Looking back on the first year of zero waste golf

This is the year zero waste golf was born. It started out as idea being tossed around by a few buddies. Nurtured by optimists, luckily presented to an interested and capable decision maker, joined by enthusiastic associates, adopted by government agencies and opened to the public at Dairy Creek Golf Course in San Luis Obispo California.


This is a year to remember. As zero waste becomes the norm at golf courses worldwide in the next few years, remember this blogspot as the beginning of a global movement using golf courses as community environmental and educational assets. It's just not cool to trash the environment any more, and businesses that promote zero waste next year are going to be the next generation of environmental leaders.


Zero waste is a concept reserved for leaders. Anyone promoting zero waste in their community IS a leader, and then those who are adopt zero waste become the next generation of leaders, and so on. The funny thing about zero waste is that it's hard to define in it's entirety. Zero waste is huge. Zero waste is almost too big to be defined, but yet, it is applicable to most every action and transaction. Heck, zero waste is applicable to future actions. As example, BEFORE you buy products, if you're a zero waster, you'll think about the impact of the product or its packaging will eventually impact the waste stream...precycling.


Once we start defining zero waste for ourselves, we find ourselves sharing the definition with others. Next thing you know they are repeating their versions of the zero waste concept to their friends and coworkers...and then the idea goes viral on social media...and then the world is changed forever. In future years, when all golf courses adopt zero waste protocols as every day best management practices, I will always remember that 2011 was the first year of zero waste golf.

When I die put my ashes inside one of those exploding golf balls

I love Dairy Creek Golf Course / Zero Waste Park. It's unbelievably beautiful, nestled among the raptor flown grasslands, ocean breezes and ancient volcanos. I told my golf partner that when I die I want my ashes spread on the course. But I was thinking that I could multitask by playing a prank if my ashes were stuffed into an exploding golf ball. Maybe my remains could be stuffed down the shaft of my buddy's driver, then I could hack and shank my way into the afterlife.

But seriously, when I die I plan to leave some of my assets to support Dairy Creek and the important environmental leadership that is taking place there. I imagine that there are a lot of golfers that could help save the planet for their grandchildren by supporting environmental improvements at their local golf course. Whatever we care about, whether it's golf, football, fishing...whatever, think about giving support to those in that sport or industry that are using their facility or visibility to promote environmental best management practices.

That money isn't going to do you any good when you're dead and gone, so why not not call the lawyer and change your will today, before you forget about it. For that matter, you probably have too much money even now, so why not make a charitable donation to your course or environmental non-profit before years end. Your donation could start a whole environmental movement within your course and community.

Leadership is always risky for cowards...but who's scared now?

Surfers have a mantra..."No Fear", because when you look down the face of a huge ocean wave, you either chicken out or drop in for fun. You can't have the surfing experience if you don't overcome the fear of being crushed by tons of water if you screw up.

Overcoming the fear of failure is the secret to success, and that's the same whether you're dropping in on a wave or taking a leadership position in the highly controlled and conservative golf industry. Try to change golf's direction in almost any area and you risk being crushed by the weight of tradition and global corporations that "control" golf, golf apparel, golf equipment, golf ideas ...you get the idea. Anybody with any brains at all would walk away from the challenge of changing golf's environmental protocols.

Dude, surfers aren't brain surgeons when they drop in on 20 footers, but they are very brave. It's the same with zero wasters at the golf course. We may not be geniuses, but we're not afraid to challenge the industry to make fundamental changes that all other modern industries are being forced to make to save potable water, to reduce the use of poisons, and to reduce landfilled waste. In fact, we're enboldened by the positive response from our community, from our local integrated waste management authorities, county supervisors and other interested environmental groups, our club members and the public at large..

For me, this golf environmental leadership thing is all new, and in the beginning it seemed like the golf industry was a looming wave waiting to crush us under it's enormous weight...but you know, once we just threw fear aside and just dropped in on zero waste golf , we found ourselves on one of the most exciting, thrilling and fun rides ever.

Occupy Golf

Get ready for golf courses to start doing double duty. It's no longer good enough to keep a beautiful course for the benefit of wealthy golfers only. If golf superintendents don't find ways to show that they care about the needs of their surrounding community, they may find disgruntled "occupiers" camping out on their practice greens.

We're doing the zero waste golf demo park thing, and we suggest that you do too. But there are a lot of ways to connect to the community. Use your imagination.

Excess and need are crucial complements in our wholistic universe. What does your community need? What do you have to offer? Think up a project and apply for some local grants or petition your local service group for some volunteer help to accomplish a community project. The holiday season is a great time to reach out. How about gift cards for greens fees in which a portion (or all) of the money goes to local charities?

Here's an idea...How about promoting an event at your course where members clean out their garage of old unused golf clubs and stuff. Gather them all up at the clubhouse, and then one special day, give them all away to young people under the age of 18, who would like to try golf, but don't have the bucks. This would be a wonderful zero waste project. The old clubs will be reused, young potential golfers will pay to play with their new clubs, and your course makes a connection with the community. 

At Dairy Creek, we make compost tea from our food wastes to use on the course in lieu of chemical fertilizers. But we can make way more than we can use, and it doesn't cost anything but the power to run the bubbler. We're going to start giving it away on Saturdays to promote zero waste and to benefit the environment, but also as a  way we can connect with our community and non-golfers. We'll do anything to avoid occupiers from pitching their tents on the driving range.

Zero Waste Golf Course as global community center

Dairy Creek Golf Course is rapidly becoming a community center for environmental recreation and education. We are experiencing a rush of interest from various entities within our county and from afar via internet. ( to see pics of our ribbon cutting ceremony visit http://slocountygolfcourses.blogspot.com/ )We have been approached by numerous educators who want to use the zero waste park for student and public visitation. California Conservation Corps (CCC) has asked to train and provide docents from their corpsmembers. Morro Bay Eco-Rotary club is really ramping up their zero waste event service program in which they spread the word about zero waste and the zero waste park at Dairy Creek by attending local events with their mobile zero waste stations and assisting event goers in proper sorting techniques. Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant's environmental staff visited our park and concluded that they will start composting the food wastes from their mess operations. A local catering company that catered over local 700 events last year is beginning to incorporate zero waste sorting techniques into their customer service protocols.

