Energy benchmarking for ice/curling rinks

Skate your way into energy savings! 

Ice/curling rinks operate for many hours a day, seven days a week, and can have a variety of different uses. Creating and maintaining high calibre ice/curling rink surfaces is particularly important for facility owners and managers, who are always looking for ways to reduce their utility costs. This is where benchmarking with the ENERGY STAR^® Portfolio Manager^® tool can help.  

Benchmarking with Portfolio Manager can help you set priorities for your ice/curling rinks. By measuring how your facility compares with other similar facilities across Canada, you will be able to identify poorly performing facilities, spot opportunities and build a sound business case for targeted investments that will reduce energy costs.

Ice/curling rinks are eligible to obtain a 1-100 ENERGY STAR score. Any facility that has one or more ice rinks that is used for public, private, recreational, or professional skating, hockey, or other similar activities can obtain this powerful metric that will help energy managers to assess energy management goals over a period of time and optimize energy performance. Ice/curling rink facilities can be benchmarked as individual buildings or as campuses.

Collect the data you need to benchmark your ice/curling rink.

To be eligible for a 1-100 ENERGY STAR score, at least 50% of the facility must be classified as an ice/curling rink, and no more than 25% may be classified as a non-scorable property type. The following criteria also apply:

• There must be an ice rink in the facility. Buildings that are used exclusively for curling are not eligible to receive a score.
• The surface area of the ice rink must not exceed 90% of the total building area, and the building must have other non-ice surface areas.
• There must be at least one part time or full time worker.

In addition, you will need the following information:

• Number of full time equivalent workers
• Number of months that the main indoor ice rink is in use (minimum: 5)
• Total indoor ice rink size
• Average number of indoor ice resurfacings per rink per week
• Number of spectator seats (maximum: 5,000)
• Number of curling sheets
• Weather and climate (using heating and cooling degree days, retrieved based on postal code)

Energy Use

• Specific energy billing information for each building for all purchased energy.
• You will need to begin with at least 12 consecutive months for each energy source and update regularly with monthly usage data.

Note that the above information is not required to start benchmarking. You can start using the tool to track your energy performance no matter how much data you have. However, in order to obtain the 1-100 score, you need the details above.

Apply for certification

If your rink earns a score of 75 or higher and meets certain other criteria, it could be eligible for ENERGY STAR certification. Learn more about certification and how you can apply.

The ENERGY STAR and PORTFOLIO MANAGER names and the ENERGY STAR symbol are trademarks registered in Canada by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and are administered and promoted by Natural Resources Canada.