Our actions are part of the solution.
Conserving Resources
introduction
What Sustainability means to us.
At Birchwood Park Golf and Country Club, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. As a proud GEO-certified club since 2013, we have consistently worked to reduce our environmental impact while championing innovative solutions that improve nature, resource efficiency, and our community. Over the past year, we have undertaken a series of ambitious sustainability initiatives that highlight our commitment to creating a greener future for golf.
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Company Truck
Following a review of the usage surrounding the use of the company truck, we decided to restrict the use of this asset in order to control cost, simplify staff expectations/conduct and also reduce the amount carbon produced from diesel usage.
This change came into effect in late January 2024 and the results are displayed below to the mid year point.
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Pool Air Handling Controls
During a Spatex conference myself and Andi attended a seminar around pool operations. We established that we the overall costs of running the pool are largely dominated by the heating of the space. Whilst the heating of the water accounts for around 20% of the overall operating costs, the air handling costs around 50% with the rest being on electrical pumps etc.
Temperature loss in pools is 90% through evaporation and so the balance of the air temperature is key to maintaining water levels and energy conservation.
Prior to this point we had no ability to manage the set point for the air handling controls so integrating this into the current BMS system was a big step forwards.
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Water usage in Wet Areas
As part of PWTAG guidelines we need to waste a large amount of water consistently in order to replenish with fresh. By installing flow meters in the waste lines for the hydro and the main pool, we are able to assess how well we are complying with this.
The aim is to comply with the guidelines without excessive waste. Once we understand the volume, we could potentially look to re-direct, de-chlorinate and re-use this water on the golf course.
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Car Park Lighting
Whilst our car park lights have always ran off Light sensors we recognise there is still periods of time when the lights are not needed as there is no activity around the club.
We have installed a timer in conjunction with the light sensor to ensure that the lights will come on as soon as it gets dark but will turn off between 2am and 5am as there is no-one at the club in these times.
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Boiler Optimisation
We have implemented boiler optimisation technology on our boilers in an effort to reduce the consumption and therefore the CO2 emissions.
