NHL turns to Honeywell to cut arena energy bills

NHL partners – Facing rising energy costs that threaten to squeeze NHL arenas, practice facilities and community rinks, the NHL has launched a multi-year partnership with Honeywell to analyze energy use and deploy AI-enabled building automation. The effort is aimed at reduci

On an ordinary day, an ice sheet is doing double duty: it has to stay frozen while a building shifts to handle everything from concerts to basketball games. For the National Hockey League, that juggling act is becoming harder—because energy costs are climbing fast.

This week, the NHL announced a new partnership with Honeywell, designed to increase the efficiency of hockey facilities around the country. The multi-year agreement names Honeywell as the “Official Building Automation and Energy Management Partner of the NHL.”

The target is clear: a lack of energy efficiency across NHL arenas. practice facilities. and community rinks across the U.S. and Canada. Honeywell’s role will go beyond general recommendations. The company will analyze how each facility uses energy. address inefficiencies. and then provide AI-enabled automation technologies intended to lower power consumption and improve climate control.

The stakes are economic. Ice is notoriously difficult to manage on its own, and NHL buildings are rarely single-purpose. They host large crowds and heavy scheduling—conditions that can make controlling heating. cooling. and electricity use far more complicated than it is in a typical building. The NHL expects the new automation tools to make it easier to manage those energy demands without constantly fighting the system.

David Lehanski, SVP of business development and innovation at the NHL, frames it as a problem of growing complexity. “We keep pumping more technology into our buildings. it’s getting more complex in there. we’re using more energy. and having Honeywell help us be more efficient is hugely important. ” he tells Fast Company.

Honeywell’s Greg Turner, chief solutions officer at Honeywell’s Building Automation unit, puts the cost pressure in concrete terms. Arenas and hockey rinks are facing 11-17% increases in energy costs. and Turner says it becomes “pretty hard to sustain.” In his view. cutting costs isn’t just about spending more money—solving it requires expertise and coordinated work at the facility level.

Turner argues that the partnership will follow an approach Honeywell has practiced for years. “This is something that we know how to do, and we’ve been doing it for almost 40 years,” he says. “We’ve done this really effectively. and we decided to see how it applies to hockey. and it turns out to be a great partnership.”.

For each building, the process is meant to start with listening. Honeywell will speak with the facility’s owner or manager. learn the pain points. review operating costs and energy bills. and build an operating model. From there. Honeywell’s team develops an energy-savings model—potentially including decisions about when parts of the building should be lit. cooled. or warmed. and how to make the overall facility more flexible depending on space demand.

“You really need to learn how they operate their facility, and then you automate it.”

As the NHL looks for savings, it’s also looking for growth—particularly on the youth side. Youth hockey participation is increasing. but Lehanski points to a practical barrier: entry costs for families can be high compared to other sports. More ice surfaces, and more reasonably priced facilities, become central if the sport wants to keep expanding.

Lehanksi says the youth hockey challenge is unusually tough. “We have a unique challenge on the youth side that nobody else has. Every town has a football field. a baseball field. a basketball court—the cost to keep those things running is a fraction of what ours are. ” he says. “If we want more kids to play hockey, we’ve got to figure this out. It’s a major area of need: helping arenas save more money. so they can put more money back into the arena. creating a better environment.”.

The idea is that reduced operating costs at youth sports facilities could. over time. make hockey more comfortable and more accessible—and potentially more affordable. Lehanski also says the partnership could produce a “blueprint” for more efficient facilities. If more arenas adopt that blueprint, he suggests it could reduce costs associated with youth hockey players as well.

“The way Honeywell is going to help is by getting more ice surfaces out there,” Lehanksky says, “and there aren’t too many companies that you can talk to in that space.”

NHL Honeywell building automation energy management AI-enabled automation arena efficiency energy costs ice maintenance youth hockey climate control U.S. and Canada rinks