Kemper Sports Interview - Part 1

Although most golf management companies have an environmental program (which usually consists of Audubon Certifications and other lesser known stewardship rating programs), Kemper Sports out of Illinois has created a new program "Green To A Tee" that their own courses are aspiring to reach. This really raises the bar in our industry, so of course I had to get an interview with someone.


But first, here’s some background info:

From the Kemper Sports website, "The Green to a Tee program encompasses environmentally focused initiatives within several core areas of facility operations, including:
· Golf course maintenance
· Habitat management
· Water conservation
· Energy usage
· Recycling
· “Green” vendor utilization
· Staff education and training

In addition to formalizing the company’s policy on environmental practices at both the corporate and property levels, the Green to a Tee program arms the more than 5,000 KemperSports staffers throughout the U.S. and PuertoRico, with tools and training in environmentally-friendly practices that they can implement on the job and in their homes".

To get the details of how this program works, I spoke with Jim Seeley, Kemper Sports Executive Vice President.

Turfhugger.com - Green to tee, where/how did it originate?
Jim Seeley - Just over 1 year ago, Kemper Sports decided as a company initiative, to formalize our environmental program due to the emphasise throughout the world of environmental concern, and specifically within our industry. Theres a lot of miss-information out there about whether golf courses are environmentally friendly or not, we believe they are.
I was asked to head up the effort to develop this program, just prior to earth day in 2008. So we formed a committee from General Manager’s, Superintendents and Food and Beverage directors for ideas to put towards an environmental plan. We realized the scope of this was much bigger than we first thought, so we formed a group of facilities in to a base test group, developed a rough format and spent a number of the next months compiling the criteria and ideas into the knowledge base. It’s basically a click and find program on our intranet system that gives users access to solutions to their specific environmental concerns.

Turfhugger.com - What resources did you use to find the background info?
Jim Seeley - A huge number of resources contributed to the knowledge base. Including EPA, Audubon International, USGA, and numerous others. During this process we realized that a number of our facilities were already doing a number of the environmental approaches recommended by the resources, but we also realized that we could compile a number of resources to help our employees bring this environmental concern back to their homes.

Turfhugger.com - Any examples come to mind?
Jim Seeley - Yes, as matter of fact, my wife is an award winning landscaper, she’s actually won three awards for our her garden. She’s used a link provided by the program to (weedalert.com) , it is a weed data base as it has helped her identify and learn how to properly treat and manage our weeds. I hear from many of our staff that they've brought these ideas home and introducing the concepts to their families.

Turfhugger.com - I understand the program is organized in to stages, how does this work?
Jim Seeley - It was organized in to tiers, so our courses could progress through increasing levels of environmentalism.
Level 1 is essentially our awareness level. Aimed at teaching staff how to integrate very simple environmental techniques that any facility could integrate in to the current operations with out greatly impacting their budget. At level one staff must take the first steps in our IPM program, which at this stage covers basic awareness principles.
Level 2, the property must register and begin work on ACSP status, reach Level 2 of our IPM program which includes establishing threshold levels and mapping and conduct a basic energy audit, usually conducted by the local utility company.
To get to level 3 you have to be Audubon certified, complete level 3 of our IPM program and conduct a more in-depth energy audit. This of course costs money, of which we have to allow the property to put their own funds towards this process.
Level 4 you have to embrace concepts such as LEED in to their buildings, solar and wind power,. Although these can be expensive, what we look for most is that they are bringing in the ideas that LEED promotes without having to go the depth of becoming LEED Certified, which would be an expensive undertaking. Also, a self contained wash water pad must be integrated in to their maintenance center.
We have a lot of municipal properties we expect to be the first to integrate these technologies because they are attempting to green all municipal facilities and are under pressure to do so. We’ve got one property that already is using photovoltaic panels on the roof of their maintenance facility.

Turfhugger.com - Will your program reflect advancements of technology, say for instance as organic products improve?
Jim Seeley - Most definitely, this is a living breathing program, not a day goes by that we learn more about how to work better with the environment. With organics for instance, we’ve got courses throughout the country that are experimenting with organic methods and products. In fact, to reach level 3 we ask that the curse is embracing some kind of organic method. We don’t dictate what the specifics are because each property is so different from each other and no one program could ever fulfill the needs of all of our properties.
As our understanding of organics, and other technologies, grow, we will require that all properties embrace those ideas. And the program will forever be evolving and we require that each course keeps up their efforts. You can’t for instance, reach level four and then take a holiday from this, the program will always be asking our properties to improve. And we are always working hard to find ways to reduce resource use, for instance with our water consumption.

Turfhugger.com - For example?
Jim Seeley – Within the IPM mapping requirements we ask that they locate where their isolated dry spots are located. This first step of knowing where your problem areas are is crucial, then they are able to get the water to where it is needed once the superintendent deems it necessary. As time goes on we can then integrate technology to help us manage these and other areas, many of our properties are looking at Remote Sensor Technology for example.

