Ascona-Locarno, SWITZERLAND – 11th June 2010 – Players on the Ladies European Tour are preparing for the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open, from 17-20 June, which, following the success of last year’s tournament, is once again a carbon neutral event.
The organisers of the €525,000 tournament will be taking a series of measures to help tackle climate change during the fifth staging of the tournament at Golf Gerre Losone, in the beautiful low Swiss Alps.
The measures include reducing waste, using more energy efficient transportation and traffic management, using renewable energy sources and using local, organic, food products.
The total emission volume or “carbon footprint” of the tournament has been determined in advance and the event organiser has purchased emission certificates to neutralise unavoidable emissions.
“Every event, however, will always produce a certain amount of emissions that are unavoidable, regardless of the level of effort put forth,” says Tournament Director, Hanns Michael Hoelz.”Thus it is ensured, that we will see first-class golf during the Deutsche Bank Ladies’ Swiss Open, without polluting the environment.”
The initiative is supported by several high profile golfers. The recent Lalla Meryem Cup winner, Anja Monke of Germany, commented: “I think it’s very important that everybody does a little bit for the environment. I think it’s terribly important in this age and I want to live in this world for a couple more years.
“I have to admit that when I’m home I use my car quite a bit because I like driving so much. I try during the winter time not to leave the window open and not to use the heat too much. I like environmentally friendly products you can buy like food. I buy a lot of stuff directly from the farmers when I’m home so I don’t need this big transportation to bring me a pineapple during winter time and stuff like that.”
England’s Florentyna Parker, who earned her maiden LET victory at the ABN AMRO Ladies Open in Holland, said that she also considered herself to be environmentally friendly: “We use energy saving light bulbs at home; we turn heating off at night. We recycle plastic, paper and food.”
Three-time LET champion Linda Wessberg also supported the initiative. “I think it’s very important for the future. I think everyone needs to help in any way they can and this is a good thing to show that you can run an environmentally friendly tournament and everyone else can try to do the same thing, maybe not just for golf but other sports as well.
“I drive a hybrid car so I’m a very environmentally friendly person! It’s hard for me to say on climate change because I’m not that old yet so I can’t really see it. When you hear from everyone else you can totally see that there has been a drastic change so I think it’s important to do something if it’s not too late – hopefully not.”
There can be no more fitting a venue for an eco friendly initiative than Golf Gerre Losone, which is located at the foothills of the Swiss Alps, in the Ascona-Locarno region, known as the hot spot of Switzerland. It is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful stops on the Ladies European Tour schedule and was voted as the players’ favourite course on the tour in a recent survey conducted by Golf365.
On the fifth anniversary of the event, the crème de la crème of European women golfers will converge in the Alps.
Other than the aforementioned players they include the 2009 runner-up, Melissa Reid from England, the 2007 champion, Bettina Hauert of Germany and Solheim Cup player Becky Brewerton from Wales.
