5 Keys for the Home Buyer Looking
for a Green Golf Community

St. James Plantation, NC: All courses are certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries by Audubon International.

While most, if not all, gated golf communities have a pleasing verdant landscape that suggests a celebration of nature and outdoor beauty, the fact is that developments differ greatly in how high a priority they place on compliance with modern standards of environmental stewardship and sustainability.

Thus, here is a brief walk-through of five issues you should consider when considering the green profile of a community.

1. Be Award of Public Pressure. Golf communities face public pressure to impact their surrounding eco-systems in a reasonable fashion, even long after the community is established and even built out. When the developer and subsequent management is committed to upholding high environmental standards of sustainability from the outset, residents in the community are less likely to face difficulties and problems later on.

2. Know the Communities’ Green Priorities. Communities with high standards for environmental stewardship aren’t all the same. Some of them emphasize “back of the house” operations, using hybrid-engine machinery, bio-diesel fuel and other environmentally-friendly equipment. Other communities might place a priority on one or two species of wildlife that symbolize the area and are vigorously protected. Look for the many ways of “being green” and choose the one that has most value to you.

Huntsman Springs, ID: Nearly 500 refuge acres protect Teton Valley wildlife.

3. Being Green Can Lead to Other Eco-Issues. Putting a priority on green-ness as you go to select a golf community is a good way to find yourself in the company of like-minded neighbors once you’ve moved in. If someone finds these issues important, he or she will likely take a similarly future-minded attitude to other relevant issues.

4. How Far Does the Communities’ Green-Sensitivity Go? The green-ness of the golf property is one consideration, the green-ness of the rest of the community is in many cases a separate issue. Look into how communities focus on areas outside of the golf course.

Back to Top