The DP World Tour is calling on fans to help play their part in tackling the climate crisis by launching a new tool that allows spectators to calculate and offset their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when travelling to and from tournaments.
The easy-to-use tool is being customised and deployed in collaboration with AQ Green TeC, a Hamburg based carbon management solutions provider. Ticket Holders at 12 tournaments in 2024 will automatically receive an email link to a new portal, where they can input their event travel-related information, including flights, accommodation and ground transportation and then purchase verified carbon credits to offset their calculated GHG emissions. Carbon credits in the tool are all from Gold Standard accredited projects that support a range of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The tool will also be promoted at tournaments via QR codes across the site and on DP World Tour digital platforms.
Helping spectators mitigate their GHG emissions when travelling to tournaments is an important part of the Tour’s wider Green Drive programme, which is committed to achieving a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero carbon by 2040. The Tour has just released its first summary Impact Report, following a comprehensive audit of 10 events and its operations and venues in 2023, completed in collaboration with the GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation. The report highlights that spectator travel accounts for an average of 45% of greenhouse gas emissions per tournament - the largest single emissions source.
To help drive engagement with the new tool, the DP World Tour will be running a series of competitions for fans who choose to offset their travel, with once in a lifetime prizes on offer.
A range of initiatives are already in place and being expanded to encourage lower carbon transport options at many events including free shuttle services from local train stations such as the BMW PGA Championship and Genesis Scottish Open, free bike parking at all events, encouraging carpooling, and priority parking for spectators using electric vehicles. Measurements are also being undertaken to quantify the impact on carbon emissions of the new structure of the 2024 DP World Tour season, which has seen events clustered together into regional “Swings”.
Maria Grandinetti-Milton, Head of Sustainability at the European Tour group, said: “There will always be unavoidable emissions when staging golf tournaments that attract thousands of fans over multiple days. We have a responsibility to start the dialogue with our fans and to help connect the impact of actions onsite to the future of our sport, supporting climate mitigation projects where we can all work together to invest back into the planet.
“Ultimately, we want to make it easier for fans to make cleaner travel choices in the first place, whether that’s using public transport, carpooling or cycling. At present, 20.5% of our spectator’s travel using lower carbon methods, and we want to increase this percentage. This new tool will help raise awareness of this issue amongst our fan base and provide a simple means of understanding the impact different modes of transport have on our climate. If we are going to achieve net zero by 2040, then everyone needs to pull together and play their part.”
David Grundlingh, CEO of AQ Green TeC, added: “It has been our long-held belief that sport has immense influence and thereby opportunity to drive positive change and deliver #SharedResponsibility and #CollectiveAction for meaningful climate action. We are therefore extremely excited to be making such a significant move into sport with the team at the European Tour group and look forward to showing the rest of the live-event industry how to take their biggest environmental challenge, namely fan-travel and turn this into an opportunity for climate change mitigation.”
Through its strategic collaboration with the GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation, the DP World Tour has undertaken a wide range of measures to make its tournaments and operations as sustainable as possible. These are centred on resource efficiency; climate action; community engagement and the promotion of nature. Supporting Gold Standard accredited climate projects is also complemented by onset investments across the sector, and an increasing emphasis on local community-based ecosystem restoration projects at individual events.
