About Us

Like trees and other vegetation in general, grass sequesters and stores carbon. The same is true for managed turfgrass, like golf fairways and mown rough. These are unique among turf areas, since they are generally cut frequently enough to avoid the removal of the small, hardly visible, grass clippings. Instead, they are left in the sward, where they break down as organic material or nutrition and seemingly contribute to the buildup of carbon.

This applies to drylands or mineral soils. On the other hand, the drainage of wetlands or organic soils can emit greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Therefore, a golf course can be a carbon sink on drylands and a source of emissions on drained wetlands or organic soil.

Carbon Par started in 2019, as a scientific research project focusing on these soil carbon dynamics, or land use carbon status, on all sixty golf courses in our home country of Iceland, in collaboration with The Agricultural University of Iceland. The project is largely self-funded, with partial funders including STERF, The Golf Union of Iceland, The Icelandic Football Association, KPMG Iceland, the Icelandic state government and the City of Reykjavík.

Since then, we have embarked on increasingly detailed, partly self-funded, scientific research internationally. These include Le Golf National in France, the site of the 2018 Ryder Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games golf competition, in partnership with the FFGreen fund of the French Golf Federation.

Before we started 2019, documented scientific research on carbon sequestration in golf fairways and mown rough was limited to the top 15 cm of soil and four U.S. states. We have since responded by literally digging deeper for results, in multiple countries, and noted interesting trends in golf turf soil carbon depth distribution. This information provides a foundation for continued research and support to golf course owners worldwide.