In a landmark move, Dow golf ambassadors Maria Fassi, Katherine Kirk, Danny Lee and Corey Pavin have joined Suzann Pettersen to help champion sustainability in and through golf – including looking at their own footprints.
In addition to Dow’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, professional athletes and Dow golf ambassadors from the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and PGA Tour have announced their commitment to becoming a sustainable golf champion, taking action to reduce their footprint and advance the conversation around sustainability in the sport.
This commitment, developed in partnership with the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, marks a shift in not just athlete accountability but in sports sponsorships as well, setting an example for how athletes and brands can take action to ensure a better future for our planet.
As a part of this new program, each of Dow’s golf ambassadors will be committing to minimizing and offsetting all their travel and evaluating their own lifestyle, calculating their carbon footprint for themselves and their entourage, compensating for unavoidable emissions through climate mitigation projects with GEO Foundation through the Gold Standard, a leading standard-setting body for credible mitigation with impact, and using their incredible platforms to communicate about this journey to inspire other athletes to do the same.
“I am thrilled to begin my carbon neutral journey today as a Sustainable Golf Champion,” said Maria Fassi, LPGA athlete and Team Dow Ambassador. “Our world is facing a whole lot of challenges, and it can be difficult to grasp what you, as one person, can do to make a difference. As an athlete, I want to use the platform I’ve been given to drive positive change and help others understand that they can do that too, one step, one choice at a time.”
The United Nations (UN) has named this the ‘Decade of Action’ and the goal within the next 10 years is to accelerate sustainable solutions that combat the world’s biggest challenges and balance our planet’s resources. Golf is a growing global sport, and its existence is inextricably linked to the environment, from the preservation of wildlife, water and other resources to course design and event management. As such, GEO Foundation and Dow believe golf is well positioned to be a sport that critically challenges its own footprint and leads the way to positive action.
Maria Fassi is one of four professional golfers to become a Sustainable Golf Champion
“The drive to advance sustainability is at the heart of our sports sponsorships,” said Chris Chandler, Executive Director of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational and Dow’s Sports Marketing Leader. “And as golf seeks to become a leader in sustainability, we believe our ambassador commitments represent more than an important evolution in Dow or even golf’s engagement. It’s an opportunity to leverage the power of sport to inspire collaboration and meaningful action across the entire sports industry.”
Jonathan Smith, Founder and Executive Director, GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, said: “We are thrilled to see elite athletes Maria Fassi, Katherine Kirk, Danny Lee and Corey Pavin join Solheim Cup Captain Suzann Pettersen in stepping forward to help champion sustainability in and through golf. The commitment from Dow and each of their golf ambassadors to measure and mitigate unavoidable emissions as they strive to become carbon neutral athletes is important leadership in sport – encouraging action and helping draw attention to some of the defining issues of our time. We hope their actions will help foster a trend to see more golfers and other sports athletes lead by example.”
Dow and partners like GEO and the LPGA are teaming up to imagine better for the future of our planet. Together, they are leveraging golf to make an impact in the sport and beyond. Some of those initiatives include:
- As their Official Sustainability Resource, Dow is helping the LPGA/LET initiate and deliver on a league-wide sustainability strategy, including a pioneering Sustainable Events Kick-start Fund
- Co-creator of the brand-new Green Driver Award
- Founding partner of GEO OnCourse® software program for tracking, sharing & reporting tournament sustainability initiatives
- The Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational was the first official LPGA tournament & women’s event globally to be GEO Certified®
Read more about how Dow, LPGA and GEP Foundation have partnered to unveil new sustainability initiatives like those above here.