We're so inundated with questions and requests to participate in the zero waste park's success, that we need to quickly develop a better system for dispensing information and to schedule / organize the opportunities for community involvement and participation. We're thinking about creating a "Zero Waste Task Force" with members from all the various organizations that have interest or assets to offer in furthering zero waste on the Central Coast and afield. We also need to better our web site, http://www.zerowasteconcepts.com/ , which is in development but slow because of a lack of cash.

What we really need to do is further develop our fund raising and grant writing protocols because even though we have built the park on donations and good will, to get to the next level, we need cash. We're hoping that the zero waste task force will help our visibility and outreach.

Zero waste golf is the new paradyme of using a golf course as environmental community center. There is no better way to attract non golfers to the course, with the goal of producing more paying rounds, while rehabilitating golf's dismal environmental reputation and protecting the environment in a sustainable and reproducible fashion. From our perspective so far, zero waste golf is a real win-win-win ....win. Perhaps you will join or help us further zero waste golf locally or globally by joining a virtual "zero waste golf task force" in which we can share strategies, training and enthusiasm for other golf courses to experience the great results that we are enjoying here.

Zero Waste Park Grand Opening Ceremony Rocks!

On November 10, 2001 San Luis Obispo County Parks hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of our Zero Waste Park at Dairy Creek Golf Course. Of course, it's not actually finished, rather just getting started. We have the composting, vermiculture and compost tea demonstrations finished and working. We're working on a snazzy recycling demonstration that emphasizes the need for responsible sorting. If each individual on the course or at home would just take a little more care to sort their waste products, it would make a world of difference at the landfill or recycle facility.

At Dairy Creek, we've gotten rid of all the trash cans but one. Instead, we've installed more recycle and compost containers. Above the containers, we've posted attractive signs listing items commonly found on site and into which container they are to be placed. Our golfers figured it out immediately! The thing about golf courses is that, more than most other venues, golf course waste streams are relatively easy to predict. We still have some work to do...as example, we haven't been able to get the food and beverage concessionaire to get rid of the plastic coated coca cola cups that they get for free from the beverage supplier. Seems that recyclable cups are much more costly. Maybe we can raise some funds to help offset the cost of making the change. We're also struggling with those little coffee creamer cups and catsup blister packs. Although they're plastic, they're so small that they don't get sorted very well in the mechanized materials recovery facility (recycle sorting facility).

All-in-all, the food and beverage folks are really doing a great job of supporting our zero waste initiative. They're sorting out approximately 120 lbs of food waste for composting every day. They have really cleaned up their trash and recycle dumpsters. Used to be that their trash dumpster was overflowing with food waste and recycle materials. Now, the trash dumpster is almost empty, while the recycle is chock full. This is what zero waste is all about....reduce trash going to landfill, recycle or reuse almost everything. In order to do this, it may be necessary to precycle. Precycling is the process of changing buying strategies to avoid packaging that doesn't recycle. It's important to get rid of styrofoam to-go containers, those plastic coated coke cups (they seem to be wax coated paper, but they're not, and they don't recycle). And cardboard...take a little time to keep fiber products out of the trash.

Our next goal is to start a saturday morning zero waste / freecycle / organic farmers market / event on the back forty of the clubhouse parking lot. The goal is to further the zero waste awareness, while at the same time attracting non-golfers to the course. We want non-golfers to pick up a putter while they're visiting the course. The practice putting green is right next to the parking lot, so we expect that some of our non golfer visitors may be swayed towards the fun of golf. That's another important part of our zero waste park strategy...we don't want to waste any opportunities to attract more new customers to the golf course.

All in all, zero waste golf is a big hit. We have been pleasantly surprised as to the breadth of support we have recieved from the global golf industry, from local politicians, non profit groups and the general public. It's fantastic. If you google "zero waste golf" you'll be amazed at all the press we've attracted globally. One of the latest articles of note appeared in the USGA green section. Look for it.

If you're a golf superintendent, or a policy maker in your area, or even an interested individual, you should consider promoting zero waste golf at your golf courses. You won't be sorry.

Worms on wheels

Yesterday I took 40 gallons of zero waste golf worms in 5 plastic bins to a fundraiser for "the friends of the elephant seals". This group administers the elephant seal rookery along the coast highway north of Hearst Castle. The event was "Zero Waste" as nothing went to the landfill. The worms were there to consume all the food scraps, which they did with smiles on their faces.
This kind of outreach is how we can spread the word about how Dairy Creek Golf Course is working to improve the local and global environment through education, outreach and through zero waste practices. We're very pleased to announce that many of the attendees of the fundraiser were already aware of Dairy Creek's emerging zero waste park.

Even small acts are crucial complements to the big picture in our wholistic universe.

Now that's more like it

We had a meeting with all the department heads at Dairy Creek this week...topic? getting everybody to participate more fully on our zero waste initiative. Mostly, we just wanted to get the kitchen staff to ramp up seperating food wastes for composting. Mission accomplished...so far everyday since, about 25 lbs of excellent scraps.

I need to let them know that the worms would enjoy the coffee grounds and egg shells as well.

I'm just glad to see things coming together.

ZerO Waste Golf is a team sport

Our zero waste demonstration park at Dairy Creek GC is really coming along. The vessel composters are both cooking, the worms are reproducing robustly, and the viewing platform around the compost tea brewer is almost completed. I was thinking about cutting some viewing windows in the composters so visitors can see what a compost pile looks like inside.

Right now, the biggest problem we have is getting the kitchen staff to be more consistant diverting kitchen scraps from the garbage so that we can compost them. Some days they do, and others they don't. We actually NEED the food waste because it really helps to accelerate the composting.

The composters generally hover around 140 degrees when we're composting grass clippings and wood chips. When we add food wastes to the mix, the temp jumps to 160 overnight and then stays there for a day or so. Just like any other living organisms, the microbes in the compost like something to eat and really reproduce quickly when the food wastes are added.

The worms need the food wastes to optimize their growth and health as well. I have several worm bin operations stashed around the county, and they each have their own food source. Although worms can be "trained" to eat almost anything, there is a big difference between those that eat mostly lettuce and those who eat a more diverse diet of vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, shredded paper or compost. The worms that eat lettuce reproduce more slowly and are generally smaller than those that eat "real food".

Zero Waste Golf is a new concept around here. Although most folks get the idea immediately, not that many are accustomed to taking action to do anything about it. Golfers are particularly difficult to train. They're only thinking "pure swing thoughts" and trying to leave the real world behind when they're on the course. That's where consistant actions, interesting demonstrations and educational outreach come into play. It's going to take time to change the world, and we're good with that.

