Opportunity Out in the Cold
The municipal fleet of ice rinks across North America are faced with significant infrastructure challenges. Information published in the 2016 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card (drawing data from 120 municipalities) highlights that the average annual reinvestment rate for recreation facilities is 1.3% while 1.7% to 2.5% should be the target for this type of asset. This investment-gap would lead to facility degradation, as supported by the extrapolation of the replacement value for Sport and Recreation Facilities (includes ice rinks) in poor or very poor condition reported at $9 billion. That is 19% of the total national extrapolated asset value in this category which has an overall physical condition rating of “Fair”. This is a very significant challenge indeed. As published in the Investing in Canada report, Municipalities own 60% of the infrastructure in Canada overall, making the infrastructure investment-gap and subsequent challenge predominately a municipal issue.
Addressing this challenge is generally approached using a combination of requests for additional funding and application of the squeaky-wheel principle. In some dramatic cases, municipalities are having to de-commission recreation facilities as cost-reduction strategies. The challenges are well established and clearly have been difficult to manage with many competing priorities. This increased “to do” list means that, inevitably what are called “hard choices” must be made. This is a general euphemism for “that didn’t make the priority list”. As is often the case, making recreation facilities, in particular ice rinks a priority for investment is challenging.
But what if the approach to recreation facility investment were simply wrong or at least short-sighted? There’s lots of evidence to support the benefits to health and wellness of populations due to recreation but certainly healthcare is not in the jurisdiction of municipal governments which are the front-line for the bulk of this challenge. And setting aside that big-picture cause-and-effect linkage, what if the opportunity to address the investment challenge was NOT based on primitive asset-management planning or squeaky-wheel scenarios, but a holistic, value-dense approach which addresses many needs. The proverbial dispatching of the bird with a singular piece of ore. The Value-Dense approach is based on structuring and quantifying the layered value proposition of the entire project. This forms a Project Value-Dense Proposition (PVDP) and ultimately forms the basis for prioritizing investment.
Consider some additional municipal challenges. As driven by public expectations regarding environmental stewardship and addressing climate change, a growing trend among municipalities is the declaration of a climate emergency. Climate emergency declarations exist for over 1,800 jurisdictions over 30 countries including over 500 Canadian municipalities. So, with the emergency declared, a call to action is further warranted.
With an emergency declared, the simplest plan is often the starting point. That is, two questions, 1) What are the greatest consumers of utilities (electricity, gas, water) and 2) How do we make the greatest impact in those (with as few initiatives as possible)? The unspoken “fewest-initiatives” piece is part of our normal human nature. The fewest things to do are typically completed quickest or with the least level-of-effort. And level-of-effort matters when trying to effect change quickly. After all, it is called an emergency. The ice rink fleet is small in number, but significant in impact. The IESO’s Ontario Municipal Energy Profile dated February 2018 (2014 data) identifies Municipal Energy Usage for multipurpose and arenas (ice rinks in this category) as the 3rd largest user behind Social Housing and Water/Waste Water Treatment and Pumping. The concentration of utilities and associated environmental footprint for these facilities usually results in a targeting of attention of these large users. With increasing frequency, a highly-simplistic plan is put forward to convert all equipment to electric away from any fossil-fuel based energy. This makes the environmental math work but comes to a grinding halt once the full implications of the financial impact become apparent. Not the least of which is the infrastructure in these facilities which rarely is sufficient from a technical standpoint to accommodate this change. However, ignoring the technical challenges (which can be addressed with sufficient application of capital) the opportunity is to address the challenge using fiscally-responsible environmentally-advanced solutions. This allows for the limited capital (because there’s always limited capital) to leverage the greatest overall impact making the environmental and financial math both attractive. Ice rinks are the right facility type to focus on for realizing the greatest impact for investment ratio, but a combination of system integration and technology upgrades should be the approach. Why? Ice rinks by their nature expel vast amounts of harnessable energy. This unique operating feature creates the opportunity not present in other municipal facility types.
So, ice rinks make ideal candidates for infrastructure investment which can also serve as investment towards addressing declared (and undeclared) climate emergency goals. How about that fiscal responsibility, should investment occur in an aged facility? Everyone likes new, well generally everyone prefers new over refurbished anything. However, the actual financial reality is that refurbished facilities, even extensive refurbishment, generally costs 30-60% of building replacement and does not have the impact of the landfill from existing building destruction nor the full-construction material environmental footprint to consider. Refurbishment can make capital stretch much further. So, when producing the Project Value-Dense Proposition (PVDP), this little-considered but factual impact should be identified.
