The Committed to Green Foundation has launched the European Forum for Sustainable Golf, a new initiative designed to assist the European golf sector in addressing environmental sustainability issues.

The aims of the Forum are to provide a centre for information exchange, improve cohesion of environmental strategies, help prioritise sustainability issues and develop partnership projects to address them, promote environmental innovation, initiatives and practices and provide a credible interface between golf, government regulators and environmental organisations.

Its principles are independence, good science, stakeholder participation and transparency.

The June 2005 launch of the Forum, held in Brussels, Belgium, hosted a broad crosssection of attendees, including governing bodies, course owners, administrators and research institutes. Speaking at the launch, Catherine Day, director general of the EU Environment Directorate, said: "We hope the sector will embrace the Forum and participate fully through its stakeholder led initiatives – towards outcomes that are beneficial to Europe's people and environment." Founding partners in the development of the Forum are Deutsche Bank and Volvo. The launch was sponsored by Ransomes Jacobsen.

This article first appeared in issue 1 of Golf Course Architecture, published in July 2005.