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The European Tour Group Sustainability Awards, first launched in 2024, will return in 2025 in a new and expanded global format.
The Awards are designed to showcase and celebrate the various suppliers that have pioneered sustainable innovations and practices in their work supporting tournaments on the DP World Tour, HotelPlanner Tour, Legends Tour or G4D Tour. To be eligible, each entry must relate to a project or initiative that was delivered between 1st September 2024 and 1st October 2025.
Here in the Middle East, the standout tournaments playing their part and hoping for a podium place are the 2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the 2024 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the 2024 DP World Tour Championship.
There are five individual categories: Venues; Staging; Operations; Tech and Innovation; and Catering. Each category will now have a winner from three geographies: Europe, Middle East, and Rest of the World.
2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic – David Cannon/Getty Images
The 36th edition of Hero Dubai Desert Classic once again was awarded GEO Certified® Tournament status for 2025, making it the first golf event in the Middle East and the first within the DP World Tour Rolex Series to achieve the prestigious sustainability recognition three years in a row.
GEO Certified®, the widely regarded, credible distinction for responsible golf events is overseen by the international non-profit organisation GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, dedicated to support and recognition for sustainability and climate action in golf. Criteria cover aspects of event staging as well as awareness-raising efforts and lasting legacies, with continual improvement points for future events an integral part of the process.
The HDDC’s successive GEO certifications reflect Dubai’s global leadership in sport and sustainability. Dubai is committed to drive positive environmental change, setting the bar and outlining the path towards a greener future for cities worldwide.
Rory McIlroy – DP World Tour – Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship – Getty Images
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship rolled out a range of sustainability initiatives in its 2024 edition as the Rolex Series returned to the DP World Tour last November.
With actions taken across a variety of ways across the site at Yas Links, Golf for Good – the European Tour group’s commitment to Driving Golf Further in an environmentally and socially sustainable way – it was in full flow for the first of two back-to-back events in the United Arab Emirates.
One of its key projects is Green Drive, the DP World Tour’s programme to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and become a respected sustainability showcase that can deliver net positive impacts on the courses, countries, and communities visited each season.
Tommy Fleetwood – DP World Tour Championship – Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Last year’s DP World Tour Championship, Dubai was their greenest edition to date, with multiple innovations providing a more sustainable tournament experience at Jumeirah Golf Estates
A big focus of the DP World Tour’s commitment to help reduce direct carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2040 has been water conservation, and the tournament continued its ban on plastic water bottles for the fourth year running. Working with official waste management company, Averda, the DP World Tour Championship made it a priority to have zero waste going to landfill – a first for the tournament. 2024 was also the first year that spectators were able to track and offset their own travel to and from the tournament, utilising the DP World Tour’s fan emissions offsetting tool that launched back in May 2024.
The European Tour Group is committed to being the most sustainable professional golf circuit in the world. A key element of the Tour’s overall Sustainability Strategy is that all suppliers are required to meet robust sustainable procurement policies and are encouraged to deliver best in class solutions at events. These Awards will recognise best practice and the spirit of innovation that already exists.
Speaking about the Awards Maria Grandinetti-Milton, Director of Sustainability at the European Tour Group, said: “Delivering a golf tournament is a huge team effort, involving a wide network of trusted suppliers. Finding ways to reduce resource use, waste and emissions needs our full supply chain to play their part and join us on this journey. These Awards are a chance to further stimulate this spirit of innovation, share best practice and celebrate progress. We focused on the Middle East region in our first year and the really positive feedback means we have decided to make the Awards truly global for 2025. Alongside my fellow judges, I’m excited to see a broad range of sector-leading sustainability initiatives submitted.”
Jonathan Smith, Executive Director of the GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation added: “It is great to see a major sports organisation like the European Tour Group lean so heavily into sustainability – across so many strands of operations, championships, partnerships and wider reach and influence. These Awards highlight how suppliers are at the heart of making events more sustainable, and also how events can be demonstration sites for a wide range of innovation and new technology, that in turn can contribute to wider sustainable cities and communities.”
The judging panel is comprised of a mix of experts from golf tournament operations and sustainability in golf, including external experts from the GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation. The winners will be announced on 12th November at a hybrid in-person and remote ceremony at the DP World Tour’s season-ending event, the DP World Tour Championship, where the winner of the season-long Race to Dubai will also be crowned.
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Main Image: Getty Images
