Operation Pollinator UK focus for The Green Report feature
The Operation Pollinator Award-winning Goring & Streatley Golf Club in Oxfordshire has won plaudits from bee and butterfly experts by transforming rough into nectar-rich wildflower meadows.
Now, the latest episode of Syngenta’s docuseries, The Green Report, features the club's greenkeeping team and specialists explaining how they have integrated ecological improvements alongside enhancing the playing conditions, to create a sustainable business.
Entries for this year's Syngenta Operation Pollinator Award are open now.
At Goring & Streatley, Course Manager Matt Aplin, Deputy Course Manager Melissa Winkworth, and their team have turned 7.5 hectares of out-of-play scrubland into a thriving, nectar-rich sanctuary delivering a win for biodiversity, turf quality, and the club’s bottom line.
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Matt Aplin highlights that it is absolutely feasible to enhance the course and playing conditions, while also improving natural habitats for pollinators and other biodiversity. "That's been the really enjoyable part of the journey," he says.
Green Report presenter, Gary Firkins, who has visited golf courses around the world for The Green Report, says:
"I think this is one of the most impressive sustainability projects I've seen on my travels."
"In many ways Goring & Streatley is a typical golf club, with a small team and a modest budget. Yet it is an exemplar of what can be done and what can be achieved with the right mindset.
"What started as a small; scale project with Syngenta and Operation Pollinator, has become part of the long-term business strategy. Matt, Melissa and all the club have achieved an amazing result with enhancing natural habitats alongside improving playing conditions. It's a business that understands that a healthy environment makes for healthy returns.
"And that's the very definition of true sustainability."
Learn how the team has:
- Restored Native Habitats: Cleared dense scrub as part of Syngenta’s Operation Pollinator initiative, unlocking dormant seed banks to build thriving wildflower meadows for bees, butterflies, and pollinating insects.
- Improved Operations: Stopped routine mowing on out-of-play areas, cutting fuel costs, reducing machinery wear, and freeing up staff hours to enhance playing surface quality for customers.
Funded Biodiversity: Partnered with local beekeeper Rob Nickless to host on-site hives. Hundreds of jars of clubhouse honey are now produced and sold each year, raising over £20,000 to reinvest directly into future conservation projects.