Turfhugger.com - So lets say that a Superintendent finds a particular technique to be quite helpful, say in conserving water, how does this technique make it to the rest of your courses? How is information shared?
Jim Seeley – On our intranet we have to forums, one specifically for the Green to a Tee specifically and one for turf maintenance in general. Once a new concept is introduce, we send it out to everyone in the network and ask for their feed back on the forum. We’ve been very pleased to see all staff at all levels embracing this program.

Next week I’ll post the remaining portion of the interview which dives in to the specifics of how they communicate this message to their staff, their members, public golfers and more details on the “green vendor utilization” policy, quite an impressive tool!

One Million Acts of Green

When the CBC and the Suzuki foundation envisioned one million acts of green I doubt they immediately thought of the golf industry as potential contributors. However, as an industry so intertwined with the environment I suggest we are perfectly poised to make a huge contribution to “Green programs”. The following is just a summarized list of actions we can take to reduce our impact on the environment and reduce green house gasses:

1. Pick up one piece of garbage per employee per day
We have a course policy, if you drive by it you might as well have thrown it! We also offer rewards for staff seen going out of their way picking up garbage. The program is catchy and affects their personal life. I know I cannot walk by a piece of garbage with stopping to pick it up.

2. Pesticide reduction
It is our goal to review our pesticide applications and make at least one less application per year. The money saved can be applied to other cultural programs like manual weed control, pest scouting, topdressing and overseeding with improved varieties.

3. Natural areas
In 2010 we plan to eliminate 50% of the fertilizer in the rough. We will achieve this by identifying “in play/out of play rough”

4. Greens space/Wild life preservation
Golf courses are often the largest greens spaces in the urban environment. Our course is home to over a dozen species of birds including a family of eagles, deer, rabbits, native and rare plants including owl clover.

5. Green your community as an outreach program…be the local expert
Speak to the public, industry and schools as often as you can. Offer school tours to view special projects. For example we had a bird tagging event where we invited a local school to assist.

6. Solar panels on the roofs of our buildings
Most golf courses have large building offering great potential for power generation.

7. Create and manage community compost centers
We collect all our cores, clippings, plant material and compost to be added to our rough topdressing program. We have expanded this program to allow members and staff to add their plant material to our compost.

8. Car pool
Reward staff for car pooling or biking to work.

9. Reduce maintenance
In 2009 we reduced rough mowing, fairway mowing and bunker maintenance by 50% with no complaints from our member. This has dramatically reduced our fuel consumption, wear and tear on the golf course and the equipment.

10. Paperless meetings
I have gone paperless for all or meetings, staff training and daily work assignments. Meetings are organized and presented on screen with PowerPoint; employee manuals and standard operation procedures are posted online; and the staff daily tasks and record is emailed to each staff daily and posted on the staff television in the morning at the start of the shift.

These are just the acts of green, lets here from you…

Increasing Efficiency Rates of our Fertilizer Products

As our industry strives to become more efficient, for environmental and economic reasons, I enjoy seeing products that aim to achieve both of those results. I recently had a brief email conversation with Kevin Davies of Nutrient Technology Partners, makers of NutriLife - a fertilizer meta-catalyst, which enables a higher fertilizer efficiency rate of 25% or more.


Davies says "In very quick terms, we allow the nutrients in fertilizer to be made more available to the plant – in this case turf – and therefore the user can actually reduce the amount of nutrients (fertilizer) they need to use. This use less approach is in itself the very beginning of being more environmentally responsible, but with our product they still get high quality turf. Our ability to increase the amount of nutrients that get into the plant by 50 to 75% allows superintendents and lawn care companies to trust this ability to reduce the amount of nutrients they put in the soil. In addition to using less, their is a nice economic reward to the user as even with the price of our product added to the cost of the fertilizer they save money – i.e. spend less. This is key as some of the “Greener” approaches cost too much money for the users to adopt, even if it is better for the environment they can’t afford to make the change, or they don’t deliver the quality the user is looking for. This combination of using less, and getting more into the plant gives us the environmental benefit we are all looking for – leave less".

I like the "use less", "spend less" and "leave less" approach.

Davies makes a very interesting point, it is hard to adopt some of the green options when they cost more, especially during a recession. I think in the mean time products like this have a very good place in the market.

I did notice in some of NutriLifes promotional materials that a study at Auburn University revealed that the NutriLife fertilizer significantly out-performed untreated fertilizer in a recent study. The researchers applied catalyzed 18‑5‑9 fertilizer to bentgrass at 4 pounds/1,000 square feet, and conventional 18‑5‑9 fertilizer at the same rate. Bentgrass treated with the NutriLife fertilizer had 37-percent greater average root diameter, 91-percent higher fresh root weight, and 105-percent higher fresh shoot weight.

All of that is great, but I couldn't help to notice a few other characteristics of this product that interests me. Studies have shown that NutriLife helped reduce the total amount of salt found in soil tests at Texas A&M extension service, a reduction greater than 60%. In addition, and this one I really like, Nutrient Technology Partners claim that in a Arise Research and Discovery study, NutriLife was shown to have a 48% reduction in nitrates at 12" depth, 57% in nitrates at 30" depth and decreases Phosphate leaching by 37%. The later interests me because every where I look (Michigan, Westchester, Canada) I see bans on Phosphate and calls to reduce applications of fertilizers that contain it.