Other municipal priorities usually exist including the development and sustainability of Community Hubs. Interestingly, Ice Rinks are usually “the original” community hub or still are considered as such. Support for rinks and community hubs exists within many organizations. The National Hockey League has stated its commitment to supporting the revitalization of community rinks, noting ice rinks are “important social and cultural community hubs, as the growth and accessibility of hockey at the grassroots level is significantly impacted by the health of these facilities.” As well, through the community, culture and recreation stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, the Government of Canada states its intention to continue to support community hub projects. Community Hubs are important elements of communities. When structuring any ice rink project, key features of inclusion and accessibility (NHL® Declaration of Principles) must be included as part of any sound planning. So, adding elements of accessibility and inclusion to rink projects strengthens the delivered project value and should be a predominantly-noted feature of the PVDP.
Spreading capital further and bolstering modest plans with additional enhancement to address multiple objectives will result in a highly effective way to maximize that value for investment ratio. The Investing in Canada, Canada’s Long-Term Infrastructure Plan published by the Infrastructure Canada April 2018, notes two of the five investment streams (Green Infrastructure and Social Infrastructure) that are directly applicable to recreation facilities, and as noted, ice rinks present that significant opportunity. The objectives outlined in the strategy mesh extremely well with facilities that are being converted to, or constructed to, the net zero ready standard. The net zero ready for ice rinks is about getting the internal energy usage minimized prior to the application of generation / renewables. Simply put, an ice rink can qualify as a zero-energy building by applying “counter-balancing” renewable energy without first optimizing the internal usage through efficiency and system integration. While meeting the requirement for a zero-energy building, the result also unlocks less of the potential value of the renewable capital as more renewables are required to combat internal inefficiencies. The IESO’s Ontario Municipal Energy Profile very correctly recommends achieving further energy savings approach by focusing on reduction, efficiency and then generation. The report highlights “The most cost-effective way to save energy is not to consume it in the first place”, which is echoed in Natural Resources Canada’s Dollars to Sense Energy Management Workshop curriculum of “Waste Out / Efficiency / Renewables” in that order. So, having a project structured that is shovel-worthy not simply shovel-ready will maximize the benefits and help close the noted industry investment-gap. Of course, optimized systems to Net-Zero Ready and Unlocking the most potential of any renewable energy installation adds seamlessly into the PVDP.
Optimizing an existing facility, or designing a new facility, to Net Zero Ready as applied to ice rinks can be well summarized using the Sustainable Rink Model which factors the balance of requirements in three major categories of Safety & Regulatory, Performance & Sustainability, and Reliability, Maintenance, & Operability. These items impact the full sustainability dynamic (financial and environmental) of ice rinks. Safety must be treated as paramount and utilization of non-toxic, and non-flammable based systems for the safety and wellness of staff, patrons as well as the surrounding community is a real and present facet of ice rink sustainability. The performance is both functional and efficient-based. Performance is an obvious requirement but efficiency must not be ignored. Utilizing the non-toxic and non-flammable system approach allows for newer technology equipment to be used which offers 20-30% savings over traditional ice rink refrigeration plants. Refrigeration Plants are the most significant single-system user in any ice rink facility, and such a large reduction in base-energy consumption results in huge dividends. Naturally none of these wonderful adaptations can happen if sacrificing reliability, maintenance or operability. Fortunately, these features can all be enhanced meaning additional on-time reliability, full redundancy, longer maintenance cycles with lower unit costs for service, and intuitive operate interfaces allowing for seamless system operation. The Sustainable Rink Model packs many layers of value and with effective application will result in greater system and operability efficiency meaning lower utility usage (electricity, gas, & water) and thus lower environmental impact, as well as reduced risk associated with safety and loss-of-service. The overall energy footprint is reduced approximately 40% to 50% with some situations exceeding this range. This huge advancement in sustainability will require multiple pages to summarize in the Project Value-Dense Proposition.
Within the challenge that is Recreation Facility-Infrastructure lies the greatest opportunity to achieve multiple municipal objectives including elements of fiscal management, asset management, addressing climate action, enhancing sustainability, expanding and promoting conservation, inclusion and access in a leadership role. Ice rinks present a unique challenge and opportunity within the municipal fleet of facilities. By taking a holistic approach, a spectrum of value can be combined into a singular initiative. The NHL® priorities extend to the economic, financial, environmental and social sustainability of community rink facilities. As such, the NHL® has formed a series of strategic partnerships targeted at assisting community rinks in becoming more sustainable. These range from refrigerants and MRO Group discounts to application expertise. The deep-cut Sustainable Rink Model upgrade with layered value-delivery to the community provides a true legacy pivot towards fiscally responsible and environmentally advanced Community Hubs.
Author Bio
Ian B. Storey P. Eng. a veteran of over 20 years of industry experience is the President of I.B. Storey Inc., distinguished Official Rink Engineering Consultant of the NHL®.
