The National Hockey League (NHL) has underlined its determination to preserve the ice sheets many of its players learn their trade on through the release of the 2014 NHL Sustainability Report.

The first document of its kind produced by a major sports league in North America was authored by the NHL with advice from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). It highlights the overall impact of NHL Green – the environmental sustainability initiative launched by the league in 2010 – which features a number of objectives designed to limit the league’s carbon footprint.

The key goals of NHL Green are to: reduce the use of natural resources in business operations, to track and measure the environmental impact of the sport and to inspire fans and partners to commit to environmental stewardship.

As such, the report outlines the wide variety of programmes, benchmarks, and successes that have increased the overall sustainability of the League, Member Clubs, and their arenas.

A marquee figure of the report – and in all likelihood a sporting first – is the disclosure of the league’s overall carbon footprint. This takes into account league and club business activities and travel for 182 game days, 1,230 regular-season games, more than 60 play-off contests and nearly two million miles of team air travel per season. The total footprint is approximately 530,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, with the league referencing the 23 million metric tons emitted annually from the single largest coal power plant in the US by way of comparison.

"The 2014 NHL Sustainability Report is arguably the most important statement about the environment ever issued by a professional sports league," said the head of NRDC’s Green Sports programme Allen Hershkowitz, Ph.D.

"The Report's focus on controlling fossil-fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions is a mainstream wake-up call that climate disruption poses an existential threat to everything we hold dear, including sports and recreation."

To view the report, click here.