European Tour group wins sustainability award

The European Tour group has won a prestigious award for its sustainability work at the Sport Positive Awards that took place at the Kia Oval cricket ground in London on October 8.

The Tour was nominated in the Transformation category, which celebrates a sports organisation that has recently become strategic and increased their action and prioritisation of tackling the climate crisis and becoming more sustainable.

The judging panel of industry experts felt that the Tour’s Green Drive programme was the worthy winner, beating competition from the likes of Liverpool FC, World Athletics, Silverstone Circuit, the Lawn Tennis Association and the Union Cycliste Internationale.

The Sport Positive Awards highlight and celebrate incredible efforts from all over the world by global organisations and individuals using the power of sport to tackle the biggest issues of our time. They form part of the annual Sport Positive Summit, the largest gathering of the global sports community taking action on climate, sustainability, nature and environmental justice. 

Green Drive is the Tour’s programme to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and become a respected sustainability showcase that can deliver net positive impacts on the courses, countries and communities visited each season.

The programme has seen several firsts and innovations rolled out at DP World Tour events, including the first sports television broadcast powered by green hydrogen, and the launch of the first tool to allow spectators to track and then offset their travel to and from the golf course.

Speaking about the accolade, Maria Grandinetti-Milton, Director of Sustainability at the European Tour group, said: “We have made huge strides in recent years to embed sustainability across the organisation. It is a team effort, and I am proud of how my colleagues have embraced the challenge to get us to net zero by 2040.

“We were perhaps behind the curve only five years ago, but we can confidently say that we are now leading from the front with a robust strategy, excellent delivery partners such as the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, and a willingness to be creative and trial new innovations. The Sport Positive Summit convenes the great and the good from the intersection of sport and sustainability, so it is an incredible honour to have our hard work acknowledged in this way by our peers.”