NHL vows to purchase carbon offsets on Earth Day

For many hockey players, our earliest memories began outside playing on frozen ponds, or on neighbourhood streets.

For Earth Day, The NHL will purchase carbon offsets for each round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, equalling approximately 2,000 metric-tons of CO2 emissions. Since launching NHL Green in 2010, the league has been committed to promoting clean business practices to ensure all levels of hockey, from those played on frozen ponds to local roads to NHL arenas, are not impacted too greatly for future generations.

The carbon offsets will be purchased from the non-profit organization Bonneville Environmental Foundation. The NHL first partnered with BEF in 2011, aiming to address the league’s water footprint. The project Gallons for Goals was established to contribute 1,000 gallons of water for each goal scored throughout the regular season.

Earlier this month, the Nashville Predators shared their own efforts towards keeping the NHL green. Mattias Ekholm and nine other players are helping to fund a farm in Readyville, Tennessee, an hour southeast of Bridgestone Arena.

Cristina Ledra at NHL.com produced a feature on the Predators and their connection to the organic farm which is owned by two season ticket holders. "The quality of the meat is awesome," Predators forward Filip Forsberg said. "It's all organic and good stuff and healthy, and it was great that we could team up. And obviously if that helps the people that are in charge of it, they're really great people, so if we can help them out, that's even better."

A sustainable farm has many benefits when compared to commercial farming. Commercial farms often have cattle on grain diets, with higher rates of growth hormones and higher fat content. In pasture farming beef is leaner, which has an obvious appeal to professional athletes, but the animal welfare consideration was just as important to the Predators players.

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