Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
Is lab meat kosher? (A)
Climate change in photos (NYT)
Discussions about climate damages will dominate COP27 (A)
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
![Airly pollution sensor on a beach Airly pollution sensor on a beach](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4222ed47-4dc1-41d5-a133-01a7deb37bcf_586x437.jpeg)
Aspen Power Partners, a two-year-old Dallas startup that develops, constructs, and operates community, multifamily, and commercial and industrial solar and storage installations, raised a $350 million round from Carlyle (BW)
Ostara, a 17-year-old Vancouver startup that is developing sustainable fertilizers, raised a $70 million Series C round. Investors included Carica Sustainable Investments (GNW)
The Mobility House, a startup building a charging and energy management system for EVs, raised a $50M Series C led by Mercuria (BW)
Infinitum, a sustainable manufacturer of air core motors, raised $30M in funding from Riverstone Holdings, Alliance Resource Partners, and more (BW)
Carbon-negative homebuilding startup Aro Homes raised a $21M Series A led by Innovation Endeavors (BW)
SolarSquare, a startup providing solar modules to rooftops in India, raised a $13M Series A led by Lowercarbon and Elevation Capital (TC)
Boston Materials, a startup developing high-performance materials for applications including electric cars and fuel cells, raised a $12M Series A-2 led by Good Growth Capital (BW)
Constellr, a two-year-old startup based in Freiburg, Germany, that will use microsatellites to monitor the Earth’s water availability, surface temperature, and composition, raised a $10 million seed round co-led by Lakestar and VSquared (TC)
VIEVE, a three-year-old startup based in Strathaven, UK, that has developed beauty products curated around a refined vegan, paraben, gluten, and cruelty-free formula, raised a $6.2 million Series A round led by Pembroke VCT (I)
Airly, a six-year-old London startup that uses sensors and software to detect air pollution, raised a $5.5 million Series A round led by Pi Labs (TC)
Carbon Re, a startup building an AI platform to decarbonize energy-intensive industries, raised $4.8M led by Planet A Ventures (TC)
Perfekto, a startup creating a subscription box of imperfect and otherwise wasted food, raised a $1.1M pre-seed round (TC)
Green Theory
Par for Golf in 2050
Golf’s staggering global footprint started with turbulence. Scotland claims the first games of modern golf as part of its legacy. With troops to train for defense against invasion, Scotland’s earliest recorded mentions of the sport connect to bans, first issued in 1457, and requiring re-issue in 1471 and 1491. The parliamentary decrees went so far as to call golf “an unprofitable sport,” but as the need to re-ban may imply, people just wouldn’t stop playing. Technically, the footprint extends beyond the globe, since Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard snuck a club and two golf balls into the spacecraft to hit on the lunar surface in 1971. Back on Earth, though the number of US golfers is on the decline, we dedicate much water and land to golf as a society.
Today, a total of 38,864 golf courses each take up about 150 acres, on average, commanding 1.6% of all developed, non-agricultural land. These resources are demanded by the 66.6 million people who play golf at least once per year: roughly 0.8% of the world population. Golf irrigates with 1.85 trillion gallons of water per year, about the equivalent of New York state’s entire residential water consumption. In the US, golf courses take up 3.3% of all urban land, and 1.7% of total irrigation water. While the ratio of once-in-a-year golfers is a bit higher in the US, around 8%, one must imagine most revenue that keeps courses open is sustained by more frequent attendees. Is golf biting off more than its fair share? It depends.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7f0c787f-22da-4eae-9f6c-bc68a5167801_2282x1340.png)
If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re likely to think clearcutting a forest to build a new golf course would be heartbreaking. Still, for the golf courses that are already around, there’s a big difference in where you play. In drought-ridden deserts, pumping so much water to sustain green grass year-round represents a far larger burden than maintaining a course in a better-suited environment. Pro golfers have already started applauding dried-out courses that let more natural elements challenge them. Embracing new trends in golf may not be a choice, as climate change already threatens historic golf courses with sea level rise and harsh weather patterns.
What will become of these vast swathes of land? As golf playing declines in the nation that contains 46% of all courses, and maintenance grows in cost and difficulty, more are likely to close down. Provided that the land hasn’t been completely exhausted by fertilizers and pesticides, courses can return to nature with surprising speed. Look no further than the Palo Corona Regional Park, where the Rancho Cañada Golf Club was ceded to the wilds a mere 6 years ago. Flourishing native plants creep in to fill space once dominated by manicured lawns.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fffb015b0-8ad8-47b2-a2d1-8c9f7dccafa8_3572x750.png)
To be sure, in areas that would otherwise be developed without water features or trees, some point to golf courses as supporting wildlife populations. At the same time, the widespread use of pesticides harms these creatures, along with the soil, and the human populations that live nearby. If you’re committed to golf, playing closer to home helps spare the resources needed to get to and fro, and may inspire you to help find and implement a more sustainable course management program for your local links and personal longevity.
Though golf requires a high amount of land and other resources, per person who plays, its total footprint is dwarfed by other activities that could have a larger impact. The 2 trillion gallons of water used for golf hardly stack up to the 640 trillion used for cattle, for example. Water for beef, per capita, is at least about three times higher than golf’s water per golfer. Going vegan certainly spares more resources than forgoing local golf.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff3a1ed07-3e4f-4396-ad71-0663b37ad48b_800x533.jpeg)
Economic and climate forces may force courses to close shop eventually, but golfers can likely afford to prop up their sport longer than the average crowd. After all, golfers are wealthy decision-makers, with cars and large travel budgets. Not only business owners and Fortune 500 CEOs love golf, politicians across time and spectrums commit serious time to the game, too. Will golfers use this influence to fight for climate justice, or drown the thirsty lawns in more pesticides?
For the love of the camaraderie, exercise, skill, and discipline, this sport’s elite players stand at a moment where future-proofing their game requires a serious reflection on both expectations for golf courses, and the systems accelerating climate change more broadly. Maybe less is more with water in some regions, and other courses can’t justify staying closed to nature. No matter what the precise pathway to securing golf’s future, hopefully golfers collectively wield their power and education to choose harmony with nature.
The Closer
The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a rolling landscape of badlands that offers some of the most unusual scenery in New Mexico. Time and natural elements have etched a fantasy world of strange rock formations made of sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal and silt. -US Interior
Blowing my mind with Palo Corona Regional Park - never knew that but it makes me appreciate it even more! The 'wild' took over quick