The NHL and Honeywell announced a partnership on Wednesday which will support the League's efforts to help create more-energy efficient arenas, practice facilities and rinks across North America.
Honeywell, an integrated operating company serving a broad range of industries around the world that helps organizations solve complex challenges, will help the NHL in various ways.
As part of the agreement, Honeywell will be the official building automation and energy management partner of the NHL and help to ensure more reliable arena operations, including optimized energy use and fewer disruptions during events, as well as a high-quality gameday experience.
"There's two general areas of immediate opportunity," said David Lehanski, executive vice president, business development and innovation for the NHL. "The first is to help us in our NHL arenas and facilities to operate more efficiently. The NHL venues that teams currently play in are integrating more technology than ever before. So what's becoming an even more complex environment to manage, their automation services are going to help us create an efficient way of managing it, and for making sure it's perfectly calibrated so we can lower costs.
"The other is in the growth of the game at a youth and amateur level. We're going to help community rinks that are already out there develop a more efficient operating model, so they can hopefully put more money back into the venue, to create a better environment, and to create programming for more kids to play. And together, we will build a blueprint for the future that costs a lot less to develop, so we can get more people interested in building rinks."
The goal is to make buildings smarter, safer and more efficient without fans ever noticing the complexity behind the scenes by using technology. Using artificial intelligence, Honeywell Forge helps ensure all systems are integrated and work as a single, coordinated ecosystem rather than individually. By using real-time monitoring of building performance, predictive insights help anticipate maintenance issues and optimization to improve efficiency. That includes having lights shut off when not in use and the temperature of rinks adjusting so they're not too cold and draining battery power.
"We do a lot of city and state work, helping people solve problems where they can't write a giant check," said Greg Turner, Chief Solutions Officer, Building Automation for Honeywell.
"And yet, their mission is being diverted by their cost of operations. And that's exactly what we started hearing from the NHL. The big arenas, there's all kinds of different ownership models, all those different things. You get down to the community rinks, you get down to the practice facilities, most of them are privately owned, and they have a real operating cost.
"This idea that there was something that we knew how to do, and we've been doing it for school districts and things for almost 40 years. I said, 'This business model works. We used it really effectively. Let's see how I can apply to hockey,' and it turned out to be a great, great partnership."
The services and solutions Honeywell provides are designed to work in NHL arenas, but they also can scale and work in smaller community rinks, which not only helps to grow the game, but do so in a sustainable way.
"We can make the NHL more energy efficient," Turner said. "That means all that money goes into other parts of hockey, rather than into energy. It also means that there's a lot less of a carbon footprint. But it's also about reviewing the game. If these facilities are now 20, 25 years old, and they don't have the money for a capital refresh, one of two things happens; a team moves, or the fan experience starts to decline. You don't want any of those things to happen."
The partnership with Honeywell will help facilities manage the power and demands each building needs to be successful and energy efficient. Most NHL venues have tenants in other sports leagues and are used for concerts and shows as well.
"This is not something that is easy," Turner said. "The challenge is getting even more complicated now because it's not just about hockey, it's the fact that these venues are shared with multiple teams and different types of sports that require different ways of managing the venues, and more and more those venues are used for entertainment events, concerts, things that require also a much more automated, intelligent type of infrastructure in order to actually make it make it useful. That's what we do."
But with the pair embarking on this partnership, it will be a win-win for all parties involved. Not only the for the NHL and Honeywell, but the fans and environment as well.
"As our business becomes more advanced, we require an unprecedented level of interconnectivity and flexibility to deliver best-in-class experiences on and off the ice," Lehanski said. "This is a business imperative. Strategic alliances with top-tier technology companies like Honeywell are a key driver of that innovation. As we deepen our work with Honeywell, it’s clear this partnership will help create more resilient, digitally-enabled facilities that lower operating costs, improve efficiencies, protect revenues, and ultimately deliver secure, seamless fan experiences."