But ZerO Waste is a team sport. The more of us that work together, the closer to zero waste we will get. Hopefully, the kitchen staff will get the message.

ZerO Waste Golf is the message, and now it's our new name

I recently changed the name of this blog to "ZerO Waste Golf. The name change makes perfect sense...the posts that get the most readership all have zero waste in the headline.

Golf Course Food Wastes, An Excellent Opportunity for Environmental Leadership

The increasing amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is generally blamed for global climate change. Most often, car emissions are held up as the example polluter of CO2. But after a brief research session, I found some interesting statistics that I'd like to share with you.

Autos: An average automobile releases 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon. Some research claims that the average car produces 6 tons of CO2 per year.

Airplanes: A commercial airliner flying non stop from Boston to Wichita releases approximately 1400 pounds of CO2. It's 1645 miles from Boston to Wichita, so that's just a little less than 1 pound of  CO2per mile

Cows: An adult cow releases on average between 100 kg of methane per year. That equates to 2000 kg of CO2 per year, or 2 tons of CO2.

Coal Fired Power Plant: One ton of coal burned in the average power plant releases approximately 2.5 tons of CO2.

Landfilled Food Wastes: One ton of landfilled food wastes releases the equivalent of 6000 tons of CO2

WHAT?  Yes it's true... Pound for pound, landfilled food wastes are the worst source for greenhouse gases of all.

Studies by Arizona State University have shown that one dry ton of food wastes that decay anaerobically in landfill releases approximately 300 cubic meters of methane gas into the atmosphere. Methane gas is recognized by USEPA as being 20 times more harmful to the atmosphere than CO2. 300 cubic meters of methane multiplied by 20 = 6000 cubic meters of CO2.

Diverting food waste from landfill must be elevated to the highest priority if the harmful effects of global warming are to be slowed.

Not everybody drives a car or flies an airplane. Coal power plants? who even knows where they are? But everybody (apologies to those who lack enough food to be included) eats everyday and throws their wasted food or scraps into the trash can. That is why Green Golfer Foundation feels so strongly that golf courses should spread the word and lead by example by composting food wastes. Simply put, landfilled food wastes are the major source of greenhouse pollutants, period.

Food waste composting is regulated in most states, so there are, most likely, some regulations to learn and to follow, usually based upon the amount of wastes being composted, where the wastes come from and where they're going to be used. At Dairy Creek GC, we use vessel composters that are certified for food waste composting, and we also use worm bins to digest food wastes into vermicompost.

A few communities have a municipal composting operation that accepts food wastes, so it is possible to divert food wastes from the landfill in that manner. Our community does not have such a facility, so we do our own composting. We want the compost, and the vermicompost, anyway, because we use it to make compost tea with which we reduce our fertilizer and pesticide use and costs.

Oh,  by the way, in case you were counting on golf course trees to absorb all the CO2 produced on site...A single adult tree absorbs approximately 48 pounds of CO2 per year. Now, calculate your food waste and then figure out how many trees you need to plant in the rough.

Zero waste golf - could it be any easier?

I am an opportunist. I take it the easy way when easy is available. I wasn't always a zero waste golf advocate, I used to be an all purpose zero waste advocate. My associates and I have designed zero waste protocols for numbers of venues and events. I once pitched the potential for a zero waste stadium to the Philladelphia Phillies. "Too hard" they responded. And they were probably right.

Once I saw how golf courses work, I knew that zero waste golf was a lot easier to accomplish than zero waste at a major sports stadium. Then I started zeroing in on zero waste golf. As compared to other sports venues, golf courses have a very small waste stream, and one that is predictable and easily managed. What better place to practice (or demonstrate) zero waste than one in which it's so easy?

"Zero waste" is a very powerful environmental mantra. Indeed, it is surely the most powerful two words we can use in any eco-conversation. Zero waste trumps all other environmental slogans. Zero waste rules!

I like the idea of golf courses being environmental leaders in the communities that they serve. I'm sick of hearing how golf courses are such bad eco-citizens, what with their excessive water usage, or their over applications of pesticides, bla, bla, bla. You know what I mean. I like it when golf courses take the environmental fight to their opponents with the most powerful environmental strategy that has ever been devised.

But as an opportunist, what I really like is that zero waste golf is so stinking easy. It's so great to slay the environmental competition without even breaking a sweat. And then, when the other sports facilities try to copy zero waste golf's success, it's going to be so much harder for them.

Composting fundamentals are essential to zero waste golf

The heart of an effective zero waste golf program is composting, espcially when food wastes are added to the compost. Composting can be easy and complicated all at the same time. The following link opens to a very good resource for information regarding composting, vermiculture, compost tea and other related topics.

If  I had more time, I'd  write more about the topic, but I'd rather get back to reading the link.

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/index.htm

Zero Waste Golf for an Hour a day

My daily chores chores at the zero waste park take me about an hour to perform. First I check the compost temperature in each of our two earth tub vessel composters. The earth tubs are sweet. they operate quietly and efficiently, the big stainless steel auger mixing the whole vessel in minutes. Today I added some grass clippings and water to the mix. I'm expecting the temperature to rise above 120 degrees F.

Today I cleaned out the Jenny's composter. Albert's guys sprayed tea through their big sprayer today, I heard they only had to clean out the spray head filters once during the job. Anyway, all I really did was make sure the composter was full of water. That didn't hardly take a minute. I did throw 4 or 5 buckets of compost tea dreggs out onto the new landscape we have around the composter area.

I checked the worms and sprayed the hose on their pile just to give them a drink.  They've eaten almost all the lettuce that was on top of them a couple of days ago.

When I was done checking on the worms, I went up to the maintenance shop to talk to Albert about telling the food guys that the worms and vessel composters are ready and available for their kitchen scraps and food wastes.

That's the typical day in the life of the model Green Golfer Foundation volunteer. About an hour a day.

Adding biology to the soil. Germs and worms, a photo primer

The major role of soil biology is to decompose organic materials in the root zone mix (or soil), including the cells of their recently dead microbial colleagues. It is precisely this turnover of root tissues and microbial cells that releases organically bound N and P as plant available, inorganic ("mineral") forms. This so called mineralization process is the essence of what soil microbial activity is all about. Yes, they do bring about other important processes, some beneficial and some detrimental, but their primary benefit is to decompose organic materials, make more microbial cells and synthesize some soil organic matter (humus) along the way.

