‘Climate Pledge Arena’: New NHL Area Focuses On Environmental Sustainability

Amazon secured the rights Thursday to the new NHL arena in Seattle, Washington and is promising to make the arena committed to sustainability.

Amazon, along with the Oak View Group and NHL Seattle, announced that the new arena will be the first zero-carbon arena in the world, per NHL.com. (RELATED: Martha Ford Steps Down As Detroit Lions Owner, Daughter Taking Over)

The arena will not be powered by fossil fuels or natural gas and will instead rely on offsite solar farms secured by Amazon, per NHL.com. The arena will reportedly feature ice made completely of rainwater and electric zambonis to clean the ice surface. Single-use plastics will also be banned and trash cans will be replaced by compost and recycling bins. 

“There are so many things I am proud about with this project,” said Jason F. McLennan, a noted Seattle-area architect and founder of the Living Building Challenge, told NHL.com, “One of the proudest is this arena is really about climate and The Climate Pledge, not being named after a big corporation. It is named after a vision to move to a responsible place for the planet.”  

As part of the agreement with Amazon, OVG and NHL Seattle will contribute to Amazon’s “The Climate Pledge” which hopes to motivate other companies to reach zero-emissions by 2040, according to NHL.com. “Could we by 2040 change the world and dramatically reduce its carbon footprint?” said Tod Leiweke, CEO of NHL Seattle, “We’re so proud to step forward with other leaders to say, yes we can.”

 

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I’m excited to announce that Amazon has bought the naming rights to the historic Seattle arena previously known as KeyArena. Instead of calling it Amazon Arena, we’re naming it Climate Pledge Arena as a regular reminder of the urgent need for climate action. It will be the first net zero carbon certified arena in the world, generate zero waste from operations and events, and use reclaimed rainwater in the ice system to create the greenest ice in the NHL. #ClimatePledge

A post shared by Jeff Bezos (@jeffbezos) on Jun 25, 2020 at 11:00am PDT

The arena will also locally source food, beer and wines for all events, reported NHL.com. “There will be many opportunities for our fans to make a difference nightly,” said Leiweke, “We will now look to involve our fans and the community to continue to help teach the world.