The Climate Pledge Arena

Over the past few years, sports stadium’s names have gotten out of hand. Gone are the days of Soldier Field, named as a memorial for fallen soldiers in battle, or Lambeau Field, a remembrance of the rich historical past of the Packers and their coaches. Today, we have new stadiums such as ‘Rocket Mortgage Arena’, ‘FedEx Field’, and, the newest and absolute worst, Crypto.com Arena here in Downtown Los Angeles. However, one new stadium has broken this boring corporate mold.

With the arrival of the NHL’s newest expansion franchise, the Seattle Kraken, came the Climate Pledge Arena. The name represents their exact mission: to provide the most sustainable arena in the world.

The Climate Pledge Arena started as a historical site at the center of Seattle. Built alongside the famous Space Needle in 1962, the Seattle Center was formed as the home of the World Fair. This posed an issue for the stadium developers in 2019 as they needed to keep the historic roof in perfect condition during renovations. This problem quickly became the first of many sustainable features of the arena. Rather than discard 44 million pounds of concrete and metal, they were able to put the roof to use as a recognizable landmark on the Seattle skyline.

However, they made one major adjustment to the old roof. They added a highly efficient filtration system to capture all of the infamous Seattle rain that falls across the building. The water is filtered and stored in 15,000 gallon tanks at the bottom of the stadium. It’s use? To provide the necessary water to build the ice rink for the Kraken to play their games multiple times a week.

Of course, in order to match their carbon neutral goals, they have to tackle the issue of electricity. The Climate Pledge Arena has set up solar panels on their parking structures and the arena itself to send 1.2 megawatts of energy to the stadium. These solar panels are their current solution, but they plan to build an offsite power plant that provides additional clean energy as well.

Finally, they have a pledge to eliminate all single use plastics in the arena by 2022. This will allow them to be waste free, removing yet another major environmental barrier.

Ultimately, one of the best things about the Climate Pledge Arena is that it isn’t a charity case. Hosting a range of NHL, WNBA, and NCAA Basketball games along with a variety of musical performances, this arena is beloved by the city of Seattle and respected as a beacon of sustainability. They found a way to lay out a sustainable framework while boosting their brand image at the same time. This type of leadership guides a positive change in the industry and paves the way for more stances of climate leadership in the future. This may be the first major arena of its kind, but it certainly won’t be the last.