Finland’s national ice-hockey league to reduce emissions with renewable diesel

Neste and Finland’s national ice-hockey league, Liiga, have started a collaboration in which the majority of Liiga teams will use Neste MY Renewable Diesel™ for their bus transportation during the 2024-’25 season in Finland.

With the switch from fossil diesel to Neste MY Renewable Diesel, Liiga targets to reduce a substantial part of its annual total emissions, approximately 6,400 tons of CO2e, which is equal to the annual carbon footprint of approximately 500 to 600 Finns.

Liiga has been focusing on the environmental responsibility of its operations in recent years and is committed to further reducing its carbon footprint.

Liiga teams’ travel emissions, approximately 8 percent of Liiga’s total emissions, are the fourth largest source of emissions after spectator travel (64 percent), arenas’ electricity consumption (17 percent), and arenas’ heating (11 percent).

By utilizing Neste MY Renewable Diesel, Liiga can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from teams’ bus transportation by an average of 90 percent over the fuel’s lifecycle when compared to fossil diesel.

“We are glad to partner with Liiga, which shows an inspiring example of how more sustainable solutions can be adopted in sports,” said Joni Pihlström, Neste’s vice president of marketing and services. “Neste MY Renewable Diesel provides Liiga an immediate and effortless way to reduce emissions from the teams’ bus transports. Neste targets to help its customers reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 20 million tons annually by 2030. We are excited to help Liiga to work towards its sustainability goals.”

Neste’s station network serves as the official rest stop for Liiga during the 2024-’25 season.

Neste MY Renewable Diesel is available at nearly 190 Neste stations across Finland, making it easy for the teams to refuel their buses while players enjoy their break.

To accurately track emission reductions, the bus company transporting a Liiga team will utilize a team-specific customer number when refueling Neste MY Renewable Diesel.

This will send data on the refueling to the Neste MY Carbon Footprint reporting service, enabling Liiga to monitor fuel consumption by each team and report the overall greenhouse-gas emission reduction achieved.

“We believe that sports can have a natural role in society as a forerunner in sustainability providing a visible example,” said Vili Nurmi, the sales director at Finnish National Ice Hockey League. “Our partnership with Neste allows us to take a concrete step forward in reducing our transport emissions and demonstrate our strong commitment to sustainability. It is also important that we get comprehensive reports from Neste regarding the teams’ travel, enabling us to further develop and improve our operations for future seasons.”