Blue goes Green GB

BLUE FOX

FOCUSES ON ENERGY OPTIMIZATION, BIODIVERSITY, GREEN MOBILITY, CIRCULAR TRANSITION AND PARTNERSHIPS

n ee r oes G

g e u l B

THE SPORT’S FRONTRUNNER FOR GREEN TRANSITION

2

WE WANT TO BE FIRST-MOVERS IN THE GREEN TRANSITION A

t Herning Blue Fox we chose to actively work with sustainability because we take our sustainable responsibilities seriously. As a company and cultural institution, we have an important role in disseminating sustainable initiatives and develop our business towards a more sustainable agenda. By handling our business areas sustainably, we secure the future for Blue Fox as a responsible and proactive hockey club. We show initiative by being first-movers while preparing for the requirements the stakeholders will set within sustainability - now and in the future.

We as a sports club want to motivate fans and sponsors to act in the green transition as well as we are delivering professional hockey on top-level. The project “Blue goes Green” is therefore an important expansion of our core activities that sets Herning Blue Fox as absolute front-runners within sustainable sports.

In 2018 Kvik Hockey Arena underwent large-scale restorations for about DKK 55 mio. and thereby started to focus on energy optimization. We continuously feel obliged to actively examine potentials for even more actions that points towards sustainability. Therefore, our actions and focus are aimed towards even more initiatives that benefit our transition.

We initiated four strong areas that in the future will result in even more actions.We are thinking in grand scale and as economies and resources develop, more layers of sustainability will be added to our business.

Torben Skovsgaard CEO Blue Fox Herning A/S

3

VISION

As a cultural institution in Herning and Danish ice hockey we want to be front-runners in green transi­ tioning of professional sports.

We take responsibility for the future green transition expressed through our sport.

We develop Blue Fox as a liable, executive and sustainable sports club.

VALUES

MISSION

We are humble in everything we do and strive with ambition for good results. We expect that everyone can sense our burning passion and our professional approach.

WHY BLUE FOX CHOSE TO WORK WITH THE WORLD SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS Our roots goes many years back in Herning. We are in touch with a large part of the industry in the city and the surrounding areas as well as private actors. Therefore we feel a certain obligation to use our platform to articulate and demonstrate what we can do with our pragmatic approach to sustainability. We do that in symbiosis with our partners both locally and nationally in a common interest of sustainability.

We will create transparency throughout our transition and our results will be visible and effect­ful to all visitors, players and fans. In that way, Blue Fox in the future will remain as a responsible and professional ice hockey club.

THE CIRCULAR MINDSET We will move from a linear consumption to a recycling mindset. Energy must come from renewable sources and excess heat from cooling processes should be both reduced and utilized. Our procurement processes will from origin to end-use be thought through how they are disposed after ended usage in our facilities. We will ask our administration, fans and players to contribute by for instance sorting waste at our arena and to help us optimize our in-house processes.

Our mindset stretches over mobility and local coherence. Therefore, we identified four focal areas that are tightly interconnected by partnerships. Thereby we can reach our goal of becoming a sustainable hockey club. The focal areas are connected to the UN sustainability goals, where five of them are identified in our focal areas.

We will reduce our CO2-emissions from our cooling facility. Vi spend about 700.000 kw/t annually on games and practices for Blue Fox and Herning Ice Hockey Club (HIK).

We create better logistics by rethinking our procurements and our waste handling. At games we create a lot of waste from both fans and operational department. Therefore we will reduce the consumption of single-use packaging at the arena and contribute to it being recycled.

THE 5 FOCAL AREAS

Our location between the meadow parks in northern Herning are central in building the parking facility of the future, where technology and biodiversity connects with the hiking trails, sports facili­ ties, nature and businesses. The parking facility plays an important role for the mobility at Blue Fox and visitors to the area. The facility will also be used for information and demonstration of how biodiversity can be re-thinked into an urban environment and into industrial areas.

6

ENERGY OPTIMIZATION SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 7 BIODIVERSITY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 11 GREEN MOBILITY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 12 CIRCULAR TRANSITION SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 15 PARTNERSHIPS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 17

EN ER GY OP TI MIZ ING

ENERGY OPTIMIZATION OF THE ICING FACILITY There are three elements in the collaboration.

Energy savings Herning Ice Stadium has an old but well cooling system that is taken well care of and has good updated components. Even though a cooling system has healthy components there can be achieved savings in the way the system is controlled and monitored. Grundfos, Herning Ice Stadium and Lund & Erichsen has together found two possible savings. One of them builds upon experiences with operations of other cooling systems – the other is exploiting the knowledge about the arena’s consumption at night.

Take-aways Cooling uses about 10% of the world’s energy consumption and is increasing fast. Grundfos Innovation Lab 2 work on Sustainable cooling and by having our facility relatively close we together will be better to understand users and customers of this technology.

