gain points and to gain knowledge on what efforts were already being
done in the field.
Water sustainability is an important issue in golf. Despite the outward appearance of
excessive and irresponsible land use combined with outdated business models lacking future
mobility, much of the golf industry is trying to make greener strides. Efforts to bring these issues
into check are still in their infancy, but organizations like the USGA (2012) are taking steps
toward establishing sustainability standards while maintaining and growing the appeal for the
sport. And groups like the GEO Foundation (2019), are working in the same vain as this project,
searching for ways to bring sustainable practices to golf. However, the field of golf course
sustainability is still niche and requires more attention and advocacy to achieve an ideal.
This project began with a concern for the environmental wellbeing of the local Phoenix
metro valley, deemed one of the most unsustainable cities in the world (Walters, 2018).
Although Phoenix’s environmental problems are numerous, golf courses were an obvious choice
as they are inherently wasteful of precious water resources. Golf has developed a bad reputation
among many in the past few decades with the gradual societal shift toward environmental justice.
Although opinions on the matter are strong, it is important to weigh all alternatives before
demonizing the sport. Water demands from desert courses are high, but in an urbanized setting

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like Phoenix land, if not occupied by a golf course, would most likely be taken over by housing
or commercial development. It could be argued that, from an environmental perspective, a golf
course, however unnaturally greened and maintained, would be better than more housing, roads,
parking lots, businesses, or factories. For such developments the environmental sustainability
issues can be far more widespread, nebulous, and harder to control than a golf course where the
primary impact is solely water use. Greener Golf aims to promote golf as, although not perfect, a
much better alternative for land use in a city. Phoenix is home to over 200 golf courses. With the
average golf course occupying roughly 150 acres of land, this translates to over 30,000 acres of
once-desert land now being irrigated and greened with mostly non-renewable water sources. It
was also quickly apparent that water conservation, although mainly an environmental impact,
had social and economic implications as well which could be leveraged for change. This was
enough to begin determining a scope and plan for action.
Before Greener Golf evolved its scope to focus on online outreach it began as a venture
to reshape one golf course in the Phoenix valley. Despite this shift, much of the initial proposal,
feasibility study, work breakdown structure, and Gantt chart were reworked and made available
to a new and wider range of clientele (see Appendix A). At first a workable proposal was drafted
that could be presented to influencers and decision-makers. The idea was to partner with a golf
course in the valley that was in need of an energy and irrigation infrastructure overhaul and
persuade leadership to undertake the initiative. The plan would prioritize reducing water use
through strategic landscaping of native species of shrubs, trees, and cacti, and investment in
irrigation upgrades including new sprinkler systems with moisture sensors, rain capture, and
switching to Salt River Project (SRP)-provided effluent as the primary water source. The last
method is of particular importance as it drastically reduces water use and can even create
healthier grass. “Reclaimed water contains nutrients that can filter into the soil and benefit golf
courses” (Tang, 2015). The proposal also included areas for improving energy efficiency
including shade trees around buildings, solar panel installation, LED lighting replacements, and
motion sensors. Once accepted, this proposal laid out a method of organizing four teams devoted
to energy, water, landscaping, and education/community outreach. The plan also set a timetable
for achieving certain benchmarks.

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A proposal like this needed to pay serious attention to stakeholders’ pain points and
motivations. Gathering as much data from the audience as possible allowed Greener Golf to craft
a proposal that framed the challenge being addressed as an opportunity to further the goals the
organization had already established. Stakeholders need to be shown how sustainability can be
woven into their core values and support their mission. In the case of this golf project, since it
addressed a traditional business model, the work was framed as an opportunity to generate
revenue and grow customer base. This was depicted in the form of a causal diagram (see
Appendix B). This would likely pique the interest of board members and managers whose
primary goal was running a profitable business.
For this golf project, addressing the market was of paramount importance. First, golf’s
value as a massive tourism industry, and its economic impact on the Phoenix valley was put
forth. This was contrasted by the problem of its dire environmental impact. 200 plus golf courses
each utilizing 100-200 acres of land, sucking up 80 million gallons of water a day (more than
anywhere else in the country) were the sticking points (Tang, 2015). The study then went on to
highlight the sport’s decline in popularity amongst young people and the fact that it is
prohibitively expensive for a shrinking middle class in the U.S. (The Economist, 2015).
The study continued by discussing how the convergence of these economic, social, and
environmental challenges creates a market opportunity for sustainable reform. Notable
organizations such as the USGA, i-Tree, and the GEO Foundation have been working for years
to design courses that can exist in harmony with the natural environment. They have found
solutions in the form of genetically engineered or synthetic grass, moisture sensors, strategic
planting, and the use of GPS to identify areas where turf can be reduced. The crux of this
research was to show that not only could these environmentally friendly solutions be
implemented, but they could be done in a way that would save the course millions of dollars over
a relatively short time. This study also showed that a byproduct of these changes could be seen in
the form of improved public image. This could then easily be leverage for higher customer
turnout, creating a strong argument for a B2C structure.
The next part of the feasibility study considered the leadership structure of the
organization. A preliminary plan for organizing workers and delegating tasks based on expertise

