Corporate responsibility requires sustainable actions. To make these actions widely regarded as responsible as they are, national and international certificates are useful.
Golf courses also want to act responsibly, already because the users of the courses want it, says Aki Keronen, COO of Karelia Golf. Karelia Golf has done many correct things throughout the years, which made it easy to commit to applying for a GEO certificate: a certificate for environmentally responsible golf courses.
– The certificate application included lots of documentation and checklists. Quite basic things, that had already been done. They just needed to be properly documented. We could also point out some issues to be developed in near future, says Aki Keronen in an interview with Karelia’s Digi2Market project.
In 2019–2022, Karelia Golf and Kontiolahti Golf Oy, the company which operates Kontiolahti golf courses, participated in the international Digi2Market project. One of the purposes of the NPA-funded ERDF-project was to support companies in communicating their sustainability operations.
For Karelia Golf, GEO certificate is part of internal and external communication, as the club wants to keep choosing sustainable solutions – after all, in North Karelia the most important activity of golf is playing in the middle of beautiful nature.
Watch an interview with Aki Keronen about how a golf course can execute sustainability actions:
Author
Risto Salminen, Project Specialist, Karelia UAS
Photo by Robert Ruggiero on Unsplash