NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver Scott McLaughlin, a 9-handicap golfer, learned much about sustainability during last Friday’s visit to one of golf’s signature events, the WM Phoenix Open.
To sustain sanity on the TPC Scottsdale’s daunting par-3, 16th hole, McLaughlin said he’d need complete focus as grandstands on the stadium course flank both sides of the fairway as they do on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s frontstretch.
Of course, one major difference between the sports arenas is that driving a race car at IMS never involves seeing the track showered with beer – and beer cans – as this hole is when a golfer aces it, as Sam Ryder did last year.
“But I think it would make me mentally stronger for any race I do,” McLaughlin said if given the chance to swing a club in front of the always raucous crowd. “It’s hugely impressive what these (golfers) are able to do.”
McLaughlin visited the hugely popular tournament to support the sustainability effort underway in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and IMS. The motorsports entities are working with WM, the sponsor of the weekend’s golf event, through its Sustainability Services division to make its events more ecologically sustainable for the future.
McLaughlin got a behind-the-scenes look at how WM is leading TPC Scottsdale’s sustainability effort, and he had a simple way of describing how it’s done.
“It’s really quite simple, and (WM) does a really good job of educating without preaching,” he said. “It’s all self-explanatory.”
The golf course only used recyclable and compostable items, and it helped customers properly dispose of them with easy-to-follow, color-coded signage and bins with different-sized openings. McLaughlin said he learned that putting plastic bottles in plastic bags, as many people do at home, isn’t appropriate since the bags are harmful to the recycling machines.
“I was surprised and shocked when they told me that,” he said. “There’s a lot of recycling that I’m doing that I’m doing the wrong way, but it’s easy to fix. It’s little things that we can all be doing to help.”
McLaughlin used a social media post to express his support for the sustainability effort in his sport. He knows that his team owner, Team Penske’s Roger Penske, who is supporting the initiative as owner of IMS and INDYCAR, will challenge Penske Entertainment and its staff to continue to do even better in areas of emissions calculations, waste diversion and energy consumption.
IMS adopted new procurement policies and protocols, eliminating single-use plastic and Styrofoam in offices, part of what helped it become the first sport facility to achieve organizational certification through the Council for Responsible Sport.
Organizational certification became available for the first time in August 2021. The next standard is based on the recognition of the following core principles: power of sport, resolution of climate change, enablement of social justice and business of sport. IMS was the first to commit to the new framework, implementing year-round tracking of environmental and social impacts for the more than 300 events hosted at IMS annually.
Previously, in 2021, the “500” was certified as a responsible event.
“Oh, I’m sure it’s going to (continue) and grow,” McLaughlin said of the effort at IMS.
McLaughlin was the INDYCAR SERIES’ Rookie of the Year in 2021 and last season scored the first three race wins of his short time in the series. He will drive the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet when the season opens March 3-5 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.