Most Sustainable Golf Event nominations announced

International CSR consultancy Between-us has released the three nominations for the Most Sustainable Golf Event, with the results revealed at KPMG's Golf Business Forum in Tuscany on September 18.

The benchmark - inaugurated last year - measures the perceived sustainability of golf tournaments through the Sustainable Golf Index.

This year, the three nominees for most sustainable golf event are the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie, the Senior Open de Portugal at Belas Clube de Campo and the KLM Open at the Hilversumsche Golf Club.

The Sustainable Golf Index allows tournaments and their sponsors to monitor their progress in sustainability and pinpoint ways to improve.

Jan van deer Kaaij, Managing Partner of Between-us, said: "There is a notable improvement in the sustainability of events, as demonstrated by the recent Olympics, but there is still a long way to go.

"The Sustainable Golf Index can help raise awareness among golf events and help them in developing a more sustainable approach."

A total of 82 from the European Tour, Ladies European Tour, Challenge Tour and Senior Tour were scored on three domains: People, Planet and Virtues, with each comprising seven indicators.

Last year the KLM Open topped the index with a score of 62.9% - well above the Open Championship and the Evian Masters.

Those high on this year's list generally showcased a number of sustainable initiatives, including waste management, fuel efficient vehicles and organic catering products.

In 2012, the average sustainability score was 24.8% - improving on 23.5% in 2011 - 18.3% of all events recycled their waste and 31.7% of all events donated money or resources to charity.

For more information, visit www.sustainablegolfproject.com.