NHL Green launches Hat Tricks for Trees™

NHL Green today announces the launch of Hat Tricks for Trees™, an initiative assisting The Nature Conservancy’s effort to save Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. The National Hockey League Foundation, through NHL Green’s Hat Tricks for Trees™, will donate 50 trees for every hat trick scored throughout the 2012-13 regular season and NHL Playoffs.

The initiative grew out of a recent online exchange between Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference and the Bruin’s community blog Stanley Cup of Chowder. Initially, the blog pledged to donate 50 trees for every goal scored by Ference this season. The Boston blueliner then delivered his own pledge, a commitment to plant 50 trees for every goal scored by teammate Tyler Seguin.

All contributions will support TNC’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign, a major restoration initiative launched by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2008 to restore Brazil's Atlantic Forest. The campaign aims to restore one million acres of land by helping plant one billion trees by 2015. The effort has the potential to remove four million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.

According to TNC, “tropical forests are the lungs of the Earth, storing enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen in a never-ending cycle of life. The Atlantic Forest – one of the biggest tropical forests in the world – helps stabilize the global climate and fight global warming.” Warming temperatures threaten the existence of the frozen pond where, over the years, many men and women of all skill levels learned to play hockey. The League is committed to preserving the conditions that fostered the game and protecting this rich tradition for the next generation.

In line with this mission, the NHL actively pursues more environmentally responsible measures of forest-product sourcing, is developing more robust post-consumer recycling practices, is promoting responsible forest management and is providing funds to aid in forest restoration.

At home, in 2012, NHL Green introduced a legacy tree project in Pittsburgh for the NHL Draft. In cooperation with the Pittsburgh Penguins and local non-profit Tree Pittsburgh, the League planted mature trees up the block from the CONSOL Energy Center, along the perimeter of the Hill House Association, an institution providing an array of health, welfare, recreation and other community programs. The tree-lined streets, parks and hillsides of Pittsburgh are not only a point of community pride, but they also offer substantial benefits to residents -- helping to conserve and reduce energy use, reducing local carbon dioxide levels, improving air quality and mitigating storm water runoff.

Through NHL Green’s Hat Tricks for Trees™, the League will continue to support initiatives – both local and global – that aim to restore both urban and tropical forests.

Throughout the season, we encourage fans to follow us on twitter to receive notifications of when hat tricks are scored. Fans can contribute to the initiative by visiting the NHL Green microsite on nature.org and making a donation.