The FairWays Foundation is proud to be growing our team of ambassadors to help us raise awareness and find more worthy projects to fund. Here, we introduce the fantastic folks already on board.
Greg Brandriet
Spearfish, South Dakota | USA
Bio
Greg has been a golf course superintendent for 12 years, and before that, spent a decade in the landscaping industry. As he developed an inclination towards natural landscapes and plant materials, he began to see the need for more education and outreach not only to his peers, but the general public as well, to the benefits of naturalizing the approach to lawns and golf courses. Brandriet also began to see how food production, wildlife protection and water conservation could be incorporated into these areas. In recent years he became involved with GCSAA’s Grassroots Ambassador program and BMP (Best Management Practices) initiative, serving on the South Dakota BMP steering committee where he and his peers completed their manual in 2019. At his former golf course, Greg incorporated honeybees, a community garden, an orchard, and other conservation projects that received national attention. Brandriet has spent the last six months travelling the country visiting Agrihood communities and golf courses that are incorporating food production as a part of their lifestyle model.
What made you want to get involved as an ambassador?
I have been looking for more ways to promote the environmental benefits of the green industry. I first heard of The FairWays Foundation after seeing one of their funded projects at Cog Hill Golf Club, and quickly set out to find more information. When I learned I could become an ambassador, I signed up!
Bob Cook
Ashford, Kent | UK
Bio
Bob has worked in the Golf/Sportsturf industry for 44 years and has a long history of working in partnership with Aquatrols. Bob has been a keen supporter of The FairWays Foundation from day one and we are delighted that he is now part of the ambassador team. Bob is a distributor for Aquatrols products in the UK, having set up his own business in 2003.
What made you want to get involved as an ambassador?
As an Aquatrols distributor I was invited to the launch of The FairWays Foundation. I was so impressed with the presentations that immediately after I offered my services to Matt Foster the C.E.O. of Aquatrols. It is a way for me to be able to give something back to the environment and industry which has served me well for 44 years.
Anthony Williams
Dallas, Texas (TPC Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club Dallas at Las Colinas) | USA
Bio
Anthony L. Williams, MG, CGCS,CGM is the Director of Golf and Landscape Operations at the TPC Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas and is a 40+ year Green Industry veteran. Anthony holds a degree in horticulture from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Williams’s is an award-winning environmental steward, author and speaker from Indian Creek, Georgia currently living in Lewisville, Texas. He is BIGGA Master Greenkeeper #82, PGMS Certified Grounds Manager #42, Georgia Master Gardener Class of 1995, GCSAA Certified Golf Course Superintendent Class of 1998 and ISA Certified ArboristClass of 2008. His Green Industryaccolades include the 2020 GCSAA Environmental Leaders in Golf Award (ELGA) for Communication and Outreach, the 2018 inaugural GCSAA Grassroots Ambassador Leadership Award for advocacy, 2017 National Private and Overall winner of the GCSAA/ELGA contest completing the ELGA Triple Crown by winning all three national categories, Resort (2005), Public (2006) and Private (2017) and two Overall awards (2006, 2017). He was also the winner of the 2014 GCSAA Excellence in Government Relations Award and the 2010 GCSAA President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship and was recognized as the 2011 Environmental Communicator of the Year by the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association.Williams is a vibrant story teller and philanthropist who enjoys martial arts and archery in his free time. He is a 9th degree black belt and 2001 inductee in the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame and a 2018 inductee into the Georgia GCSA Golf Course Superintendent’s Hall of Fame
What made you want to get involved as an ambassador?
It has been my life’s work to promote environmental stewardship. I believe in the words of my Grandfather, that if you take care of the land, the land will take of you and that we do not inherit the land from our parents but rather we borrow it from our children. I have been a steward over some of the world’s best green spaces that just happen to also be great golf courses. Now more than ever we must educate and perpetuate the skills and spirit of true environmental stewardship starting locally and moving globally. The Fairways Foundation is actively making our world GREENER! I want to help in this effort and becoming a Fairways Foundation Ambassador will allow me to add my experiences to The Fairway Foundations Ambassador network helping to grow the synergy that is cornerstone of all
sustainable environmental stewardship.
Tony Hanson
Wokingham, Berkshire | UK
Bio
Tony has been involved in general, facilities and environment management in leisure and estates since 1985, with 6 years as Environment and Sustainability Director at The Facilities Management Group. In 2009 Tony set up Environmental Solutions International Ltd, an environmental consultancy working with the leisure, estates & commercial property sectors, specialising in resource efficiency, compliance, and the achievement net zero and beyond.
Tony, is a Certified Member of Institute of Workplace & Facilities Management (CIWFM), a Practitioner Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (PIEMA) and an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (AMICE). Tony is also a member of the GB&I Golf Sustainability Committee along with representatives from the R&A, the Home Golf Unions, British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) and Golf Environment Organisation.
In 2012 Tony was appointed a Golf Environment Organisation Sustainability Associate (GEOSA) providing application advice, and also performing over 40 GEO verification audits. In 2016 Tony also became an Associate with The Planet Mark, the Eden Project endorsed Environmental Certification Programme.
Tony works with clients to develop environmental management systems, ensure compliance, reduce resource consumption, minimise waste to landfill, and measure emissions and onsite sequestration to allow the calculation a carbon balance sheets.
Over the last few years Tony has worked extensively with the Environment Agency, and water companies to provide advice to help the leisure sector transition towards more sustainable turf irrigation.
What made you want to get involved as an ambassador?
In addition to their primary function offering recreation, health and mental health benefits, there is a tremendous opportunity for the leisure sector to enhance the natural environment, improve water and air quality, reduce summer air temperature, and surface water run-off. These additional benefits are increasingly important as we face the impacts of climate change, there is support from the Government, NGO’s wildlife charities and many others, but there is often a need for funding to enable wonderful project.
I am looking forward to highlighting the work of The Fairways Foundation, encouraging facilities to develop innovative projects, and to help them access the funding available to enable their project.