{"id":36375,"date":"2026-08-23T10:22:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T10:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/?p=36375"},"modified":"2026-08-23T10:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T10:58:23","slug":"study-how-climate-friendly-are-golf-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/study-how-climate-friendly-are-golf-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"CO\u2082 Study: How Climate-Friendly Are Golf Courses?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-k7djv9qv-859f925c08b561ac7ec3934028edcae7\">\n.avia-image-container.av-k7djv9qv-859f925c08b561ac7ec3934028edcae7 img.avia_image{\nbox-shadow:none;\n}\n.avia-image-container.av-k7djv9qv-859f925c08b561ac7ec3934028edcae7 .av-image-caption-overlay-center{\ncolor:#ffffff;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='avia-image-container av-k7djv9qv-859f925c08b561ac7ec3934028edcae7 av-styling- avia-align-center  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_heading  avia-builder-el-first '  ><div class=\"avia-image-container-inner\"><div class=\"avia-image-overlay-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class='wp-image-36388 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-36388 avia_image ' src=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Studie-CO2-Nibio-2026-1500x630.jpg\" alt='Golfer und CO2-Fu\u00dfabdruck' title='Golfer und CO2-Fu\u00dfabdruck'  height=\"630\" width=\"1500\"  \/><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-k7oqhpp9-aa6d9a3c41baffa1c125b7075ee32e39\">\n#top .av-special-heading.av-k7oqhpp9-aa6d9a3c41baffa1c125b7075ee32e39{\npadding-bottom:10px;\n}\nbody .av-special-heading.av-k7oqhpp9-aa6d9a3c41baffa1c125b7075ee32e39 .av-special-heading-tag .heading-char{\nfont-size:25px;\n}\n.av-special-heading.av-k7oqhpp9-aa6d9a3c41baffa1c125b7075ee32e39 .av-subheading{\nfont-size:15px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='av-special-heading av-k7oqhpp9-aa6d9a3c41baffa1c125b7075ee32e39 av-special-heading-h1 blockquote modern-quote  avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_image  el_before_av_textblock '><h1 class='av-special-heading-tag '  >CO\u2082 Study: How Climate-Friendly Are Golf Courses?<\/h1><div class=\"special-heading-border\"><div class=\"special-heading-inner-border\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-k7djfsv1-5a253d77b2a689e23c5a29b3dc946c3c '  ><div class='avia_textblock' ><p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Just how environmentally friendly is a golf course, really? So far, there is no simple answer to this question. There is a lack of globally comparable methods for reliably measuring both CO\u2082 sequestration in the soil and emissions resulting from the maintenance and management of golf courses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">This is where the international research initiative <strong>ITRI<\/strong> comes in, sponsored by STERF, The R&amp;A, and the USGA. <strong>Robert Kempster<\/strong>, a scientist at the Norwegian research institute NIBIO, is leading the research efforts as part of the <strong>\u201cPathways to a Climate-Positive Future for Golf\u201d<\/strong> project. The goal is to develop a globally applicable methodology for determining the CO\u2082 content of golf course soils and the emissions resulting from their management. The results could, for the first time, provide a reliable basis for identifying where golf courses actually store CO\u2082, where emissions occur\u2014and how these can be specifically reduced.<\/p>\n<p>In this interview, Robert Kempster explains why this data set is crucial for the future of golf and what questions research needs to answer.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The world is experiencing a summer marked by extreme heat waves, droughts, and wildfires. The word \u201cresilience\u201d is on everyone\u2019s lips. How important is it to recognize that the golf industry must reduce its emissions?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: If golf clubs want to be resilient, it&#8217;s almost like fighting the tide. You&#8217;re trying to fight the problems as they come, but you&#8217;re not targeting the underlying cause. Often people take each problem in isolation, just thinking like, <em>&#8220;Oh well, okay, there&#8217;s less water, how do we cope with that?&#8221;<\/em> or <em>&#8220;It&#8217;s hotter, how do we cope with that? There&#8217;s more disease,&#8221;<\/em> trying to tackle problems problem by problem. It\u2019s like trying to carry on regardless of the challenges, instead of tackling climate change now. That is tricky, because it will take a long time before we see the benefits.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>What is your impression when you work with golf clubs? How much awareness is there about the overall issue of CO\u2082?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: I&#8217;m working with golf courses which are interested enough in this topic to be willing to contribute to our project. I get the sense that golf courses have a lot of pride in their course and they do want to do the right thing.<\/p>\n<p>The topic they seem to understand better is biodiversity. But advice and guidance on what actions can be taken to address climate change, reduce emissions, or improving sequestration is less clear. I think the willingness is there to make changes, but maybe it&#8217;s a lack of advice or understanding of what would make the difference.