Sustainable and Green Club of the Year 2024

2023/24 saw Roehampton Club make big strides forward on our journey to realise our stated aim of making operations at the Club carbon net zero by 2030.

Our high-level, initial assessment concluded that the main contributor to our carbon footprint was our energy use and so our approach has been mainly focused on reducing that usage.

Projects include:

• Electrification of the kitchen – Removed gas and use induction hobs powered by our solar panels.

• Switched most of golf and grounds vehicles and equipment to electric motors, charging during the day to benefit from solar power.

• Installed solar panels on Clubhouse, Health Club, Studio, Squash Courts, Grounds Building roofs saving £70k a year in electricity costs

• Indoor Pool Cover installed to minimise heat loss when the pool is not in use, thereby saving on energy required to maintain the water temperature overnight.

• Recycle all food waste and glass, recycle all cardboard, paper and plastic and have planted a new, larger herb garden for our Chefs to use all year round. We have provided all Members with sugar-based water bottles (as below) as well as incentivising Members with costs discounts to bring their own re-use hot beverage containers.

• Recycle all grass cuttings and tree branches in the dedicated Compost Recycling Area plus introduced log walls for insect habitats. All organic and waste material from the site is processed and added to our composting area to make us 100% self-sufficient through recycling on site.

• Encourage Members to use our six electric vehicle charging stations and to walk or cycle to the Club

• Installed 5 water stations for foc filtered drinking water to reduce the use of single use plastics on site

Our rethinking of our recycling practices won us the Golf Environment Organisation (GEO) BioDiversity Award for an excellent long-term environmental strategy. This included a new ecology plan for the estate, including the annual planting of tree nurseries on the golf course, replenishing diseased tree stock and designing new ecological habitats for pollinators and careful husbandry of badger sets and fox families in the woodland areas.

All of this helped us to achieve our GEO Certified accreditation and to win the Green and Sustainable Club of the Year 2024 award from the annual Club Mirror awards.