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was presented. It was determined that overall the infrastructure available at a golf course could
be used to effectively complete this project as long as individuals were flexible. A great deal of
time management and planning would be needed, and training would be provided where there
were any gaps in knowledge.
The most valuable part of the feasibility study was the inclusion of data from Corica Park
South Course in drought-stricken California. Through implementation of many of the proposed
upgrades they were able to reduce their water use from an average $1 million per year to only
$20,000, allowing them to lower their prices to only $40 per round, resulting in many more
customers (Latus, 2019). Direct evidence of success from an almost identical project was a
significant indicator of the feasibility of this project, and a point that would speak directly to the
needs of the stakeholders.
The final part of the feasibility study was an assessment of the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats (SWOT) inherent in this project. The strength of this initiative comes
from its legitimacy within modern social sustainability trends. Sustainability is what the public
wants, and more and more companies are adapting to preserve their public image. As Millington
and Wilson state in their analysis of golf managers’ recent efforts in environmental
responsibility, “superintendents, course owners, and many others within the industry have an
understandable interest in maintaining a positive impression among…the green fee-paying
public” (2013). Becoming a sustainable organization means holding the business to a higher
ethical standard and sends a message to the world that this is right. The weakness of the initiative
comes from the traditional “old-guard” of the industry being quite risk-averse and unwilling to
change. However, their love of the game and desire to preserve it for future generations could be
leveraged, making this group the initiative’s strongest advocates.
Despite these strides in developing a strong plan, Greener Golf was initially presented
with significant obstacles which inhibited growth. Positive change is driven by several factors
including regulation, competition, shifts in technology, and changing customer needs (Weiss,
2015). One or more of these must be present to instill urgency in an organization enough to
propel a new initiative. After significant time preparing for this initiative through research, a
strong proposal, and a feasibility study, creating this sense of urgency ended up being a

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seemingly insurmountable obstacle. The project itself was feasible, yet credibility and therefore
interest was not established enough to convince golf course leadership to consider taking on the
project. Countless phone calls, emails, and in-person discussions unfortunately yielded little
interest. Typical responses ranged from “we are already doing all we can to conserve water” to
“we are not interested in placing trust in an outsider with significant business decisions like
these”. Some of these responses were to be expected, but an inability to get a foot in the door
was not.
This led to the conclusion that, although the project could work, perhaps the ambition of
it did not fit the current level of experience or credibility needed. Businesses are typically
looking for well-known and reputable consultancies to take on their biggest projects and are
often reluctant to invite outsiders to guide these endeavors. One solution may be to scale back
the project to first focus on reworking the communication plan in order to simply get a seat at the
table. As a result, it was decided to change the trajectory and scope of the project. It has now
evolved to prioritize the education, advocacy, and outreach aspects first. The hope was that this
new direction would allow golf courses exposed to these new ideas to draw their own
conclusions about the benefits of sustainability. This outreach now took on the form of a website
that facilitated several communication goals. GreenerGolf.org was designed to provide detailed
information about options for businesses to expand their sustainability efforts, ways to save
money, and generate new revenue by appealing to a wider demographic of customers. Although
not yet implemented to scale, this proposal and feasibility study along with a sample work
breakdown schedule became a powerful addition to the greenergolf.org website and was
provided to interested golf industry specialists as a free and open source document to serve as a
“starting place” for their own sustainable projects. Establishing a platform for learning and
collaborating could open many more participants up to global opportunities.
The opportunities available to those who backed this initiative were innumerable.
Sustainability has increasingly catalyzed exponential growth in businesses around the world.
Dunphy et. al.’s (2007) model for corporate sustainability adoptions describes several phases that
a corporation goes through in its adoption of sustainable initiatives. These start with “rejection”
and “non-responsiveness” early in the introduction of the project. The next higher phases is

