Aiming for green: professional golfers commit to climate action

In addition to Dow’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, professional athletes and Dow (NYSE: DOW) golf ambassadors from the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and PGA Tour announced their commitment to becoming a sustainable golf champion, taking action to reduce their footprint and advance the conversation around sustainability in the sport.

This commitment, developed in partnership with the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf (GEO), marks a shift in not just athlete accountability but in sports sponsorships as well, setting an example for how athletes and brands can take action to ensure a better future for our planet.

As a part of this new program, each of Dow’s golf ambassadors will be committing to minimizing and offsetting all their travel and evaluating their own lifestyle, calculating their carbon footprint for themselves and their entourage, compensating for unavoidable emissions through climate mitigation projects with GEO Foundation through the Gold Standard, a leading standard-setting body for credible mitigation with impact, and using their incredible platforms to communicate about this journey to inspire other athletes to do the same.

“I am thrilled to begin my carbon neutral journey today as a Sustainable Golf Champion,” said Maria Fassi, LPGA athlete and Team Dow Ambassador. “Our world is facing a whole lot of challenges, and it can be difficult to grasp what you, as one person, can do to make a difference. As an athlete, I want to use the platform I’ve been given to drive positive change and help others understand that they can do that too, one step, one choice at a time.”

The United Nations (UN) has named this the ‘Decade of Action’ and the goal within the next 10 years is to accelerate sustainable solutions that combat the world’s biggest challenges and balance our planet’s resources. Golf is a growing global sport, and its existence is inextricably linked to the environment, from the preservation of wildlife, water and other resources to course design and event management. As such, GEO Foundation and Dow believe golf is well positioned to be a sport that critically challenges its own footprint and leads the way to positive action.

“The drive to advance sustainability is at the heart of our sports sponsorships,” said Chris Chandler, Executive Director of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational and Dow’s Sports Marketing Leader. “And as golf seeks to become a leader in sustainability, we believe our ambassador commitments represent more than an important evolution in Dow or even golf’s engagement. It’s an opportunity to leverage the power of sport to inspire collaboration and meaningful action across the entire sports industry.”

Jonathan Smith, Founder and Executive Director, GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, said, “We are thrilled to see elite athletes Maria Fassi, Katherine Kirk, Danny Lee and Corey Pavin join Solheim Cup Captain Suzann Pettersen in stepping forward to help champion sustainability in and through golf. The commitment from Dow and each of their golf ambassadors to measure and mitigate unavoidable emissions as they strive to become carbon neutral athletes is important leadership in sport - encouraging action and helping draw attention to some of the defining issues of our time. We hope their actions will help foster a trend to see more golfers and other sports athletes lead by example.”

Dow and partners like GEO and the LPGA are teaming up to imagine better for the future of our planet. Together, they are leveraging golf to make an impact in the sport and beyond. Some of those initiatives include:

• As their Official Sustainability Resource, Dow is helping the LPGA/LET initiate and deliver on a league-wide sustainability strategy, including a pioneering Sustainable Events Kick-start Fund
• Co-creator of the brand-new Green Driver Award
• Founding partner of GEO OnCourse^® software program for tracking, sharing & reporting tournament sustainability initiatives
• The Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational was the first official LPGA tournament & women’s event globally to be GEO Certified^®

For more information on these initiatives, visit dow.com/golf.

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About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines global breadth, asset integration and scale, focused innovation and leading business positions to achieve profitable growth. The Company’s ambition is to become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company, with a purpose to deliver a sustainable future for the world through our materials science expertise and collaboration with our partners. Dow’s portfolio of plastics, industrial intermediates, coatings and silicones businesses delivers a broad range of differentiated science-based products and solutions for its customers in high-growth market segments, such as packaging, infrastructure, mobility and consumer care. Dow operates 106 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 35,700 people. Dow delivered sales of approximately $39 billion in 2020. References to Dow or the Company mean Dow Inc. and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit www.dow.com 

About GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf

GEO Foundation is the international not-for-profit dedicated to advancing sustainability in and through golf. Its goal is to work collaboratively to help the sport embrace environmental and social issues and become widely acclaimed for its proactive leadership role in fostering nature, conserving resources, building stronger communities and taking climate action. In addition to its strategic support through partnerships with associations, GEO assures the OnCourse^® programmes for grassroots golf facilities, new developments and tournaments, each of which can lead to the internationally accredited, endorsed and independently verified GEO Certified^® label.

www.sustainable.golf.