Climate Pledge Arena, home to the newest NHL team, the Seattle Kraken. This stadium is located just north of downtown Seattle, and as the name indicates, is one of, if not, the most sustainable sport stadiums in the world. With just how sustainable they are, they are able to fall under two conditions of the four just sustainabilities: Living within ecosystem limits & meeting the needs of both present and future generations.
When it comes to living within the ecosystem’s limits, what comes to mind is zero to as little waste as possible. Climate Pledge Arena seems to also believe this as they are a “functional zero waste facility” which has over 90% of its waste diverted from landfills.
Just like any other sports arena, Climate Pledge sells food and drinks for fans to enjoy during games and other events held at the venue. With said food and drinks comes a lot of waste, both in the food itself and the utensils and plates that come with it. Single use plastics, like cups or forks, are some of the biggest contributors to landfills, and Climate Pledge knows that which is why they are single-use plastic free. One of the ways they have done this is by replacing “all single-use plastic beverages sold in [the] arena with fully aluminum cans that are infinitely recyclable”, as seen on their official website.
Another way to help reduce waste is by having a specialized recycling program that works “with specialized recycling partners to recycle materials that cannot go through normal disposal systems”. What isn’t able to be recycled gets upcycled, or even donated to help reduce what gets sent to a landfill. Jamie Jacquart, Assistant Director of Campus Sustainability at Umass Dartmouth, and Mathieu Dundas talked about upcycling in their interview, although, they talked about a different way of upcycling. Something that helps with their recycling process is Climate Pledge’s On-Site Sorting. This sorting process helps reduce the waste that gets sent to landfills, as what happens is each bag of trash or recycling generated at the stadium gets sorted through and organized into different categories, from recyclables to compostables.
There are many other things that Climate Pledge does to help reduce waste and make it possible to live within the ecosystem’s limits, but the ones mentioned are the biggest and most impactful. With that said, there are a few things that Climate Pledge Arena could add to their large list of initiatives. One of the things they could implement is a food waste to energy pipeline, as seen in New England. In the interview, Jacquart told Mathieu about the Grind to Energy program at Gillette Stadium, which is a program that turns food waste into methane gas, which then gets burned to create electricity. Climate Pledge is doing a great job with minimizing waste with their sorting, recycling, and upcycling, but food waste could always be added upon, as not everything is compostable.
Meeting the needs of both present and future generations can come in many different forms, and two ways that Seattle, and their sports teams, are able to fall under this just sustainability is through their use of sustainable resources and their public transport. By relying on sustainable resources instead of fossil fuels, Climate Pledge is not only helping keep the air clean for the current generations but ensuring that future generation can breathe freely. By offering transportation to and from events, Climate Pledge is able to help lower the overall cost of attending games.
Climate Pledge, and the other stadiums in the Seattle area, are very resourceful. When it comes to Climate Pledge specifically, they are powered via 100% renewable energy, from both and off site energy. They have “more than 1,300 on-site solar panels generating an average of 440,000 kwh annually” and they “purchased … RECs in part from Puget Sound Energy’s Snake River wind farm and then retired those RECs so they can’t be reused or resold”. Furthermore, Climate Pledge is planning for the future. Starting in 2025, they’ve “committed to being one of the first commercial clients of Seattle City Light’s Renewable Plus Program” which is a program that will build wind & solar farms and “offer the energy generated by those new renewable sources to clients like Climate Pledge Arena”. All of these renewable energies are why Climate Pledge is leading the way when it comes to sustainability in sports. But renewable energy isn’t the only thing they do with the sustainable resources they have around them.
When people think of Seattle, most people think of a rainy city, and they’d be right. Climate Pledge implemented a 15,000 gallon drum to collect rainwater, which they have in abundance, and then use the water to make the ice for their hockey rink. Although they have an excess of water, they have decided to install “waterless urinals and ultra-efficient showers”, which helps reduce their water usage. Jacquart put it perfectly in the interview with Dundas when he said “They’re trying to take advantage of things that they have in excess. Clearly, rain is a resource that they have a lot of there. And … it may seem counterintuitive that, a place that’s so cloudy and rainy also has solar potential. But the reality is that every place does … So that’s awesome that they’re taking advantage of that”. Being able to take advantage of most of the sustainable resources around you is very impressive, and beneficial to not only the community around the stadium, but the world.
Climate Pledge Arena offers rides to and from sporting events to help lower the overall financial burden of attending games. Anyone who downloads the Seattle Kraken app, and has their tickets to a game, can scan their phone at public transport two hours before and after a game to get on for free. This helps the current generation save some money and help people better afford tickets to a game, as it’s one less expense to worry about. This video gives a better overview of the whole free-ride system.
On top of the free rides from Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle is pushing to get public transportation as green as possible. They have a goal to have “a zero-emissions fleet of battery-operated, fixed-route buses by 2035” and “in 2023, [Washington State Ferries began] phasing in electric-hybrid ferries”.
No one can be perfect, and Climate Pledge isn’t any different, but they are still doing a really good job. They are the front runners of sustainability in the sports world, and it shows.
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