ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Toss away your empty nacho container and soda cup during intermission at a Wild game, and you'll receive a set of inaudible instructions.
Above every receptacle, there's a set of signs. Trash here. Compost here. Recyclables here. There are even images depicting which items belong in which bin.
It's a small part of a broad, environmentally-conscious initiative, one recapped by the NHL club Thursday as it lauded the Xcel Energy Center and St. Paul RiverCentre with NHL, team, political business and community leaders. Thanks to several steps implemented over the past five years, the complex is the first in the world to be sustainability-certified by LEED, Green Globes and APEX/ASTM, according to the club.
"What better place to be focused on the environment than the State of Hockey, the state of 10,000 lakes, and obviously there's a connection between the two," said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, on hand for Thursday's celebration in the Xcel Energy Center concourse. "It's important that those lakes keep freezing over in the winter.
"And it's evenly important (if) you ever expect to get an outdoor game," Bettman added, a barb at Wild owner Craig Leipold, who is constantly in the commissioner's ear about getting the NHL Winter Classic played in the Twin Cities.
The Wild were one of the first NHL teams to spur forward the league's recent commitment to environmental stewardship, Bettman said. Over the past five years, the Wild's home ice and connected convention center, including the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, have undergone sweeping changes aimed at reducing harmful emissions and retarding global warming.
That includes new processes that have workers recycling 60 percent of the nearly 2 million pounds of waste incurred each year. The campus is using more wind power, using less water in its restrooms and has made the air within cleaner by limiting smoking nearby and limiting the use of combustion engines inside the facility.
More energy-efficient lighting has been installed, too.
"Everybody knows that I like to win," Leipold said. "Winning on the ice is so important to our business and to our culture and to our psyche. But we also like to win off the ice.
"What's good for St. Paul is good for us."
The NHL, Bettman said, is the first major pro sports league in America to produce an all-encompassing sustainability report. It was released this past summer.
The goal, officials said Thursday, is that other teams, leagues and businesses will emulate the Xcel Energy Center's practices.
"We will win when others tie us," St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said. "We will win when other facilities are also assured by all three organizations. We will win when we . . . address the very significant issue of climate change in our environment."
Follow Phil Ervin on Twitter