Being that they're microscopic, we don't often get to see what microbes look like. But they are amazingly diverse and beautiful. In one gram of compost tea, there are billions of individuals and thousands of different species present.

Nematodes are microscopic worms. They can be very beautiful.

Below are pics of red wiggler compost worms. They're different from earthworms in that they're surface crawlers. They live in the area between the soil surface and organic materials covering the soil. If you want to grow microbes to add to your soil, vermicomposting  with red worms is the best way to do it.

Exclusive unpublished photos of World's First ZerO Waste Golf Course

Welcome to Dairy Creek Golf Course, the first zero waste golf course in the world

This is the view from the clubhouse deck looking out over number 9 green, with one of seven extinct volcanos which surround the golf course

These are the two Earth Tub vessell composters we are using to compost green and food wastes. You can see our wooden bins, where we hold wood chips, grass clippings and curing compost.

The next pictures show our worm set up

Our worm bin is a recycled fiberglass trough 16 ft long, 4 ft wide and 2ft deep. it's divided into 8 foot troughs. It was once used on a commercial fish dock in Morro Bay to maintain live slime eels while they were processed for live shipping to Korea.. Right now, we're only using one side for worms, while storing harvested castings on the other. Considering that worms double every 90 days, probably won't be long before we use both sides for worms.

You can see our worm casting harvester. It's a tube of 1/4 screen that rolls on caster wheels in those plywood inverted wedge shapes. You put in a bucket load of material from the worm bin into the top side of the slightly sloped tube and rotate by hand. All the great vermicompost and castings under 1/4 inch shakes out into a trough under the screen tube for collection. Undigested food and anything larger than 1/4 and all worms roll out the other end into a trash can. The can, filled with worms and clumps of vermicompost larger than the screen gets dumped  back into the bin. Eventually, the density of worms to vermicompost in the bin becomes optimal to efficient food waste consumption.

Next I'll show you our compost tea operation

This is a 100 gallon brewer. It is owned by Jenny @ Central Coast Compost Tea Co, of Cayucos CA, one of our founding partners. Jenny brews a fresh certified organic product under license from Natures Solution.  Below, the 500 gallon brewer we're building this week. The vessel is a cone bottomed 500 gal tank that was once a wash water separator recycler set up.

Compost tea is made by generating bubbles into a vessel of water that has a quantity of compost, worm castings, and some microbe food such as kelp, humate or sugar. Bubble the water for 24 hours, and you have a microbial soup called compost tea. These disks are air defusers to create bubbles in the tank. We chose to make this bubbling system easily removable when we clean the tank, so we used a cam-lock connector on a flexible hose.

We're going to put the compost mix into this screen container made out of five gallon buckets and window screen. It holds around 8 gallons of compost mix. We'll suspend it into the vessel of actively aereated water.

This is the cart we made to transport food wastes from the kitchen. You can see how the wooden top is hinged and has a hasp installed in front to keep the raccoons out at night. We hook it up to the bag straps on the back of a golf cart and it makes a great trailer to transport from kitchen to our composter demonstration area. The kitchen staff fills it during the day, and early the next morning we empty it, rinse it clean and return it to the back of house.

This is the zero waste demonstration park as seen from number 8 tee (par 3, 100 yarder over a pond - green to left of picture.) The composters are behind the pumphouse barn. From this vantage, the worms and tea brewers are behind the fence on this side of the barn. We chose to be close to the pumphouse because we plan to inject tea through the irrigation system all over the course.

I'm glad I finally figured out how to share these pictures of our zero waste set up at Dairy Creek Golf Course in San Luis Obispo California.. I hope you enjoy being the first to see them.

Starting Green Golfer Foundation, what is the point anyway?

Green Golfer Foundation was started to advance the concept of zero waste golf through education and demonstration. A few of us have discovered just how easy it is to completely alter golf's environmental paradyme, while saving money and having a lot of fun.

I'm not kidding about the fun part. The greenskeeping staff, the superintendent and Green Golfer Foundation members are really having a great time finding cheap and creative ways to further develop our zero waste demonstration park. it just keeps getting better as we talk about our project to others, and they offer additional ideas and support. It's like a team building, community bonding thing.

Zero waste golf techniques are easy and cheap, and fun. That's the real reason that we expect it to spread like a virus throughout the golf industry. Green Golfer Foundation is going to be there to fly the zero waste flag. We're going to conduct educational seminars. We're making a video trainer right now. We're hoping to develop a fund raising protocol to raise funds to assist other golf courses to defray the expenses of starting their own zero waste demonstration parks. We're hoping that some of the big players in the golf industry will decide to support our efforts.

Green Golfer Foundation is an organization for golfers who want to make a difference in the golf industry. But it's also an organization that benefits golf superintendents as well with volunteer helpers and a network of interested partners all over the world. "Unitos Venceramos...Together We are Invincible" Now, I will admit that starting an international organization is not the easiest thing to do, but as with all other worthwhile ideas...you just share the idea and those who agree will announce themselves. "Build it and they will come".

We were pleased to see that our BFF (blog friends forever) http://www.golfstinks.com/ out of New York wrote about Green Golfer's sartup efforts in their blog today. http://www.golfstinks.blogspot.com/2011/07/can-worm-turds-save-golf-industry.html   . We couldn't have said it better ourselves...Thanks Greg.

Scott at http://www.turfhugger.blogspot.com/  out of Canada is another golf blogger that has been very helpful to spreading the word about zero waste golf. Green Golfer Foundation blog also has readers from India, Maylasia, Europe, Australia, and the list get's bigger every day. Can you see how the idea is already spreading globally?

We don't have any official membership documents or protocols yet, although we're working on it. We don't have a website yet, although we own the domain http://www.green_golfer.com/ (don't expect to find anything there yet) We also own http://www.zerowastegolf.com/ just in case we need it as well.  We don't have any snazzy caps or shirts yet, but you know we will.  We're not looking to create a business or some legalistic big deal, we're proposing a simple grass roots movement...if this is the right idea at the right time, with a little elbow grease, it will grow on it's own.

If you'd like to help us develop the organization, please let me know. We want and need your help and encouragment. Don't send us money, just send us your ideas, comments and moral support. Follow this blog so we will know how to get in touch with you when we get our organizational act together. Talk about zero waste golf and Green Golfer Foundation with your friends. You'll see that there is a lot of unorganized support out there. Now all we need to know is how to herd cats.