<\/p>\n<p>I think it&#8217;s our job to do this research and help guide them, because some of the suggestions we make don&#8217;t actually require anything <em>more<\/em> of the golf courses\u2014sometimes they require <em>less<\/em>. The project aims to provide a holistic view of golf course emission balances\u2014both sequestration and emissions\u2014and to work out where those emissions are coming from.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-lftkinlp-8db7a2aa4369e05c19d463b48719d90d\">\n.avia-image-container.av-lftkinlp-8db7a2aa4369e05c19d463b48719d90d img.avia_image{\nbox-shadow:none;\n}\n.avia-image-container.av-lftkinlp-8db7a2aa4369e05c19d463b48719d90d .av-image-caption-overlay-center{\ncolor:#ffffff;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='avia-image-container av-lftkinlp-8db7a2aa4369e05c19d463b48719d90d av-styling- avia-align-center  avia-builder-el-3  el_after_av_textblock  el_before_av_textblock  av-has-copyright av-copyright-always'  ><div class=\"avia-image-container-inner\"><div class=\"avia-image-overlay-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class='wp-image-36392 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-36392 avia_image ' src=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CO2-Bodenprobe-Robert-Kempster-scaled.jpg\" alt='Soil sampling by Robert Kempster at Swedish golf courses' title='CO2 Soil Sample by Robert Kempster'  height=\"924\" width=\"1454\" srcset=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CO2-Bodenprobe-Robert-Kempster-scaled.jpg 1454w, https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CO2-Bodenprobe-Robert-Kempster-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CO2-Bodenprobe-Robert-Kempster-1030x655.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CO2-Bodenprobe-Robert-Kempster-768x488.jpg 768w, https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CO2-Bodenprobe-Robert-Kempster-1500x954.jpg 1453w, https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CO2-Bodenprobe-Robert-Kempster-705x448.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1454px) 100vw, 1454px\" \/><\/div><small class=\"avia-copyright\">Robert Kempster takes some samples on a Swedish golf course (Foto: Robert Kempster)<\/small><\/div><\/div>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-lscglpx3-a5a50b7d3200c3c415f6c5906934fe5a '  ><div class='avia_textblock' ><p><em><strong>Which buildings and their energy consumption are included?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: It&#8217;s just the maintenance buildings and the pump house.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>How difficult was it to agree on this study setup?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: We are a sports turf research group here at NIBIO Landvik, so we&#8217;re always more concerned with the sports turf element. You can draw a lot of carbon learnings from a wide variety of scientific literature for things like the clubhouse or wilder areas, but the big gap really is sports turf maintenance. There&#8217;s really not much that&#8217;s been done on turf areas like golf courses\u2014especially not at this global scale.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The data come from completely different climate zones. Are courses then still comparable?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: We&#8217;re trying to use the differences from region to region to help us understand the problem from a global view. We know from the theory of carbon accumulation in the soil what <em>should<\/em> make a difference in terms of the climate. It&#8217;s all driven by grass growth and by soil microbial activity. If you have more temperature and more precipitation, then you get more grass growth and so more carbon capture through photosynthesis. But it\u2019s a balance as if the grass grows more, you have to mow it leading to increased maintenance emissions. At the same time, warmer and wetter conditions also increase microbial decomposition, which releases carbon back into the atmosphere. So the amount of carbon stored in the soil depends on the balance between these processes, how much carbon enters the soil and how quickly it is broken down. By studying courses across different climates, we can better understand how that balance changes around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Also, maintenance activities play an important role, the growing season in Australia is basically all year, whereas the growing season in northern Sweden is much tighter. It&#8217;s interesting to see how that impacts emissions. The advice we give to certain regions may be different from others because of the challenges each one faces.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-mt5m8blu-d0002c284ef0481264174d3e27cc2924 '  ><div class='avia_textblock' ><p><em><strong>Is there at all a lot of carbon sequestration in grass?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: There is, but it happens quite early on. A study of freshly laid turf shows the highest rate of carbon sequestration within the first few years. Those rates decline over time, so you can&#8217;t apply that same rate indefinitely; it&#8217;s not a linear relationship with age. A lot of work has been done on natural grasslands, which sequester a lot of carbon, but we don&#8217;t know how similar that is in a managed grassland.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Do you also take different grasses into account?