High Tech Master projekt AAU, Herning A skilled master’s student will examamine, how a new and sustainable cooling technology would fit our current cooling system. The aim is to understand, how these panels will contribute to energy savings. The project will build upon data from the cooling facility itself and from simulations and showcase the possible savings.

It is a cool technology that is on its early stage. Sun heating makes hot water, PV panels makes electricity, cooling panels cool down by sending heat to the atmosphere.

7

CAN CHANGE FROM LINEAR USAGE...

CIRCULAR USE - Herning Ice Stadium is disposing waste as commercial waste. Now almost all kinds of waste are disposed in the same container and there is no current legislation as to how commercial waste should be separated. Therefore, we take action on this issue and start to sort our waste in fractions that follow the regulations that becomes effective in near future. The initiatives are based upon a thorough analysis of our consumption and how disposal has the best convenience for fans and staff while complying with the regulations.

We therefor are focusing on a circular mindset instead of a linear mindset and thereby reuse most of our waste. We also wish to make visible how we can optimize our supply chain with our suppliers.

BIODIVERSITY - Within biodiversity our goal is to make as many green areas around our stadium more biodiverse.

In that way we not only minimize costs from mowing and maintaining areas, we also reduce our CO2 emissions and create habitats for insects and native plants.

We want to display our areas so that people can learn the headlines of the biological processes from signs or as a business get information on how to get started in their business. The parking facility and the other areas around the stadium would then be a show-room for the stakeholders that wants to start their own biodiversity projects.

Picture borrowed from AGF. Photo: Ronald Goudriaan

8

GREEN MOBILITY The parking facilities around Kvik Hockey Arena will be equipped with charging stations for electric or hydrogen vehicles. Long-term parking is especially relevant for people with their final destination at the arena as well as employees in the nearby businesses. The facility can easily be used for visitors that is hiking in the surrounding areas or around the lake ”Fuglsang Sø”, the newly built ”Det Blå Rum”, the swimming arena or ”Sports Center Herning”.

The branding value is high in building charging stations in this exact area with biodiversity projects. Especially because the parking facility will be used of a wide range of population groups and therefore can serve as a “hotspot” in Herning. It is a place, where people that comes from outside of Herning can have their vehicles charged in 10 minutes up until 2-3 hours.

9

PARTNERSHIPS

The UN Sustainability Goal no. 17 is about partnerships. It can seem abstract, for what is partnerships practically?

As a professional sports club, we want to be the glue that binds partners together. Both so that we reach our own internal goals, but also to inspire and inform others on how to get started on the green agenda. Partners could also join our circular business as supplier or buyer of our excess products.

NETWORKING

FOR SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT In our network for sustainable business development you can strengthen your work with sustainability through collaboration, knowledge sharing and specific tools.

You will be provided with inspiration to sustainable deve­ lopment in terms of optimization and innovation, networking and potential partners as well as support to build business strategies within sustainability.

The network will have 8 annual activities with professional content.

Target group A survey made from a Bachelors Student from The University of Aarhus concludes in spring 2021 the following: Amongst fans and sponsors in the survey there is goodwill to sustainable initiatives. 60% of fans stated, that sustainability in their favorite sports club interests them. 90% of the respondents are willing to contribute by for example sorting their waste at stadium. 83% will feel proud over the sustainable results in the future. 60% are willing to share sustainable stories from the club on social media. About

10

half the respondents are willing to pay DKK 5-50 per ticket to donate to sustainable actions in the club.Almost 70% are willing to pay DKK 1-10 more for food and beverages to make it more sustainable.

Amongst the top-scores on the list over sustainable initiatives in the club was sorting wastem better buying processes and energy consumption. Fans are aware about Blue Fox’ close collaboration with local businesses and about charity but on all parameters about sustainability the answer was mostly “Don’t know”.

It can therefore be concluded, that we have a fan base that generally to a high or very high extend support the sustainability project at Blue Fox and that will feel proud of the achievements. The fans even want to contribute, especially within waste sorting, and within food and beverages.

We have therefore a golden opportunity to tell the world about the initiatives and at the same time have support from both businesses and fans.

In the start-up phase, we have had help from interesting and competent companies that work with sustainability.

COMPANIES / PERSONS THAT ARE A PART OF IT SO FAR Business Development Engineer (BDE) - student – Aarhus University – Herning, Karina Gajhede VERDO, HR Manager Margrete Larsen and Marketing Manager Tine M. Pallesen Bæredygtig Herning, CEO Thea Lyng Thomsen Erhvervsrådet, CEO Kenneth Mikkelsen Grundfos, Inno Lab 2 CEO Stefan Kinze Herning Kommune

11

BLUE FOX HERNING A/S Holingknuden 1 • 7400 Herning www.bluefox.dk