Personal ZerO Waste Golf Seminars in San Luis Obispo CA

What if there was a beautiful place with perfect weather, in a beautiful rural California city, next to the beach where a golf superintendent (and his family?) could spend a few days learning about zero waste golf techniques?  Well, there is, and you're welcome to come visit anytime.

Our goal at Dairy Creek is to welcome golf superintendents to visit our zero waste demonstration park to get a close look at just how simple and cheap zero waste can be. We just got our vessel composters up and running so our composting operation just got a huge boost! Tommorrow we're assembling our new 500 gallon compost tea brewer. We have a 100 gallon brewer working now, but we plan to inject the tea into our irrigation system throughout the course, so 500 gallons will be great for that.

Zero waste golf is the future, so why wait until you're one of the last courses in the nation who's wasting money on chemical fertilizer, pesticides and fungicides, while polluting the environment and poisoning staff? Why wait to compost green and food wastes, when every ton of these wastes, when landfilled, releases 300 cubic meters of methane into the atmosphere? Why wait until your city raises your water rates again when you could be cutting your irrigation requirements by 30-50 percent? Why wait to follow when you can lead?

Take a couple days off at the company's expense and travel over to San Luis Obispo to learn about becoming the next zero waste golf course.. We'll guarantee that you'll enjoy it.

How a few worms changed golf forever

It's amazing how a very small action can change the future of something huge. It's a reminder that every good idea and every forest fire begins with a simple spark.

One year ago, when my two buddies and I were developing the concept for zero waste golf, we built a demonstration worm bin in a small community garden down the street from my house. The worm bin was located just across the street from a market deli, so there was a daily supply of food wastes to feed the worms. Just a small worm bin in a public location...

When I suggested to our golf superintendent that he go by and look at the worm bin, in hopes that he'd consider installing one at the course to consume and divert the course's food wastes from the landfill, he agreed to go by. After seeing how compact, well designed and clean the worm bin was, he agreed to install one like it at the course.

I used to bug the shit out of our county waste management authority manager. I was always asking "hard to answer if you're a politician" questions. He would answer, but I could tell that he didn't take me seriously. When I'd propose some zero waste solution scheme, he's always grin a superior grin ask "and how's that going to be sustainable...?" Well, when he saw the community worm bin, his whole demeanor changed. Within a week or two, he had agreed to give $20,000 worth of composting equipment to the zero waste golf project that I had been pitching to the golf superintendent.

Once our golf superintendent got word about the $20,000 gift from waste management authority, he was sold on the project to develop our course into the "first zero waste golf course in the world. And so, we did it. And now when you google zero waste golf, you're going to read all about Dairy Creek Golf Course, the first zero waste golf course in the world  and Josh Heptig, who will probably be named GCSAA superintendent of the year (at least he should be).

It won't be long before zero waste will be the norm for golf courses all over the world. Composting the food and green wastes saves the atmosphere from dangerous methane gas that is released if the food and organic wastes are landfilled. The compost created is used on the course dry or as compost tea, which reduces or eliminates the money spent on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. Early evidence indicates that the microbiology that lives in compost and tea help the soil and plant roots utilize water much better (up to 30% savings the first year) which saves valuable water resourses and the electricity to run irrigation pumps. Anybody can see that golf courses will switch to zero waste to save money, not just to save the world from global warming.

So there it is...The beginning of a major shift in the global golf course maintenance mentality. And it all started with ten or twenty pounds of little red wigglers.

Don't underestimate how small demonstrations can influence how other people finally "get it" when it comes to simple ideas. Together we can change the world to be a better place, and it can begin with our golf courses taking the lead by demonstrating how zero waste can work, not just on the course, but in the homes and communities that they serve.

Food waste: the number one environmental pollutant at most golf courses

The number one environmental pollutant at most golf courses is not the chemicals that they use on their turf and greens. The number one environmental problem comes straight out of the restaurant or snack bar. The problem is food waste.

A study by the University of Arizona found that one ton of food waste, when landfilled, releases 300 cubic yards of methane into the atmosphere. Methane gas, according to the USEPA, is 20 times more damaging to the atmosphere than is carbon dioxide. That means that each ton of landfilled food wastes releases 300x20=6000 cubic yards of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere. That is a stagering reality. The question is, how much food waste does your course produce in a year's time?

Landfilled food wastes decay anaerobically, that's when they produce methane. But composted food wastes decay aerobically, a process that DOES NOT produce methane nor carbon dioxide.

So much of the literature makes a big deal of the toxic chemicals used on golf courses, and the potential that they may run off or somehow harm the adjacent environment. But food waste is never mentioned. It's time that changed.

It's so simple to compost food wastes. Just add the food scraps to an active green waste compost pile. If maintained properly, it won't stink and it won't attract vermin. Most golf courses are paying good money to purchase compost for divit repairs etc, when they could make their own so easily and cheaply. If composting is not practical or convenient, another good way to divert food scraps from the landfill is vermiculture...worm bins. At our course, we do composting and worm binning. The worms eat their weight every day, and they double in population every 90 days. It doesn't take much investment or time to grow a pretty significant herd of worms.

Take the compost and make compost tea. Compost tea is 1000 times more beneficial to turf maintenance than is dry compost. To make compost tea, get a vessel, a mesh bag, some compost, an air compressor and a little kelp extract (to feed the multiplying microbes) and there you go.

Let's get a grip on the number one environmental pollutant on our golf courses. After we do that, we can discuss chemicals.

Palm Springs area taxpayers get soaked by golf course sprinklers

Parts of the Coachella Valley in California have sunk more than a foot in nine years because too much water is being pumped from the aquifer below, and area's 200 golf courses are getting a lion's share of the blame, according to a report released by federal scientists and the valley's largest water district. The findings raise concerns that streets could buckle, sewer lines could break and trenches could appear in the earth if golf courses, residents and businesses don't conserve enough water.

The sinking is not irreversible, but water district officials said it will take projects worth $110 million to help stabilize the ground. A $70 million pipeline already under construction that will send recycled water to 50 golf courses in Indian Wells, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage so they don't have to pump groundwater. 
In another project, water from the Colorado River, will be used to refill the lower part of the basin in another planned, $40 million project.

The math is simple. Divide $110 million dollars by 200 golf courses and you'll see that each Cochella Valley golf course costs the area taxpayers over $500 thousand dollars in ground stabilization costs. Hundreds of the courses are private, so the taxpayers are getting soaked for something that's happening in places they can't play or even visit.

