Lyoness, Official Supplier to The European Tour and European Tour Green Drive Partner, and its foundation, Greenfinity, is showing its leading commitment to sustainable development in golf.
In 2012, Greenfinity determined the ecological footprint* of a European Tour event for the first time, creating a benchmark for all European Tour events in general and the Lyoness Open powered by Greenfinity in particular.
The common goal for the European Tour Green Drive is to have ecologically sustainable European Tour events and venues by continuously minimising their ecological footprints.
Bearing in mind that the average Austrian has a daily footprint of 5,332 m², the total footprint for the 2012 Lyoness Open powered by Greenfinity was 332,780,134 m², which means that, per visitor, the Lyoness Open left a footprint the size of 27,731 m². In comparison, if a visitor stayed at home to surf the internet for 24 hours instead of attending the Lyoness Open, the ecological footprint would be 36,840 m² a day!
Mobility, or transport of people, consumed most resources, as was expected, and creates more than 70% of the footprint.
The following measures were taken to reduce and compensate for the ecological footprint of the Lyoness Open 2013:
· More shuttle busses were provided to reduce total emissions
· The local power grid was increasingly used which reduced use of diesel generators
· Local and organic food was sourced for the catering
· Local infrastructure suppliers were used, which reduced travel distances
· Improved waste management concept
· Air conditioning systems were not used
· Visitors to the Lyoness Open could determine their personal ecological footprint usingGreenfinity’s benchmarking tool and the footprint determined was compensated by financialsupport of reforestation projects in Nicaragua and Germany
· All Donations for the free Frozen Yogurt benefitted the “Generationenwald” (generation’sforest) in Purkersdorf, Austria.
· The €1 parking fee benefitted the “Generationenwald” (generation’s forest) in Purkersdorf,Austria.
The results of this ambitious and leading project in the world of sport events, to determine and reduce the ecological footprint of the Lyoness Open powered by Greenfinity, will be known in September.
- Theecological footprintis evaluation tool for ecological and social compatibility. It is a comprehensive indicator of sustainability developed by scientists already in 1994 and a metaphor of the consumption of resources depending on the world’s biologically productive area. The ecological footprint indicates what area of productive land our planet has to provide in order to supply resources for an event as well as to absorb and recycle the waste.