Urine for a Surprise

Restroom facilities can often be an expensive part of the golf course infrastructure. Course management must ask themselves how can we manage the waste? Do we tie it in to the municipal system or develop our own water treatment facility?

Well now I suppose there is a new option... I suppose.

Sea Shells, Seas Shells, Down by the Seashore Paspalum

We've all heard a lot of buzz on Seashore Paspalum, seems like a miracle grass to me! I've decided to collect a few links to articles, products and videos to help us all better understand this seemingly amazing grass.


Seashore Paspalum - Richard L. Duble, Extension Turfgrass Specialist, Texas Cooperative Extension,The Texas A&M University System

First Course to go all out with SeaDwarf Seashore Paspalum - Hammock Bay G&CC

SeaIsle 1 - Certified Seashore Paspalum

Down by the Seashore - USGA Greens Section, Larry Gilhuly

Environmental Turf has a number of products:
SeaDwarf® Seashore Paspalum
Aloha® Seashore Paspalum
PristineFlora® Zoysia

CNBC Covers Stone Creek GC

October Newsletter

Turfhugger would like to thank our readers for all the comments, emails of support, and your constant viewing of our site.
We are almost at 2000 page views a month from readers from 31 countries!

So what's been happening at Turfhugger?
Lots of interviews:
- Golf Architects Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Doug Carrick.
- Serge Gauthier from Rain Bird
- Allan Berry regarding Bio-Plastics
- Anti-Golf Film Director Alex Cox

Articles on:
- How Golf Courses can work with trees - By Darryl James
- Leeding the Way - By Scott J Morrison
- Using Your Central Control to Conserve Water - Justin Ruiz
- Colony Collapse Disorder - Michael Vogt
- One Million Acts of Green - Paul Robertson
- Looking towards the Future - Rob Malette
- Organic Golf Architecture - Jeff Mingay

Do you Compost???
Please tell us about your compost program.

Looking to the Future... Constructing an Effective Vision of Success

It seems to me that there is a large gap in the golf industry with regards to courses and their development of an effective vision of success towards improved sustainability. After investigating some 300 facilities, I was baffled to find that just one course had their on display for golfers to see (and even it didn’t mention anything about the environment); a trend that shows me people aren’t using this highly effective tool properly. I’m sure if management knew what they were missing, they would have built a powerful vision a long time ago. So here’s what you need to do...and why you need to do it.


1. Understand all the parts of a powerful vision of success: Essentially you’ll need to generate 4 crucial elements:
a. Purpose Statement: What are you REALLY doing at your golf course? Everyone is providing golf and trying to make profit, so you’ll need to find something else; something inspiring for both your employees and customers alike. And, you can’t go looking for it ‘out there’. A powerful purpose comes from within the people already in your organization. Find your common purpose and watch productivity sky rocket, add sustainability and you can expect a 74% increase in the effectiveness of your employees’ time!
b. Core Values: We all know what core values mean because we all have them for ourselves. Indelible elements of our personality that do not change over time. Same thing goes for your golf course. The real test of a core value is this though; would you up-hold it even if it meant losing business? If yes, then you know who you are, and people will be attracted to that. If no, then you’re seeking profit for profits sake...and nearly no employee or customer is inspired by wanting created more profit. The biggest opportunity you’re going to find in this area is becoming genuinely involved in sustainability. People are voting with their wallets by buying products and services that match their own core values and we all know that nearly everyone is ‘going green’ these days.
c. A ‘BHAG’ (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal): This should a be goal that will take about 30 years or so to achieve and should be about 80% likely that it can be done. Nothing motivates people like an awe inspiring challenge! How do you know when you’ve got a good BHAG? The ‘big gulp’ test. If people take a ‘big gulp’ when you tell them what you want to achieve, then you know you’re on the right track. What about being the first fully sustainable golf course in the world? Where do I sign up?
d. Vivid Description: This should be a colourful description of what it will be like to achieve your BHAG. Use language that gives ‘goose bumps’ to employees. Let them imaging being part of something exciting. Whenever there’s a dip in focus or people aren’t working as hard as you know they can, pull out the vivid description to remind them what they are working for.
2. Build it from the ground up: A huge thread from the above is that all the elements are built and agreed to together by important stakeholder within your course. After all, these people are the one’s that will be upholding and rolling out everything to move you towards your shared vision of success. If they feel like they are not involved or if it’s imposed on them, you will lose productivity and momentum. Again, be a part of the ‘green wave’ and you can ensure buy-in from nearly everyone.
3. Use your vision properly: One of the largest mistakes that’s made is that once a vision is created, managers dust their hands off and go on to the next thing, never to think about it again. A vision needs to be a lens through which you make difficult business decisions. If you are debating about the effectiveness of a decision, a vision can be a use tool in paring down options. If a choice does not align with your vision of success, it no longer is an option.
I hope this ‘crash course’ helps in creating some inspiring visions of success that I see soon on the websites of clubs across the industry.