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: We&#8217;re asking the golf courses what grass types they are using, so that can be checked. We can do comparisons and group courses by the grass types they&#8217;re using. It will likely vary widely across the different sites. If you take Bermuda, it typically requires less irrigation, which can reduce emissions for water management. Growth rates will differ, rooting depths will differ, which affects soil carbon, and the residues within those roots are likely to differ, which affects the breakdown of plant material.<\/p>\n<div hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/itri-research-initiative-started\/\" class='avia-iframe-wrap'>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"KyOtRQlmky\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/itri-research-initiative-started\/\">ITRI projects explore three existential industry problems<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cITRI projects explore three existential industry problems\u201d \u2014 Golf Sustainable\" src=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/itri-research-initiative-started\/embed\/#?secret=QXiPiT72nX#?secret=KyOtRQlmky\" data-secret=\"KyOtRQlmky\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><em><strong>Which role does irrigation play? Pumps need a lot of energy, which influences emissions. And the irrigation, for example on courses in Arizona, is completely different from Sweden.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: Exactly. There are a few relevant things there. The electricity source that the pump house is running on\u2014if it&#8217;s running in Scandinavia, that electricity might be coming from renewable sources, hydropower, etc. We are taking that into account with the emissions factors we are using. Electricity to use a pump house in Sweden compared to electricity in Japan or America will give you a completely different output, depending on how that electricity is generated.<\/p>\n<p>Then let\u2019s talk about the water source itself: A lot of courses in Sweden have an open water source, and they can pump it directly from the lake or river. Whereas in other places it could be coming from mains water, and you&#8217;re using treated, clean water. Or other regions it could be mainly recycled water. That influences the footprint and so we will also consider this.<\/p>\n<div hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/breeding-turfgrass-annemettedaljensen\/\" class='avia-iframe-wrap'>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"rx6fA39MUu\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/breeding-turfgrass-annemettedaljensen\/\">&#8222;Grass breeding has become much more complex&#8220;<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201c\u201eGrass breeding has become much more complex\u201c\u201d \u2014 Golf Sustainable\" src=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/breeding-turfgrass-annemettedaljensen\/embed\/#?secret=Gd4X6iY3Do#?secret=rx6fA39MUu\" data-secret=\"rx6fA39MUu\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><em><strong>Isn\u2019t the construction of the whole golf course an important part of the whole carbon reporting? Doesn\u2019t it make a difference if the course is built in a natural site of dunes, if forests are removed or if the course is built on former agricultural land?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: I completely agree. I&#8217;m focusing on ongoing emissions in the study and trying to improve that, but we\u2019re missing a substantial amount of overall embedded carbon emissions from construction of the golf course. There is therefore a large initial carbon debt. Once we have been able to calculate the carbon sequestration rates, it would be interesting to know how long it takes to break even.<\/p>\n<p>With carbon sequestration, it depends on the previous land use. So, if you go from a forest to a golf course, you will be losing carbon out of the soil. But if you go from agriculture to a golf course, then you&#8217;ll probably be gaining carbon. Depending on the previous land use, that clearly changes whether a course has a positive impact or a negative impact. But this isn\u2019t part of my ongoing project, though it could perhaps be an important future project.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The problem with scientific results is often that they aren\u2019t communicated enough. How much can your study influence the attitude of the golf industry towards carbon emissions?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kempster: That&#8217;s what I find rewarding about working for NIBIO and this International Turfgrass Research Initiative (ITRI) project \u201cPathways to a climate-positive future for golf\u201d funded by STERF, the USGA and the R&amp;A \u2014 they put a heavy emphasis on writing articles that will be read by actual practitioners, not just scientific papers. The aim is to give golf courses actionable advice on how they can try to reduce their emissions.<\/p>\n<div hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/video-copernicus-report-2025-and-golf\/\" class='avia-iframe-wrap'>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"uyMvdix0Jf\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/video-copernicus-report-2025-and-golf\/\">Copernicus report: Europe is a climate hotspot<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cCopernicus report: Europe is a climate hotspot\u201d \u2014 Golf Sustainable\" src=\"https:\/\/golfsustainable.com\/en\/video-copernicus-report-2025-and-golf\/embed\/#?secret=7VWtNmTaqX#?secret=uyMvdix0Jf\" data-secret=\"uyMvdix0Jf\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" 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