The DP World Tour has taken a significant step toward addressing the climate crisis by launching a new tool that helps fans calculate and offset their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from travel to and from tournaments.
In collaboration with AQ Green TeC, a Hamburg-based carbon management solutions provider, the Tour has developed a simple tool for spectators to calculate their carbon footprint and offset it by purchasing verified carbon credits.
Fans attending 12 tournaments in 2024 will receive an email link to a portal where they can enter their travel details, such as flights, accommodation, and ground transportation.
The system then calculates the GHG emissions and offers the option to purchase Gold Standard-accredited carbon credits. The tool will be promoted at events through QR codes, and on DP World Tour digital platforms.
This initiative is part of the DP World Tour’s broader Green Drive program, which aims to cut emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2040.
The Tour’s first summary Impact Report, based on a 2023 audit, showed that spectator travel accounts for an average of 45% of greenhouse gas emissions per tournament, the largest single source of emissions.
To encourage fans to use the new tool, the DP World Tour is organizing a series of competitions with unique prizes for those who offset their travel emissions.
The Tour has also implemented measures to encourage lower-carbon transport, such as free shuttle services from local train stations, free bike parking, carpooling, and priority parking for electric vehicles.
Further, the Tour is measuring the impact of the new 2024 season structure, which clusters events into regional “Swings,” potentially reducing travel emissions.
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.”
David Grundlingh, CEO of AQ Green TeC, added, “It has been our long-held belief that sport has immense influence and thereby an 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.”
The DP World Tour’s efforts to promote sustainability extend to resource efficiency, climate action, community engagement, and nature conservation.
The support for Gold Standard climate projects is complemented by investments in local community-based ecosystem restoration projects at individual events, underscoring the Tour’s commitment to a more sustainable future for golf.
