GEO Certification
Golf Club La Pinetina
Appiano Gentile, Italy
Verification Report
Paolo Croce, GEO Accredited Verifier February 2, 2010Executive Summary
Pinetina G.C. is located in the “Pinewood of Appiano Gentile and Tradate” Regional Park. It is 40 km from Milan and 20 km from the Swiss border. Since 2000 the Golf Club has been dealing with environmental protecting policies. It was awarded Committed to Green National Certification in 2007 and has been involved in EMAS since 2008. In planning the annual turf management and environmental golf course strategy they were able to get the collaboration of the most qualified Italian technicians. Result of this commitment is a marked reduction of water consumption and nitrogen inputs, compared with the similar golf courses of the area (Po Valley). The Club manager is recording any variation in using maintenance materials, in energy consumption, in production and managing waste, strictly according to the national rules. Any external activity has to be agreed with the Regional Park Management and this is a further guarantee about sustainability of the course operations.
Scope of Application
Golf Club La Pinetina consists of:
Courses
- La Pinetina Golf Club (18 holes)
- La Pinetina Pitch & Putt (6 holes)
Clubhouses
- La Pinetina Clubhouse
Maintenance Facilities
- GCM La Pinetina
Other
- Pro Shop
- Practice Facilities
- Halfway House
Accommodation
- Golf Hotel La Pinetina - Fully Serviced (11 rooms)
Observations
Nature
The landscape is mainly characterized by gently undulating morainic hills covered by woods and sometimes by crops. The landscape ecology of the Regional Park is characterised by lumbard heathers together with pure pinewood of Scots pine or mix woods with English oak, chestnut, false acacia, common hornbeam, betula, elm and common maple. The introduction of alien species and trees for wood production in the past represents a complication in the natural evolution of the vegetation. Fauna is quite diverse, but relatively scarce due to human and hunting pressure and poor water place. The Golf Club does not own an environmental management plan yet, but they have records of botanic and faunistic species. In order to get a better environmental sustainability of the golf facilities the management is now involved in; renaturalisation of pond margins; improving buffer zones; improving native species establishment; improving the ratio of natural areas to maintained areas.
Landscape & Heritage
The Regional Park provides particular attention to the landscape conservation which is assured by the presence of specifical protection plans. The holes are entirely cut through woodland: first nine in a hilly land, while the second are placed in a flatter area. Despite this, the second holes are more technically demanding. The Golf Course presents four main habitats: native woodland, wetlands, open water features, heathers. There are no archeological sites in the area, but a quite heavy rural tradition is very well shown by the social, recreative and cultural plan elaborated by the Regional Park. This plan is mandatory also for the Club which is really involved in informing its members about the Park's activities.
Water
The main water source is a well of groundwater that feeds an artificial lake where is located the pump station. Up to 2007 the annual mean of water consumption has been 1011 m3/ha compared with the mean of 1340 m3/ha of the similar golf courses of the Po Valley. Furthermore, the new irrigation system, installed in 2009, is able to provide very significant improvements in terms of water distribution (better sprinkler spacing) and sprinklers control (computerised system directly managed by the Superintendent). The water covered surface is just one fourth of the total golf course surface, however the club management is involved in reducing and/or optimising water consumption through: night irrigations, evapotranspiration data, soil decompacting, use of wetting agents, rebuilding lake banks (currently in sleepers) to avoid water leaching. Water quality is also checked and improved by the Club, enlarging buffer zones, using less leaching fertilisers and less toxic pesticides.
