Carbon Par artikel

Can golf courses store carbon?

Read the article about the new research project "Carbon Par" that estimates the carbon status of land used by Icelandic golf courses.

The calculation of a golf facility’s complete carbon footprint must account for management inputs, including emissions from mowers, energy used to pump irrigation water and the manufacturing and delivery of products such as fertilizer and seeds.

However, with recent breakthroughs in electric, autonomous mowers and continued innovation in renewable energy, such as small wind turbines and solar cells, a new reality may present itself. Drawing on new knowledge from research performed by Pirchio et al (2018), the hypothesis is that the more frequent mowing made possible by robots may speed up carbon sequestration or achieve equal sequestration with lower fertilizer applications. This indicates that well located golf courses, thoughtfully planned, designed and built, have a reasonable chance of becoming net carbon sinks.