As we read in the macro perspective, businesses and organizations are joining the environmental movement. Many recognize that environmental social responsibility can be good for the environment—and for business. Not only do people want to do business with and belong to organizations that are environmentally friendly, but also, those same practices can help reduce costs and protect valuable resources. Thus, organizations, including clubs, are analyzing the larger business landscape, identifying what the implications are for their organization, and responding accordingly.
GOING GREEN, SAVING GREEN
The Venice Golf and Country Club illustrates our point. This gated community and club located in Florida along the Gulf Coast has collected accolades for its environmentally responsible practices. For example, the club is GEO Certified® by the Golf Environment Organization, recognized by the Green Business Bureau for adopting a broad range of best “green” practices, and participates in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, which encourages a variety of environmental practices that preserve and enhance the wildlife habitats.
And while a strong sense of environmental stewardship and civic responsibility stand behind this impressive record, the club has arrived at this level of recognition through a combination of planning, analysis and innovation and, a measure of opportunism. The club’s golf program has often served as the entry point for its green practices, but now the mindset that stands behind this management approach extends club-wide and profoundly affects resource allocations and cost savings.
WATER
Well over a decade ago, The Venice Golf and Country Club recognized that the club would have to make plans for a more secure water future. In 2003 the club purchased 100 percent of its reuse water for irrigation from the municipality—a great source at the time. Growth in Florida was then booming and competing customers for that same water were lining up.
A plan was developed to control its own source of water and even to affect the quality of water that it would use for irrigation. The club came to a thorough and sophisticated understanding of its own particular water shed system. The storm water from the club property now drains to an adjacent county reservoir. This reservoir is the source for water used to irrigate the club’s course and landscape.
The plan required the involvement and ultimate approval of several stakeholders, including state and local water authorities as well as the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Jim Schell, the club’s general manager, recalls the extended process: “Everybody’s regulatory arms were in this and somehow we got everybody to agree and then we actually got a grant from the water management district to make it happen.”
But at the end of this process the club has eliminated its need to purchase effluent water from the county—water that developers and the community were eager and grateful for. “It was really a home run for the surrounding communities,” recalls Schell. “The best part is that we have adequate sources of irrigation water going out into the future. We have a decade-long agreement signed once already.”
IMPLICATIONS FOR CLUB MANAGEMENT
This has been a winning decision with measureable positive outcomes for both the club and the larger community. But if we look across the years and across the programs of The Venice Golf and Country Club, what we recognize is that the club’s disciplined decision-making process gets applied again and again to a whole range of problems, opportunities and investment decisions.
When attempting to solve a club-related challenge—often related to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of systems and processes—Schell does a careful and thorough cost-benefit analysis. This has been done with excellent results in a wide number of areas related to a variety of environment concerns. In addition to its achievements in water conservation, the club has a similar record in energy management (e.g., hot water, lighting and HVAC), in supply chain innovations (e.g., sourcing, purchasing and a popular club-to-table dining program), in pollution control (e.g., choice of cleaning products, closed loop washing of equipment, pollution prevention via its extensive natural environment) and in community engagement.
Schell explains that all the club’s major environmental investments have been based on sound economic analysis. Payback or breakeven periods for most projects are five years or less. The GM utilizes energy audits and usage studies provided by area utilities and vendors (and typically at little or no cost to the club). Decisions made using this data have shown savings in irrigation costs, chemical use, electricity use and more. For instance, a 40 percent reduction in electricity savings should translate to $15,000 in savings annually. Irrigation technology realized a 30 percent reduction in in water output—and up to a 50 percent reduction is anticipated. With smarter irrigation, grass required fewer chemicals, saving additional money. New radar detection that uses satellite images to spot turf problems early, is used to influence mowing and treatment plans. Annual subscription costs for this technology equals a single fungicide application, and has saved the club in labor and chemical costs.
Not one to adopt innovation for the sake of innovation, Schell observed several examples for new techniques or systems that offered promise and were tested or other examined, but found to not yet reach the breakeven threshold for adoption. For example, Jim has considered leasing self-contained hydroponic garden units as source for the club to grow certain of its food ingredients, but at present the economics of “growing your own” don’t quite make sense. As technology improves or prices lower, these circumstances may change.
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED
The Venice Golf and Country Club has achieved distinction as a club at the frontier of sustainable environmental practices. The club was recently due for a re-accreditation visit from one of the organizations that had recognized the club for its contribution to supporting and sustaining biodiversity on its grounds. As Schell was escorting the visitor via a golf cart across the grounds, they rounded the cart path and there before them on the golf green was an American bald eagle with its juvenile. The accreditor said, “You didn’t plan this did you?” “No,” Schell deadpanned. “They’re our pets.” It’s clearly an environment where all are thriving.
Club Trends Summer 2016