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“compliance” where the organization is simply trying to meet legal requirements. This phase is
likely where most golf courses exist now. But being able to shift a course to the next phases of
“efficiency” would mean coopting an initiative for the sake of financial benefit. Reaching this
would be a major success, but only the start. Beyond that the goal would be to reach “strategic
proactivity” (seeing sustainability as a competitive advantage) and the “sustaining corporation”
phase which means the course has fully integrated sustainability into its core values (Taylor,
2012). The profitability angle was going to be the priority, as the potential for savings, customer
turnout, and increased revenue were too good to refuse. The biggest threat is in the stability of
the golf industry. With dwindling water resources and a declining market, the business practice is
unsustainable and will fade away if not adapted.
To find the right pitch, audience mapping is a useful practice when crafting a message.
This involves first getting to know stakeholders on a deep level through frequent and meaningful
contact. People are unlikely to want to invest in the ideas of someone they do not know or trust,
so this is a key step and cannot be done in a superficial way. Before crafting the message, it is
good to segment the audience into people who are identified as decision-makers, influences,
supporters, and adopters. These separate groups should have varying motivations based off their
individual roles, beliefs, pain points, and gain points. Once an audience is fully understood, one
can tailor their message to each group in order to guide them to achieve a unified goal. Greener
Golf later found great success in connecting with stakeholders through careful attention to
audience mapping and has provided supports and recommendations for this on their site. When
communicating with individuals and groups, stakeholder identities were considered, and
messages were crafted as below.
The first group, decision makers, was comprised of club board members, managers, SRP
engineers and hydrologists, and team members. This group, since they possess high power and
high interest in the project, need to be managed very closely. The message to them was framed
as a sound business strategy. “Sustainability primarily will save us money and create a more
resilient business model. It will also attract new customers and have a lower impact on the
environment. Improvements will restore vitality to the sport and ensure continued business.”

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This message was followed by a call to action: “Let’s design, approve, and implement an
irrigation and landscaping plan that saves the club money and attracts more customers.”
For the second group, supporters, an environmental and social message was best.
Although they have low power, they likely have high interest and so it is essential to keep them
informed about the progression of the project. This group consisted mainly of members of the
local community and new customers. Their message was “the golf course is an environmentally
friendly, inclusive, welcoming, and inexpensive place for recreation.” Their call to action was
“come play golf at our course and discover ways that you can be an environmentally conscious
citizen.”
The third group comprised of the superintendent and paying club members. These were
the influencers because they had high power yet low interest in the project. Leveraging their help
could mean a serious boon to extending the project. Their message was one that appealed to the
preservation of the sport of golf for future generations and downplayed the disruption to
gameplay the project would cause. “The changes coming to our course are necessary and will
have little interference with your typical golf playing/managing experience. Improvements will
restore vitality to the sport and ensure continued business.” The call to action was “become a
supporter and advocate for the positive sustainable change we are undertaking."
The final group was called the adopters, which include teaching professionals and service
employees. They likely have low interest and low power, so it is essential to keep them in the
loop and monitor them. They would mainly be motivated by reassurance that their jobs and
duties would remain intact. Job security and advancement was the message crafted for them.
“The changes to the course will ensure job security and possibly even wage increases in the
future. Changes may alter work duties slightly at worst and alleviate some work duties at best.”
Their call to action was “become a supporter and advocate for the positive sustainable change we
are undertaking.”
The next step in the project was to establish several communication channels and
determine the frequency with which they would be used. Sustainability is often an exercise in
human psychology, and frequent, reliable, and consistent messaging become necessary to get
people to adopt and retain new ideas. However, it is also important to make sure the

