Loch Lomond wins 'green' award

Last updated: 6th November 2009

Loch Lomond Golf Club has received a new accolade for its efforts in protecting the environment.

The West of Scotland club won the Waste Management Award in the prestigious 2009 Golf Course Environment Awards run by the Sports Turf Research Institute and sponsored by Sygenta, Scotts, Ransomes Jacobsen and Golf Monthly.

The Award comes at the end of a remarkable year during which Course Superintendent, David Cole, his greens staff and staff in every other department throughout the Club, have made huge advances in the amount of waste products they recycle. In one week alone, 91% of the waste produced during the Barclays Scottish Open, held at Loch Lomond in July, was recycled and that went a long way to enabling the Club and title sponsor to succeed in its avowed aim to stage the most environmentally-friendly event on this year's European Tour.

Judges from the 2009 Golf Course Environment Awards praised Loch Lomond Golf Club for the wide variety of ecological projects it had undertaken in the previous 12 months. They cited the Club's efforts to regenerate heather and gorse, as well as the work done on bracken clearance, but they were particularly impressed by the development and implementation of its comprehensive waste management programme which was achieved through partnering with The William Tracey Group, a recycling company with a reputation for excellence in environmental improvement and winners of the Scottish Green Award for Best Green Industry Company 2009.

"We are delighted to win this Waste Management Award and proud of the advances we have made in this area," said Cole. "The Club has set itself a target of producing zero waste to landfill and we are close to achieving our goal.

"We're also working hard in other areas," he added. "We're totally committed to the maintenance and preservation of the natural environment and it's something we work hard on for 52-weeks a year."

Loch Lomond operates a rigorous Estate Management Plan designed to ensure the Club leaves as small an environment footprint as possible.

Within the last year, Loch Lomond has intensified its Woodland Management programme in conjunction with Scottish National Heritage (SNH) and Loch Lomond National Park Authorities (LLNPA) and it has also been working with other partners to preserve its landscape and cultural heritage, reduce water usage, minimise wasted and improve energy efficiency. The partners include: Scottish Natural Heritage, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, The William Tracey Group and the local government.