The Golden Knights have emphasized sustainability at the major team-owned and operated venues in Vegas to make a positive impact locally and beyond. In March 2024, the Golden Knights introduced the Knight SHIELD Project within the organization. The Knight SHIELD Project highlights six key areas of focus for the Golden Knights: sustainability, healthy air, improvement and inspiration, energy and water efficiency, landscape protection, and waste reduction.
To follow through with the Knight SHIELD Project, the Golden Knights teamed up with the Green Operations and Advanced Leadership team, also known as GOAL, and joined the Green Sports Alliance.
On March 20, the Golden Knights hosted Go Green Knight at The Fortress during the game against the Boston Bruins. With each save made by a Golden Knights goaltender, the Vegas Golden Knights Foundation, The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, and ReRoute Americas all donated one tree, and by the end of the game, a total of 57 trees were donated to the Las Vegas Valley just from save totals alone. Fans were also able to participate by texting “GREEN” to 94547.
“I feel like in just two years, or a year and a half, that we've worked together, I feel like the team has been able to build on the success of seeing how sustainability resonates and building on the Knight SHIELD project,” said Kristen Fulmer, Head of Sustainability for Oak View Group & Director of GOAL, “The Knight SHIELD Project really defines what's important to the Golden Knights from a sustainability perspective.”
Since the start of the Knight SHIELD Project, the Golden Knights built a training space at America First Center in Henderson utilizing OCEANICE, a synthetic ice made of recycled plastic that provides water and energy efficiency compared to traditional ice, developed tracking systems at the facilities owned and operated by Foley Entertainment Group to monitor water, energy, and waste, in collaboration with GOAL, and more.
“We're thinking about the physical facilities as well as how to support the community and say, ‘How can we measure this?’ and then talk about it, and look towards the future to say, ‘We did this. We had this impact this year. What is our impact next year with the same metrics and building on those,’” said Fulmer.
Vegas came away with the 5-1 win against the Bruins, and the success of the night fortified the strong relationship that is still being built with the GOAL team. The Golden Knights continue to set themselves apart from other teams with the Knight SHIELD Project and aim to encourage sustainability within the league and the Las Vegas Valley community.