This is a sad story that serves to illustrate how excessive golf course irrigation can impact the local environment and economy in ways seldom considered. Considering global population growth and that potable water is becoming increasingly scarce, it is imperative that golf developers and superintendents plan to use recycled water and utilize recently developed water saving irrigation technologies.

Oiled sand greens...back to the future?

When I was a teenager, I lived in Ethiopia and played on a golf course with oiled sand greens. The oiled sand was dark and heavy. As I remember it, your caddie would drag the green with a carpet drag before you putted. The ball rolled beautifully. When I think about all the fuss, muss, water and fertilizer etc that goes into keeping green greens green, it makes me think that sand greens were actually rather environmentally friendly....Well, except that in Ethiopia the sand was oiled with used motor oil...so... oh, nevermind.

Today there are estimated to be 150 courses with oiled sand greens in the United States. In most cases the oil is biodegradable soy bean oil. There is a measure, drag and place protocol before everybody putts, so that's bound to slow the pace of play. I think that every course should have at least one sand green, if just for grins.

I'll tell you a few other stories about the Ethiopian course I played as a kid. The water hazards were open sewer "creeks" that flowed from the nearby rural village. If your ball went into the "water" your caddie, usually a young kid, would wade in, feel around with his bare feet until he found it, pick it up with his toes, clean off the ball and hand it back to you for a small tip...usually a dime or so.

If your ball hit a kudu or a bushbuck, or some other wild animal roaming the course, you were entitled to a mulligan.

It's just not the same here in the states. One day my drive hit a wild turkey on the course and I tried to get my mulligan. My golf buddies wouldn't hear of it. Just a bunch of birdie jokes. That's it.

Our course does use recycled water from the sewer plant of a nearby prison. But if your ball goes into the water, forget about it...nobody wants to make a stinking dime nowadays.

Oh well, at least the sand greens are still a good idea.

Compost tea is nature's solution to golf's economic and environmental problems

Biological management of golf turf has the potential to mitigate ground water contamination that can occur from use of pesticides, as well as reduce the costs associated with fertilizer and fungicide applications. One of the major stumbling blocks to the increased use of biological methods continues to be a lack of understanding of how the microbial communities work in the soil.

The creatures living in the soil are critical to soil quality. They affect soil structure and therefore soil erosion and water availability. They can protect crops from pests and diseases. They are central to decomposition and nutrient cycling and therefore affect plant growth and amounts of pollutants in the environment. Finally, the soil is home to a large proportion of the world's genetic diversity.

Whether you are a concerned citizen, golfer, or golf superintendent, biological turf management has multiple benefits for increasing the health of golf turf while improving the environment were golf course are located.

Much of this information was first brought to public attention when the USDA published The Soil Biology Primer in 2000 (Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS), 2000 Soil Biology Primer.  Rev. Ed., Ankeny, Iowa) 

http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/concepts/soil_biology/biology.html..  In this publication, scientists defined the term "Soil Food Web" as the community of creatures that spend all or part of their life in the soil”.

For many, this publication was the first time they learned the role microorganisms play in fixing carbon dioxide, creating good soil structure, reducing plant disease, and cycling nutrients. Since its first publication, numerous businesses have formed that use horticultural applications that are based on the principles described in the book. Perhaps one of the most dramatic statements of the Soil Biology Primer was that: All plants – grass, trees, shrubs, agricultural crops – depend on the food web for their nutrition.

600 million reasons to use compost tea on your greens

Continued use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides do nothing but destroy the naturally ocurring beneficial biological agents that support healthy turf and plants. When these biologicals are killed, it takes more and more expensive chemicals to do what they do for free.  The more chems you use, the more microbes you kill, and your soil food web falls into an unsustainable death spiral.

How healthy is your soil? Perhaps you would consider adding beneficial biology as a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. Kick the chemical habit! Compost and compost tea contains all the biology you need to start your turf on a path towards chemical independence.

How many creatures naturally exist in a single GRAM of healthy soil?

600 million bacterial individuals; 15,000 to

20,000 bacterial species

150 to 300 meters of fungal biomass; 5,000 to

10,000 fungal species

10,000 protozoa

20.30 beneficial nematodes: bacterial-feeding,

fungal-feeding, predatory

200,000 arthropods per square meter

That's a lot of valuable life forms in one gram of soil. Don't kill them. they are your friends.

It's called wastewater, but it shouldn't be wasted

The city of Morro Bay CA is under state mandate to replace their "antique" wastewater treatment plant. The construction is scheduled to begin in 2012 and be completed in 2014.

The Morro Bay wastewater treatment plant at 160 Atascadero Road is operated jointly by the city and the Cayucos Sanitary District. It is one of the few plants in California that is still permitted to discharge partially treated water into the ocean. Discharging the waste water into the ocean instead of returning it to the ground water supply or recycling the water for agricultural use is a huge waste of one of the area's most valuable valuable resources. Green Golfer Foundation will advocate for the treated wastewater to be piped to Morro Bay Golf Course for it's irrigation use.

The new plant would treat 1.5 million gallons per day to tertiary level with any amount over that treated to secondary levels. Plans call for eventually trucking away 400,000 gallons a day of treated water for agricultural and landscaping uses.

Read more: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2011/03/18/1527457/morro-bay-sewer-upgrade-runs-into.html#ixzz1QgAMAWeQ

Are golf course chemicals shrinking your balls?

A new study suggests that there is widespread decline in male reproductive health and endocrine disrupting pesticides are believed to play a significant role. Thirty out of 37 pesticides tested by the researchers altered male hormones, including 16 that had no known hormonal activity until now.

The study, "Widely Used Pesticides with Previously Unknown Endocrine Activity Revealed as in Vitro Anti-Androgens," was published February 2011 in the online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

"This study indicates that, not surprisingly, there are many other endicrine disruptors that we have not yet identified or know very little about," said Emily Barrett, PhD, a University of Rochester assistant professor in obstretics and gynecology. 'This underlines the glaring problem that many of the chemicals that are most widely used today, including pesticides and fungicides, are not adequately tested and may have serious long term impacts on health and development."

Green Golfer Foundation advocates the reduction or elimination of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides commonly used on golf courses. We know that these products are used for a reason, but we also know that there are organic products such as compost and compost tea that do the same jobs. We also know that these organic products are easy and inexpensive to make onsite.