Turf
The Superintendent is managing turf with extreme care and the club collaborates with the Italian Golf Federation Green Section, who are expert in environmental issues related to golf courses maintenance. Diseases, insect attacks, weeds control are not preventive, only practiced in the presence of pathogens and only in limited areas and/or for exceptional events (i.e. Pythium desease). This practice has been very useful in reducing pesticide use compared to local golf courses. In 2009 the adoption of natural and organic nitrogen sources, able to reduce nutrients leaching, was very effective in improving fertilisation strategies. Annual mean nitrogen consumption is 34 kg/ha compared to 40 kg/ha coming from the other golf courses in the Po Valley and 155 kg/ha of the main crops of the area. Soil aerification is playing an important role to improve turfgrass health. For this reason coring, forking and vertidraining is intensive as is verticutting and topdressing.
Waste
Waste management is praticed according to the National rules of the country with particular attention to 106/09 DLS and 81/08 DL. Waste collection is differentiated with separation of paper/cardboard, glass, plastic, aluminium, metal, batteries, lubrificants, cooking oils. Cores, greens/clippings and dirty sand are recycled directly on the turf inside the Golf Course. Particularly grass clipping is correctly recycled through its homogeneous distribution on semirough. Waste water coming from the Club House, Dormy house and maintenance facilities is discharged into a water body according to the National laws.
Energy
The club house has received the energy certification by Lombardy Region. The club is involved in obtaining energy saving through a new heating system (new condensation boiler) with the consequent class “D” certification. Power, methane, diesel, petrol, heat and hydraulic oil consumption is monthly monitored and in 2009 it has been realised an energy audit in order to save energy. First result of this report is the adoption of an inverter inside the pump station. In the future the Golf Club is going to realise a solar photovoltaic power plant (able to produce the needed energy for the club demand), and to substitute the light sources with low consume apparatus.
Education & awareness
The Pinetina GC staff are highly professional and qualified to manage the course efficiently and with attention to the environment. The Club manager and Superintendent graduated from the National Golf School of the Italian Golf Federation. The remaining staff annually attend educational courses established by national laws, in the following items: accidents prevention, emergency management, health and security on the work place, environmental education. Many of these activities are run in collaboration with the Regional Park managers particularly for the course guides, website, meetings with authorities, projects for the local community. Inside the golf club environmental information is advertised through posters, displays, meetings, reports and brochure production. The course is one of the few in Italy to have a security and emergency plan, which are well promoted among members. The club is also well connected with local environmental groups, media, schools and public authorities.
Management planning
Pinetina G.C. has not a comprehensive environmental management plan yet, including Club House, Dormy House, Course, Maintenance facilities. As regard as the golf course the club manager is optimising nutrients, water and pesticides consumptions according to the objectives of the Regional Park's management plan. Furthermore he believes that making more frequent turf aerification operations can improve nutrients and water uptake. Environmental items are considered very important by club's officers and so they are available to invest considerable resources on them. An example of this is collaboration with the best qualified agronomists and environmentalist currently operating in Italy.
Documentation Reviewed
- Environmental policy
- Action plans & project proposals
- Certification report
- Minutes of meetings
- Newsletters
- External surveys and reports
- Emergency incident plan
- Environmental data
- Training log
- Awareness raising materials
Conclusions
The current Club management, particularly the club manager, the Superintendent and a few members of technical staff, are strongly aware of the environmental problems related with the golf courses and they have faithfully accomplished any suggestion elaborated by the IGF environmental consultants since they were able to provide this service. Since 2000 till today,the Golf Club has been rigorously involved to obtain a better golf course environmental sustainability, it was awarded with the National Committed to Green certification and was candidate for the European certification before its changing from CTG to GEE and then GEO. The club management is also available to intensify this commitment in the future investing economic and human resources. Being inside a Regional Park makes surely more onerous the club commitment, however the golf imagine can be better promoted.
Recommendation
I Paolo Croce, Golf Environment Organization Accredited Verifier, recommend that Golf Club La Pinetina be awarded GEO Certified status for excellence in environmental management.
About this Report
This report represents the opinion of an independent environmental professional accredited by the Golf Environment Organization. The environmental performance of Golf Club La Pinetina was assessed against the GEO Certification criteria: http://www.golfenvironment.org/about-certification/
