Climate Pledge Arena lays out plan to become world’s first carbon neutral arena

With Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena set to open this fall, it kicked off a new series this last week designed to explain its plans to become the world’s first net zero carbon certified arena.

Climate Pledge Arena hits key milestone ahead of fall opening

“We’re innovating to dramatically reduce our carbon emissions, and investing in nature based solutions to make up for any emissions we can’t eliminate,” the arena said in a two-minute video posted to Twitter.

Introducing: 𝘾𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙙𝙜𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙖 𝙀𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨!

W/the help of our friends at @climatepledge, we're excited to announce #CPAExplains, a new monthly video series aimed at simplifying our sustainability efforts + sharing how you can help us reach our goals 💪 pic.twitter.com/i1pRGGkTRF

— Climate Pledge Arena (@ClimateArena) April 30, 2021

As part of that effort, an estimated 22,000 tons of steel were saved by keeping the venue’s 44-million-pound roof in place, originally built for the 1962’s Seattle World’s Fair. That roof will be used to harvest nearly 50,000 gallons of water a year to maintain the ice used for the Kraken rink.

Food service will reflect the arena’s carbon neutral goals as well, with kitchens using electric appliances, while bringing in 75% of food ingredients from within 300 miles. And by 2024, the arena has “committed to eliminating 100% of our single-use plastic.”

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For exterior elements, the venue’s design team “is working with regional nurseries to hand-select nearly 200 trees of 15 varieties to be planted as part of the arena’s redevelopment.”

Climate Pledge Arena — named by Amazon last August — is expected to open by October 2021.

In addition to Seattle Kraken hockey and Seattle Storm WNBA basketball, the arena will host concerts and could also house a future Seattle NBA team. Capacity for NHL games sits at 17,100; concert capacity is up to 17,200, while basketball games could draw up to 18,100.

OVG signed a 39-year lease with the City of Seattle for the land the arena sits on. The group hopes to eventually get the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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