There is no reason to risk the health of golfers or the surrounding communities just to keep the grass one shade greener. The fact is, when it comes to being environmentally responsible, the "greenest" golf course is probably one shade browner.

Green Golfer Mission Statement - for your approval

Whether you are a golfer or not, you should be concerned about how your local golf courses affect the surrounding community and global environment. By joining or supporting Green Golfer Foundation, you will indicate your support for environmental awareness and global sustainability.

Today I'm going to propose a mission statement for our organization. I hope that you will consider it carefully, suggest changes or additions, or make comments. If you approve of it as-is, then vote yes or no. If we get more yes votes than no votes, we'll consider it adopted. otherwise, we'll keep working on it.

I propose the following Green Golfer Foundation mission statement:

"The mission of Green Golfer Foundation is to provide environmental leadership on the course and in the community through demonstration, participation and education of the benefits of zero waste, the reduced use of water and potentially harmful chemicals."

Every one of you reading this, anywhere in the world, is considered a voting member of our forming group. For the sake of parlimentary protocol, will one of you second the proposal?

Please vote with your comments. On Facebook, vote yes=Like. If you vote no, you'll need to post a comment or suggestion for revision.

Understanding the golf superintendent's job

The modern golf superintendent has his hands full managing his property amid a gauntlet of regulation, economic constraints, competition for water, pressure to maintain pristine course conditions and public perception. If you're a golf superintendent, it's not easy being you.

 A big percentage of golfers golfers take their superintendent and greens keeping staff for granted. They get pissed off at staff if the second cut is too high, if the greens aren't rolling exactly as they want them to. But really, they're most likely just making shitty shots and transfering the blame. Golf is a game played on a constantly changing environment. That's what keeps it fun and challenging, even when you play the same course time after time. For golfers, it's a game, and it should be fun regardless of the current course conditions. If you don't like how the ball is rolling today, come back tommorrow and it'll be completely different. And if you're the type that gets pissed off at the course conditions, get over it.. you probably aren't good enough to justify getting angry anyway.

To really appreciate your favorite golf courses, try to put yourself in the superintendent's shoes. When you go to different courses, imagine how you would handle the differing environmental conditions and challenges that pose themselves according to site, location and microclimates. But hey, forget your overalls and rubber boots...today's golf superintendent is more scientist than farmer. If you're going to understand the superintendent's job, you're going to leave the farm and to go back to school.

At Green Golfer Foundation, we want to make our home courses the best they can be. We want excellent playability and we want environmental sustainability. We want to protect the course environment and the surrounding community from any adverse impacts. The best way to insure that our course is the best it can be is to understand what can be done, and what can't. It won't do any good to bust the superintendent's chops over an issue that he can't control. On the other hand, if it's possible to make a change for the better, than we want to figure out how to help superintendent and staff make those changes.

The best thing a Green Golfer can do is study up on the golf industry. All the information you need is easily and quickly available on the internet. There's so much information, in fact, that it's likely that no one person could possibly see it all. If you find something interesting, why not send the link to your superintendent.

If you and your golf partner are both interested in the environmental profile of your home course, consider asking other's in your golf club to start an environmental advisory group (Hello...Green Golfer Foundation format). Get to know your superintendent and greens staff. Get to know more about their jobs...and help them.

 Here are a few links to learning more about golf and the environment and what you and your superintent should be paying attention to:

1. Water sourcing availability, course demand and water costs are a huge part maintaining your course. If it's not the number one problem facing your superintendent, it soon will be. Here are some interesting water facts. www.waterinfo.org/resources/water-facts

2. How much water does your course consume for irrigation and domestic use? Is it more or less than comparable properties? Here is handy calculator for comparing water usage at your course to a seasonal baseline estimate for different California zones. www.ncga.org/turfgrass/golf-course-water-usage/

3. A comprehensive source of water and environmental related links from the Environmental Institute for golf. You could spend hours here... www.eifg.org/water/default.asp

4. There are many published studies on the best management practices for course management. if you want to know what your superintendent should know. this is a good example. www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/water_inland/diversions/golfcoursewaterusebmp.pdf

This stuff doesn't even break the surface of all the information about sustainable golf course management that's available. If you like this stuff, good news...There's a lot of it out there. Now get busy and learn.

ZerO Waste are two words that only leaders use

If you could see me right now, you'd see me pumping my fist into the air. I'm actually shouting "ZerO Waste!" right now. I must admit that I have seen a few followers using the words...but they don't do the fist pump, so what good is it?

One thing I like about the words ZerO Waste (I like it when we use a big O at the end of zero) is that everybody likes the sound of it. But ask them to define zero waste, and you see that few can articulate the topic very well. The other day, a couple of us were planning the script for a video presentation in which we were wondering who could describe zero waste golf more clearly...a middle aged golfer or a fifth grader? It was unamimous.

I shouldn't have to define the word "zero" for you. Everyone knows what zero means. It means no, nothing, nada. Mick Jagger could have substituted the word zero in his iconic song...Remember "I can't get zero satisfaction"?

But the word waste, now there's an enigma. Waste means to use or expend carelessly or needlessly, to squander. It means to fail to use, as an opportunity. It means to be available without being put to use. When I was pumping my fist into the air, what I was really shouting was, "Green Golfer Foundation is available! Put us to use! If you're a golf superintent who has noticed that play has fallen off lately as the economy has taken a nose dive, pump your fist into the air and shout, " (insert name here) golf course is available! Put us to use. Actually this might not be the best slogan, because it sounds self serving, and we all know selfishness makes people feel bad. I suggest you go with the slogan "ZerO Waste!"

A word of caution, though. The words, zero waste, cause a change in the people who use them. First you use the words. Then you start thinking about what they mean. Then you start finding ways to illustrate them. Next thing you know, you're obsessed with eliminating your own wasteful behaviors. I know because it's happened to me since I started promoting them. Yes I'm obsessed about zero waste golf. I even bought the internet domain zerowastegolf.com. Sadly, I'm wasting the opportunity to put up a website, because I wasted the opportunity to learn how to work the internet.

