In my previous article, I analyzed the strategies to reduce the environmental impact that the National Basketball Association (NBA) has been pursuing within its organization in recent years. However, other professional leagues in the United States of America have the same, if not greater, importance on both an economic and competitive level. One of these is the NHL (National Hockey League), widely recognized as the world’s most important ice hockey league, founded in Montréal-Quebec in 1917 [1]. 

The league succeeded the National Hockey Association (NHA), which included only eleven Canadian teams, where ice hockey is the national sport and where the league was founded. Currently, after undergoing a major expansion phase, it includes 31 franchises, including seven in Canada and 24 in the United States. The regular season runs from October to April and each team plays 82 games [1], the same as in the NBA. Teams compete annually for the Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America; the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) itself considers it one of the “most important championships available to the sport” [2].

Ice hockey is an integral part of the culture and identity of Canada and also of many U.S. States; some famous players have often claimed to have honed their skills playing on frozen ponds, rivers, and lakes that are not lacking in the northernmost parts of the North American continent.

Unfortunately, the dramatic change in climate in these areas has led to winters with much warmer average temperatures, which have had a significant impact on outdoor field hockey seasons. In recent years, a strong El Nino (a periodic climatic phenomenon that causes strong warming of surface waters in the South Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean) has brought warmer and drier conditions, as a result, there is now more awareness than ever of possible future complications for a sport that needs long periods with subzero temperatures posed by warm winter temperatures due to global warming [3].

As noted in the article “NBA Green”, the sports industry can have a significant influence on the protection of Earth’s natural resources. Therefore, the need for a significant change in corporate strategies regarding environmental sustainability has not gone unnoticed by sports organizations, mainly in the sports leagues in the United States and Europe, which are also the ones that generate the most revenue [4].

That is why in 2010 the NHL launched its own initiative, called “NHL Green”, to promote sustainable business and sports practices and also educate fans and raise awareness of environmental issues in their communities. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said at the time: “The game was born on frozen ponds, most of our players learned to skate on outdoor rinks. For this magnificent tradition to continue into future generations, we need the right winter weather, and as a league, we are in a unique position to promote this message”[3]. Thus, since 2010, the NHL has been tracking its environmental sustainability achievements and proudly shares this information with the public each year, including using the framework established by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) to assess its environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts [3].

In particular, they focused on goal number 6 of the SDG’s: “Ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” [5].

Professional ice hockey necessarily needs large amounts of water, but the process of creating and resurfacing ice for the artificial rinks in the arenas is one of the most water-intensive operations of any sport in the world. On average, it takes 12,000 to 15,000 gallons of water (45 to 57 thousands of liters) to create an NHL regulation ice sheet, which is then usually kept frozen for an entire season. Once created, the employees of the arena then must scrape or shave the ice and rebuild it with an additional thin layer of water to ensure that the surface is optimal for the competitive play that takes place there [3].

Fig 1: Ice hockey game in the Calgary Flames’ Stadium. Photo by oskaline on Pixabay.

The main uses of water in NHL arenas include ice production, but it is also needed for cooling towers (used to reduce water temperature for reuse), food services, indoor plumbing, and even outdoor landscaping in some of the arenas. Together these uses represent a consumption of about 320 million gallons of water (nearly 1 billion liters), equivalent to about 500 Olympic-size swimming pools, that are used throughout the league during a single season [3].

However, NHL franchises are aware of their consumption and at the forefront of showing technological innovations to reduce their annual consumption. At Climate Pledge Arena, home of the Seattle Kraken, rainwater is captured from its roof, enough to fill a 15,000-gallon cistern to hold water to be used for ice-making. At Staples Center, home of the L.A. Kings, the arena uses an advanced environmental management system that helps capture water from the air, which is then stored in water tanks to be used for non-potable uses. Over the past 10 years, the NHL has also made a commitment to ensure a more sustainable water management of their arenas for the communities where they live and play. The league has offset over 88 million gallons of water through the purchase of water restoration credits in collaboration with partner Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) [3].

The league’s commitment to water stewardship has positively inspired the hockey community at large with many other sustainable actions. One example is the use of broken-field hockey sticks to create artificial reefs and habitats for oysters (Rink2Reef project) [6].

The league has also commissioned future climate analyses of possible winter temperatures in Toronto Montreal and other locations home to NHL franchises by the end of this century, what these models show is a significant decline in days with subzero temperatures. The world’s premier field hockey league is certainly helping to reduce its environmental impact, but I want to conclude with these two questions: will there be any outdoor field hockey rinks in the future that are not artificially refrigerated? Will young people who want to take up this magnificent sport still be able to practice, like the champions of the past, in the lake or river near their homes? All teams seem committed to making this possible, even if much room for improvement still remains.

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Cover- and preview image: Ice hockey rink. Image by StockSnap from Pixabay