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communication channels used are appropriate for specific audiences. A suitable communication
plan was drafted for Greener Golf that served as a useful guide when contacting stakeholders to
disseminate information (see Appendix C). This guide was also made available to sustainability
champions on the site to help them navigate their networks.
On a side note, throughout the process of using this communication plan to connect with
individuals, the value of advocacy and education was made abundantly clear. Frequently,
conversations lead to apparent gaps in knowledge which a connection to the myriad resources
presented by Greener Golf filled. For example, one golfer had heard about massive reseeding
efforts undertaken by his course every Spring to prep their greens and fairways. As a result, each
year they were pristinely green and well maintained. However, after reading about the extreme
amounts of water needed to maintain that growth, he decided that he was ok playing at other
courses that did not reseed each season and that had less turf or even brown turf for parts of the
year. Often, helping these individuals fill these knowledge gaps allowed them to draw their own
conclusions about the merits of certain business practices and even how to proceed with their
desired projects. This was the whole intention for Greener Golf’s shift and helped validate this
new direction.
Another essential aspect for building Greener Golf’s legitimacy was the communication
of a vision. This vision needed to be imaginable, desirable, feasible, focused, flexible, and
communicable (Kotter, 1996). This step is important because having conflicting visions within
an organization can be the biggest barrier to success (Weiss, 2015). The purpose of this vision
was not just to paint an idealistic picture of the future for the organization, but to serve as a
source of unification with sustainability integrated into their core values. This vision would serve
as a springboard for all future project decisions and generate autonomy among team members,
empowering them to seek opportunities to further the project. A guiding coalition to champion
the cause would be created under this vision:
A golf course which combines natural flora and landscaping with the most
efficient and sustainable use of resources to achieve harmony with the environment.
This place will embrace modern values, preserve the traditions of a beloved game, and
help people reconnect with nature.

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This vision communicates not only the overarching purpose of the project, but also seeks to
appeal to what stakeholders love about the game. Now that the vision was established, a sense of
urgency needed to be instilled. However, a frantic, chaotic, or fearful urgency was not needed,
but rather a positive and motivating sense of urgency. This was achieved through an appeal to
the ethics, logic, and emotion of the stakeholders.
The focus in achieving this urgency was in educating stakeholders about the challenges
with water use in Arizona. Particularly, they needed to understand how irrigation of golf courses
directly impacted the source of their water. A presentation was included depicting images of
Lake Mead drying up along with farmers who were suffering from low crop yield due to lack of
water. Special care was taken to paint a broad picture of the effects and to impart an idea of how
golf in Arizona contributed to a much larger and complex system. This was the emotional
appeal. The logical appeal was presented as a set of statistical data illustrating past and present
water allocation, population trends, and future projections of water availability in the Southwest.
The real-world example of drought contingencies being implemented in California were included
to show that the risks were real. Last, an ethical appeal was made by highlighting the devastation
to the natural environment water scarcity and disruption to native flora would have.
Before putting forth this presentation, it was useful to first get some feedback from a
separate, unbiased group of people with no stake in the project. A good presentation should be
accessible to the lay person, free of technical jargon, and engaging. As such, this presentation
was given to two separate audiences of people with little to no familiarity with either
sustainability or the golf industry. Most of the participants found the presentation to be highly
informative and effective, but also managed to highlight many issues that were not initially
obvious to the presenter. For instance, much of the data provided in the presentation was from
cities similar to Phoenix without direct comparison to Phoenix. The participant requested that
more comparisons of water use data be added to help support the argument. Also, certain images
in the presentation were replaced with ones that were more relevant to the data and less
distracting. The value in feedback was instrumental in achieving a much more streamlined and
persuasive message.

