NHL set to attend Beyond Sport United

NEW YORK -- On Tuesday, November 13, the National Hockey League will join MLB, MLS, NASCAR, NBA, NFL and WNBA as an official Founding Supporter of Beyond Sport United, a one-day global gathering, exploring opportunities for leagues, teams and their partners to make a positive impact in their community and the local environment. The conference will take place at Yankee Stadium in New York City.

NHL Green has teamed up with Sterling Planet and Bonneville Environmental Foundation to help mitigate the environmental impact of Beyond Sport United 2012.

Sterling Planet, the nation's leading retail provider of environmental assets for corporate, utility and government clients, will donate all environmental assets needed to counterbalance the estimated carbon emissions resulting from electricity consumption during the conference, based on conservative projections of the expected carbon footprint. Accordingly, Sterling Planet will provide the event with 111,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) in the form of Green-e® Energy certified renewable energy certificates (RECs) from U.S. wind projects. The RECs will create a benefit of more than 143,529 pounds of avoided emissions of carbon dioxide.

The League worked with Sterling Planet to balance the carbon emissions associated with arena electricity usage and team air travel throughout the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, as well as the League's estimated 2012 electricity usage at its New York City headquarters. To that end, Sterling Planet supplied 9.8 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of Green-e® Energy certified renewable energy certificates (RECs) and 97 metric tons of verified emission reductions in total.

Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), a nonprofit provider of energy, carbon and water solutions, will balance the water footprint of the conference. Based on projections of the expected water usage for both Yankee Stadium and attendee hotel rooms, BEF will restore 45,000 gallons of water to critically dewatered ecosystems in Colorado, Montana, Arizona, Utah and/or Oregon through BEF's Water Restoration Certificate® program.

Additionally, the League's 2012 and 2013 water consumption at its New York City headquarters, estimated at six million gallons over two years, will be counterbalanced as part of the NHL Water Restoration Project.

The League launched the NHL Water Restoration Project with BEF in June 2011, focusing sustainability efforts on the issue of freshwater scarcity and its effect on fans, communities and the game of hockey. BEF, on behalf of the NHL, has replenished North American watercourses with over 18 million gallons of water since the project's inception.

Beyond Sport is a global organization that promotes, develops and supports the use of sport to drive positive social change around the world. Beyond Sport United will bring together professionals in the sports industry to discuss the business advantages of working to address difficult community, social and environmental concerns. The event will be a sharing of best practices tackling issues of education, health, sustainability, social inclusion, natural disaster response and more.

In 2011, Beyond Sport celebrated the League as the Sport for Environment winner for a League-wide food recovery program, in cooperation with Rock and Wrap it Up!, which has diverted over 210 tons of waste from landfill and provided local shelters with more than 320,000 meals since the initiative began in 2010. Also in 2011, the NHL was nominated for Beyond Sport's Federation of the Year award. In 2012, the League was again nominated as Sport for Environment, this time for the NHL Water Restoration Project.