
sustainability
Golf Canada is excited to share that it is renewing its commitment to improving the overall environmental sustainability of the RBC Canadian Open. Our ultimate goal: to welcome our athletes, attendees and volunteers to the most eco-friendly tournament on the PGA TOUR.
As the organizer of the third oldest continually run event on the PGA TOUR, Golf Canada is no stranger to playing the long game. We recognize this is an ambitious goal, and to that end, we have chosen to work towards this over a multi-year period.
The RBC Canadian Open’s sustainability strategy is organized around three guiding principles that have been developed through organizational discovery and on-site observations. These guiding principles create a framework for integrating best practices throughout organizational structures and operational procedures.
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Exemplify Sustainability
Embed environmental best practices in all operations and actions, showcasing Golf Canada and the RBC Canadian Open as a credible industry leader.
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Reduce Environmental Impacts
Center actions around reducing environmental impacts and resource consumption across all areas of operations.
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Engage Stakeholders
Leverage stakeholders to optimize implementation while engaging fans to maximize impact.
We have set the following long term hard goals to focus our efforts for the coming years:
- Become a zero-waste event.
- Become a carbon neutral event.
Some shorter term goals for 2025 include:
- A waste diversion target of 70% during tournament week and a total operation target of 45% for 2025.
- Aim towards a 10% year over year improvement in tournament and overall waste diversion.
- Work towards decrease in green house gases through the use of alternate fuel and power supply such as the possibility of utilizing solar power or biodiesel.
Golf Canada and the RBC Canadian Open are committed to working with industry leaders in order to achieve all sustainability goals at the event.
Examples of sustainable initiatives taken on site consist of:
- Offering all attendees shuttles to attend the championship through public transit, as well offering on-site bike valet to reduce emissions created by spectator travel.
- Eliminating over 70,000 individual bottles of water by providing fan access to on-site water refill stations.
- Diverting 60% of tournament week waste through a back of house sorting program, compost program and plastic wrap collection. See below for a breakdown of the waste diversion.

- Educating hundreds of local students about environmentally friendly best practices through school field trip day.
- Producing a post event sustainability report highlighting successes and goals for the future.