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Success in generating momentum for an initiative comes from setting and achieving
tangible milestones. For this project, the first determined milestone was to make a breakthrough
in messaging. In other words, success would be in evidence that Greener Golf was getting at the
core values of their stakeholders. This would help us to target specific needs in the community.
A survey was designed and added to the website to gather data. Several criteria were rated on a
scale from one to ten. The criteria included: stakeholder’s engagement with sustainable issues
social, economic, and environmental as well as an evaluation of their course’s engagement with
these issues. It also asked what kind of projects they would most like to see their golf course
undertake. These included water conservation, strategic landscaping, free community recreation
spaces like hiking trails and parks, lowered greens fees, energy conservation, community events,
and charity events. Last, a question regarding where they had heard about greener golf was
added to determine how well the site would spread. Eighteen individuals participated in the
survey identifying as golfers, managers, owners, golf workers, and non-golfing community
members. The early results showed significant favor for environmentally, socially, and
financially responsible golf business practices. Most of the respondents indicated, as well, that
they would prefer playing at golf courses that are sustainable. And when asked “do you believe
your golf course is socially, financially, and environmentally sustainable?” half chose “I don’t
know”. This illustrates a gap in knowledge that Greener Golf could help to fill with the right data
and exposure (see Appendix D).
The next milestone was the establishment of communication networks and audience
engagement. This is the stage where collaboration and sharing of ideas could take place.
Promotion of a strong learning community would bring with it the added benefit of amplifying
the message of Greener Golf as well as adding to and further disseminating key resources. One
of the strongest connections formed during this stage was with Andy Staples of Staples Golf
Design, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based golf sustainability firm. Mr. Staples had over 18 years of
experience with golf sustainability since his founding of the company and shared some key ideas
that helped explain Greener Golf’s initial challenges with getting buy-in and some guidance for
the future. He too had experienced these challenges early in his career, and he explained that
despite contrary belief, golf course superintendents, because they are tasked with managing a
course’s resources, think about sustainability a lot. He said that “when an outsider like me comes

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in and starts telling them why they need to change their resource management practices, they can
take it very personally. Highlighting these flaws can make them look bad, so their resistance is
out of self-preservation” (Staples, personal interview, 2020). He went on to reinforce Greener
Golf’s positive focus on profits with stakeholders by sayings that in order to catch their ear, one
must immediately show the benefit of sustainable solutions with tangible results. Now that
Staples Golf Design has a reputation working for hundreds of courses around the country, golf
courses reach out to them seeking their services, rather than the other way around.
One final milestone was in finally providing the advocacy service to stakeholders. The
creation of a website with links to social media platforms would extend the project far beyond
the golf course and allow for people from around the community or even further to participate in
the discussion. This milestone was realized when Greener Golf saw its first success with
positively influencing a local stakeholder. After Greener Golf sent the link to the website to
several clubs around Arizona a golf club manager reached out to share how some of the provided
resources had benefitted him. He was not familiar with the GEO Foundation which provides one
of the world’s most comprehensive sustainability certifications. He was searching for ways to
build value at his course and promote sustainability and wanted to look more into what GEO had
to offer. Currently, only three golf courses in Arizona have achieved the GEO certification, La
Paloma Country Club, T.P.C. Scottsdale, and Wigwam Golf. In order to support this club,
Greener Golf provided additional information about how to get certified. We also provided a link
to OnCourse, an app provided by GEO to track data on energy, water, fertilizers, pesticides,
biodiversity, and the supply chain. From this experience, Greener Golf learned of a potential
disconnect between Arizona golf courses and knowledge of an industry standard sustainability
certification. This small number of participating courses presented a new opportunity to
encourage others to join GEO’s ranks. It is now the hope that Greener Golf can make helping
courses achieve this certification a priority for the future. With this success a web-based
networking platform for golf sustainability proved viable.
As the project further progressed another goal emerged and that was community
inclusion. Due to outdated business practices, golf courses are often viewed as socially
restrictive. A challenging fact in the golf world is that, due to a long history of inherent social

