Editor’s Perspective
Sitting on a Goldmine
The Mark Vaughn, CGCS Virginia Turfgrass Journal Editor
other night, I was half listening, half snoozing through the “Nightly Business Report” on PBS. Some reporter was standing next to one of those ugly, belching things we used to have a lot of in this country but are rapidly donating to the Chinese. I think they call them manufacturing facilities. Anyway, as the toxic fumes rose into the sky (actually, I think it was just water vapor, but shot from the right angle and filtered by the sun, it looks demonic!), she railed against the trading of carbon credits. Hmm… carbon. Where HAVE I heard that term before? That’s when it hit me. I ran to the bookshelf and ripped down my copy of Turfgrass Science and Culture (first edition) by Dr. James B. Beard. There it was, on page 408. Trembling, I read the words that I now realize will change the golf world forever! “The plant derives carbon mainly from atmospheric carbon dioxide!” My heart raced as I turned to page 45. Figure 2-11 (in all its Holy Grail of glory): The schematic diagram of the general assimilation processes and sinks required for normal growth of turfgrasses! With a big whoop, I tossed the book into the air and made a mad dash for my desktop. The seconds it took to close my Video Poker game seemed like an eternity, but Google finally popped up on the screen. Now the universe was at my fingertips. I nervously typed in “carbon offsets” and clicked my mouse. Results 1-10 of about 1.4m popped up in .23 seconds! There it was, in the first reference: “Carbon offsetting is the act of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.” A scroll down the page revealed organizations that were in the business of “trading” carbon credits. Whaaa… you mean you can actually sell… that people will actually buy??? Further investigation revealed that this is currently “one of the fastest-growing segments in financial services in the City of London, with a market now worth 30 billion Euros, but which could grow to one TRILLION Euros within a decade.” The Washington Post estimates the U.S. market at $55 million but growing fast and unregulated. It reports that the House of Representatives recently spent $89,000 on credits traded through the Chicago Climate Exchange, where “greenhouse gas credits are traded like pork bellies.” Ha! Brilliant! What a country, and other well-worn phrases. Doesn’t this just make you feel warm and fuzzy about capitalism? So, my fellow Turfies, we — the stepchildren of the golf industry for so many years — now hold its very survival in our hands. After I reveal the secret to you, you’ll be able to walk, no STRUT, boldly through the FRONT door of the club, past the smirking GM, and step on the pro’s Foot Joys on your way to the Men’s Locker Room, where you will proclaim the golf recession officially OVER! No more questions of why the greens are not stimping 13. No more having your capital budget slashed because they need another food locker to serve the 20 people that eat at the club on a Saturday night. No more golf course personnel reductions because the server/customer ratio in the dining room needs to be 1:1. Your picture will be the one on the wall in the Boardroom. Are you ready to be the savior, the Einstein, of your little universe? Okay, listen closely: the way I figure it, you/I are sitting on 3.8 billion little carbon-eating machines on our 100 or so acres of turf. Throw in another 50 acres of trees, a few ponds and a fairly sizeable lake and… are you getting the picture? Even at a lousy penny each, those little grass plants are worth 37 million U.S. greenbacks!!! Throw in the heat-reducing, noise-abating, dust/dirt-filtering, runoff-reducing, etc., etc., capabilities of these littleplants-that-could, and who ya think looks good to the Friends of the Bay now? I still have a few details of the plan to work out. We are talking about perennial plants here, so I’m guessing these babies could produce renewable credits, no? Then, there needs to be a clearing house, a “brokerage” if you will, specific to our industry. I mean, come on — it’s not TRUE CAPITALISM without a middle man taking his FAIR SHARE of the profits. I think Vaughn & Vaughn has a rather old-money, Wall Street-ish roll to it, heh?
10 | VIRGINIA TURFGRASS JOURNAL November/December 2010 www.vaturf.org