There was no internet, there were no regulations on water, there were no impact studies and raising awareness about ecology was not a priority like it has become today. The site therefore benefited from considerable building rights, and with the construction of the golf course there was more than 90, square meters of surface area to be built.
When the authorities later realised that the surveys and impact studies had not been carried out, the project came to a complete halt. Dietmar Hopp , a German business and golf enthusiast, had built a golf course in Germany and proposed creating something that brings sports, nature and development together, rather than creating a city within a city. The authorities gave the go-ahead, and we opened the grounds in June From the outset, our philosophy was to think about how we could do something sustainable because our objective was to operate long-term.
Our guiding principle on the development of Terre Blanche is that all infrastructures that are useless above ground are buried underground. All the infrastructure needed to manage and distribute water is underground. The design of our driving range follows the same principle. The Albatros Golf Performance Center is a semi-underground driving range. LUX: Is what you do, in terms of your sustainability strategy, important to your clients?
People are now beginning to understand that biodiversity and climate are about the survival of future generations. I think that today we need to take a much more proactive approach and we need to be contributors to the development of biodiversity. We now have the participation of our customers. The Infinity Pool at the Terre Blanche resort. So, we get our customers involved and we organise events to show them what we do, especially as golf today is all the rage.
The natural cycle is respected, which means that since we have been pumping water from the Saint-Cassien lake, just five kilometres from our property. We have financed networks and pumping stations so as not to use drinking water.
