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.