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divides, minorities, women, youth, and middle to lower class people are drastically
underrepresented as golf patrons. Golf has had an unfortunate reputation in past decades and to
many the game is seen as an “exclusive and elitist pastime, enjoyed primarily by affluent White
males who possess the physical, social, and economic traits and attributes required to access
golfing facilities” (Fjelstul, Jackson, & Tesone, 2011, p. 1). It is hoped that the platform can also
be used to open dialogues with stakeholders to find progress in this area. An example of this
comes from a country club in Martha’s Vineyard that had an initial club membership fee of
$350,000 with a $12,000 annual fee. After receiving criticism from local community members
who felt excluded, they opened their course to 125 new members with a reduced $400 per year
fee. Additionally, they allowed a local high school golf team to train on the premises and hosted
a series of new charities to benefit the local community (Hiskes, 2010). This shows that honest
social discourse can have a positive effect on swaying the behaviors of large organizations bound
by the economic mores of a dated industry.
Greener Golf seeks to find solutions to cost-prohibitive business practices associated with
golf and aims to make golf courses more accessible and inclusive venues for recreation. That is
why Greener Golf has joined previously mentioned Staples Golf Design in putting forth the idea
that golf courses hold great potential in bringing communities together. Staples Golf sees
municipal golf courses as places that should be owned by the community and are both physically
and financially accessible to all. They established the Community Links model with the
understanding that golf needs to adapt to societal trends to survive.
Municipal golf has continued pressure to be profitable because 92% of the
tax-paying community doesn’t play golf. Other municipal amenities such as
libraries, public parks, museums, etc., are under far less scrutiny to perform
because they’re perceived as beneficial to the entire community. Therein lies the
opportunity for the golf facility; playing to innate advantages that would benefit
100% of the community. Fortunately, such advantages just so happen to reflect
positive trends in today’s society (Staples, 2016, p. 4).
The idea that golf courses can be adapted in a way that invites full community
participation beyond golf through shared recreational spaces like lakes and hiking trails is

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a powerful one. Greener Golf has made a point to promote Staples’ by featuring them on
the site.
In conclusion, After these initial successes, it was decided that this would likely be the
best way of reaching the widest audience possible, as it allows for people who may support the
initiative but are not able to adopt it to share it with their networks. A degree of viral marketing
would help the message spread to those who need to hear it the most. This new approach would
allow opportunities to create robust networks and to collaborate with organizations like Staples.
Although still in its infancy, time and exposure will help build these networks for Greener Golf.
Part of this project was intended to uncover specific characteristics and practices of effective
leadership when faced with sustainability-focused initiatives. Although no specific style of
leadership is considered the best for such projects, several key elements were identified. The first
notable characteristic is what sets leaders apart from managers, and that is a willingness to
question the status quo. The biggest changes in sustainability require often dramatic shifts in
processes, ways of thinking, and beliefs in what is possible. From a psychological standpoint,
change is very difficult for people as it requires taking risks and leaving their comfort zone.
Questioning the status quo is especially difficult in the golf industry which is steeped in centuries
of tradition both in game play and business practices. This resistance to change ended up being
the biggest barrier to this golf sustainability project.
In order to overcome such a barrier requires another essential leadership quality, and that
is good communication skills. When faced with challenging new ideas people want a leader who
can communicate effectively. Such leaders take time to know their stakeholders and to
differentiate their message to appeal to their needs. Not only do they need to be able to explain
things simply and concisely, but they also need to be frequent and thorough in their
communication so as to eliminate any gaps in understanding.
And one last essential sustainability leadership quality (although many more exist) is the
ability to inspire and empower others and to foster a community of continuous learning. A
culture of learning and support enables people to think outside the box and strike upon the
heretical ideas which bring much needed innovation to tackle the most challenging problems. In
learning communities, people are rewarded for taking risks, even if they lead to less-than-ideal

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results. People are taught to look beyond rank in the organization and see all members as equally
valuable. The more collaboration happens the more people take pride and ownership in their
work resulting in higher quality of work.
Although the project needed room to adjust its scope, it ultimately found a path to success
through Greener Golf and will continue to advocate for sustainability and support others in their
progress. It was the recognition that, when faced with difficult sustainability decisions, one of the
strongest tools we have is widespread knowledge of common practices and the resources
available to us which made the difference. Like a golfer who just sliced the ball into the rough,
the ball must be played where it lies. And with the right planning and approach, they will get the
ball back in play and ever-closer to the hole. So too must sustainability leaders be persistent and
flexible. When faced with the world’s toughest sustainability challenges, it is always essential to
push on and find new avenues for success.

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References
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Appendix A
Work Breakdown Structure and Gannt Chart

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Appendix B
Causal Loop Showing Profit Potential of Sustainable Initiatives

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Appendix C
Communication Plan for Various Stakeholders

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Appendix D
Sustainable Golf staples Data