- LPGA and Dow also announce launch of Sustainability Acceleration Grants, a new season-ending Green Driver Award and golf’s first sustainability software program
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., June 8, 2022 – The LPGA Tour in conjunction with Dow, the LPGA’s Official Sustainability Resource, announced today the launch of the ‘Celebrating the Green’ digital hub, a continuation of the organization’s commitment to sustainability and the fight against climate change.
The web-based platform will serve as a resource for fans, partners, tournaments and players on all sustainability topics related to the LPGA Tour, acting as a virtual hub in which to share how the organization is achieving its goal of becoming a leader in sustainability amongst professional sports organizations. The site will be in strategic alignment with the Ladies European Tour’s ‘Celebrating the Green’ initiative and will showcase how the LPGA is working to make all facets of the Tour more sustainable, focusing on tournament and partner initiatives in the sport.
“The LPGA is excited to continue our partnership with Dow to present ‘Celebrating the Green’ which will help us to tell stories about the great work being done by our tournaments and partners in the LPGA ecosystem,” said Kelly Hyne, Chief Sales Officer for the LPGA. “The LPGA is proud to partner with Dow to focus on making a meaningful impact around sustainability.”
In addition to the hub, the LPGA Tour and Dow are also continuing their collaboration by implementing new sustainability-focused initiatives with the guidance and support of the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf – an international non-profit dedicated to helping accelerate sustainability and climate action in and through the sport. A driving force behind these initiatives will be a new Sustainability Task Force created to bring together key LPGA staff and sustainability experts to oversee further strategy development and implementation.
One of the initiatives within the LPGA-Dow-GEO collaboration is the founding of a brand-new Sustainability Acceleration Grants program. There are 34 tournaments on the LPGA Tour, so transforming how each of them are run operationally is a clear way for the LPGA to make an impact. The Grants will provide the resources tournaments need to first assess where they are at in their sustainability journey and determine the changes that need to be made, then implement those changes through the adoption of best practices and support from industry sustainability experts.
The LPGA Tour and Dow are also launching the new annual Green Driver Award to spotlight game-changing sustainability leadership in one LPGA tournament. The LPGA will additionally pilot the BETA version of the new OnCourse® software program designed in collaboration between GEO and Dow to help tournaments track, measure and report on their sustainability initiatives while knowledge-sharing with other tournaments simultaneously.
“Part of Dow’s purpose is to deliver a sustainable future for the world through our materials science expertise and collaboration with our partners,” said Chris Chandler, Executive Director of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational and Dow’s Sports Marketing Leader. “That’s why this partnership with the LPGA family is so critical – and why it’s a privilege to be a part of it. Together, we believe we can harness the power of sport to drive meaningful and actionable change for our planet, one game, one tournament, one league at a time.”
Dow became the LPGA Tour’s Official Sustainability Resource in 2021 and has been working alongside the LPGA since 2018 as the association’s Official Marketing Partner. In 2019, the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational joined the LPGA Tour calendar and that same year was named a GEO Certified® Tournament – an internationally recognized award for sustainability in golf – becoming the first-ever professional golf tournament to be recognized as such during its first year of operation. It was also the first LPGA Tour event to earn this distinction. Since then, the Dow GLBI has continued to be the most sustainable tournament on the LPGA schedule.