Here's some of the things I obsess about when I think about zero waste golf:

1. There are plenty of golfers who would volunteer to improve their favorite golf course, especially retired folks that don't have enough to do since Oprah is off the air. Don't waste their talents.
2. The average golf course uses 300,000 gallons per irrigation session. Wouldn't 250,000 do just as well? Don't waste water.
3. Energy from the sun and wind is free. get some panels or a wind generator to charge your carts. Don't waste free energy, or the government rebates available for installing energy saving equipment.
4. Compost your course food and green wastes and use the compost or worm castings to fertilize your landscape or course. Don't waste money on fertilizer. And don't waste the atmosphere by landfilling food or green wastes.
5. Back to water savings...Change your urinals to flushless.
6. Back to carts...Encourage golfers to walk the course. tell them not to waste their health, and save the energy needed to constantly recharge the carts.
7. Compost tea has shown to be an effective disease preventative. Use it on your greens. Don't waste your natural soil biology by constantly killing it with pesticides.
8. Get rid of the styrofoam to-go containers in the snack bar. They don't degrade in the landfill and they don't recycle. Oh, and those plastic coated paper to-go cups...ditto. Don't waste room in the landfill.
9. Promoting zero waste at your golf course indicates to you are a community environmental leader. Don't waste the opportunity to lead.
10. And this zero waste advice is for you golfers that like to gamble. Spend some time on the practice green, fer crissakes. Quit missing those 3 foot putts, you're just wasting your hard earned money.

Non profits are a superintendent's best friend

Green Golfer Foundation is a non profit organization with all the bells and whistles that go with that distinction. One of the best known distinctions of a non profit is the tax exempt status. Many of you may know that when you make a charitable donation to a non profit organization, you are entitled to a tax deduction for the value of the donation. It's a win-win situation. When you give something of value to a charitable organization you help out a cause that you believe in and when you write off the gift at tax time, your tax liablility is reduced by the value of the gift. It doesn't hurt your bottom line at all. It's as though the government has actually made the donation.

Green Golfer is dedicated to furthering environmental awareness and specific projects that advance sustainability or reduce environmental impacts fom golf course activities. The funds we raise are reserved for environmental education and outreach or implementation of environmental golf projects. So far in 2011, we have raised over $30,000 in cash or equipment, and provided over 200 hours of volunteer time to help San Luis Obispo County Golf Operations develop a zero waste demonstration park at Dairy Creek Golf Course. It's a good start, but we're not even close to done.

Green Golfer started out as an offshoot of Environmental Protection Associates Inc. (EPA Inc).  EPA Inc is a very small organization. In fact there's only three of us in the club. EPA Inc. is not really structured to be dedicated as a golf organization, since we design zero waste strategies for any number of venues and events other than golf. That's why we decided to start Green Golfer to specialize on golf and the environmental challenges that go along with operating our local golf courses. Whenever we talk to golfers about forming an environmental club for golfers, they respond with great enthusiasm. That's why we're starting to reach out for charter members to help us grow the group.

As a non profit group, Green Golfer can do so many things that county golf operations simply can't. As an example, the county can't solicit or recieve gifts or donations from individuals or businesses. We can. The county can't recieve endowments from the estates of golf lovers, we can. What the county can do, however, is accept resources from a non profit organization.

After the compost tea test was sucessful, Josh Heptig, superintendent of county golf operations invited EPA Inc. to make a written proposal for the creation of a zero waste demonstration park at Dairy Creek. We knew that if we couldn't find a way to divert food wastes from the landfill, we couldn't accomplish our zero waste goal. But dealing with food wastes is strictly regulated by the state and county regulations. That's why we went for help and advice to Bill Worrell, manager of SLO County Integrated Waste Management Authority. So happens that IWMA had two vessel composters, valued $10,000 each, sitting around being unused and that are approved for food waste composting. So we asked them to give us the composters for our project with county golf. And they did, just like that. I'm not bragging about it, I'm just saying...It's not the kind of request that county golf operations could make, but Green Golfer could.

I'll tell you a funny story that superintendent Josh Heptig told me. When he and I first met to discuss creating the first zero waste golf course in the world, he told his supervisors....and they just laughed. After the success of the free compost tea test, he told his supervisors....and they were starting to get curious. After IWMA gave us the $20,000 worth of composters, he told his supervisors....and they suddenly became very interested. After we applied for and were awarded $10,000 in grant cash money from Morro Bay National Estuary Program....his supervisors wanted to take credit for the whole idea. (just kidding) but for sure they were 100% behind the project.

I'll tell you more about the MBNEP grant in my next session.

A tea party, but not the political one...

When I met with Josh Heptig, Superintendent of San Luis Obispo County Golf Operations, I told him that I thought he had an opportunity to create "the first zero waste golf course in the world", and he was intrigued. But then he told me that what he really had been wanting to do was test compost tea on the practice greens. "Ok", I said, "that's easy to do because my daughter and her husband just happen to be in the business of brewing certified organic compost tea". They agreed to provide the tea for a test, and I agreed to do the labor, all with no cost to the county.

In the next few weeks, I started spraying compost tea on one half of practice and nursery greens at Dairy Creek GC in San Luis Obispo, and on Morro Bay GC, both of which are operated by the county. We sprayed tea on the greens about every three weeks for about six months. At the end of the summer, everybody was happy, the greens stayed green, and there had been no significant disease outbreaks where we used the tea instead of pesticides.

We started studying up on compost tea. We learned that compost tea is not fertilizer, it's a solution of microscopic creatures that, when added to the soil or leaves, make it easier for all plants to thrive, including turfgrass.  We learned that the tea can help reduce water usage by 30-50 percent in the first year of use. We concluded that with compost tea, we could reduce or eliminate the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Put all this together, and we're talking about saving the golf operations a bunch of money.

I want get back to Green Golfer Foundation, here. Green Golfer Foundation is a local non profit organization dedicated to promoting environmental advancement on our local golf courses. But environmental advancement can cost money that course management just doesn't have in their budget. What to do? Well, the first thing a non profit can do is volunteer to help. The second thing a non profit can do is encourage donations, endowments and participation from other interested local environmental groups. And when we volunteer to help or raise funds it's easier to convince course management to take chances on new techniques. The fact is that a non profit can do a lot of things that a county golf, private clubs, or or other for profit public golf operations just can't. Green Golfer Foundation, as a non profit,  is uniquely positioned to help change the environmental practices and public profile of all our local golf operations. And that's a good thing.

In the next installment, I'm going to tell you how we convinced Integrated Waste Management Authority to donate $20,000 worth of equipment to our zero waste golf ideas. And than I'll tell you how we got the Morro Bay National Estuary Program to donate $10,000 to the effort. This is the work of Green Golfer Foundation...It's working.

take a side trip to see how our zero waste golf project is progressing. http://slocountygolfcourses.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html