Key takeaways:

• Five years since its founding, Climate Pledge Arena continues to set a standard for sustainable buildings while providing world-class sports and entertainment. 
• Other venues like Co-op Live in Manchester, England, and Intuit Dome in Los Angeles are now emulating Climate Pledge Arena’s model for more sustainable approaches to development.
• The arena plans to keep innovating, with future goals of continuing to give back through its philanthropic arm One Roof Foundation, returning more water to communities than it uses, and more.

When Climate Pledge Arena opened in 2021, some people may have wondered how sustainable an 18,000-seat entertainment venue could really be. Five years later, millions of sports and music fans have passed through its doors, and the work speaks for itself.

The venue—a redevelopment of a historic structure for the 1962 World’s Fair—became the first zero-carbon-certified arena in the world. Today, it continues to set the standard for what we can achieve when we build venues with environmental ambition baked into every beam, pipe, and concession stand. 

“Climate Pledge Arena is an example of what you can accomplish when you have a shared belief in something that’s much bigger than any one person,” said Kaan Yalkin, a principal at Climate Pledge Arena and the Seattle Kraken. “I love the example it sets for venues across the globe—why not leverage the influence of a brand and its mission to help make a difference in the world?”

A vision, not a corporation

In 2020, about a year after Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge, the company did something unprecedented in professional sports: It named an arena after a vision, not after itself. Climate Pledge Arena became the first venue to be named after an aspiration to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Pledge now has more than 700 signatories committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, and several of them are connected to Seattle’s iconic arena. Oak View Group led the $1.15 billion redevelopment. The Seattle Kraken and four-time WNBA champions Seattle Storm both call it home. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) helped the arena achieve its initial sustainability goals through data-driven optimization. AWS tools helped the operations team monitor energy consumption, track waste streams in real time, and identify efficiency gains, turning targets into measurable outcomes.

Climate Pledge Arena is an industry-leading example of how a building can help reduce its carbon emissions. It is the only venue in the world to hold both ILFI Zero Carbon Certification and TRUE Platinum Zero Waste Certification. In April, Climate Pledge Arena joined Seattle City Light’s Renewable Plus energy program, allowing it to invest in new solar resources that deliver renewable energy to the regional power grid. And progress is ongoing.

The venue has diverted 3,221 tons of material from landfills since its founding, and its monthly waste diversion rate is consistently around 95%. Over 3.5 million single-use plastic items have been avoided since 2023, including 2.5 million plastic beverage bottles and 1 million plastic snack bags. More than 350,000 reusable cups have been washed and recirculated through the arena's reuse program. 

"We were endeavoring to do something that hadn’t been done before in our industry,” said Rosie Selle, vice president of marketing for Climate Pledge Arena. “Five years in, I'm reflecting on all we’ve been able to operationalize at scale: becoming zero-carbon certified, eliminating single-use plastics beginning in 2023. We’ve accomplished so much and we’re excited to consider, ‘How can we push it further?’”

Then there’s the hockey rink. More than 450,000 gallons of rainwater have been captured from the arena's iconic roofline and frozen into NHL-quality ice. 

“I saw how deep this team was going on doing things like removing natural gas from the building and finding systems to harvest rainwater and use it for the ice—all of these inventive ways to create this new and incredible arena experience," Global Leader of The Climate Pledge Sally Fouts said last year. "If you’re a fan of hockey, basketball, or concerts, for example, it’s truly a better experience.”

Visitors to the arena receive free public transportation to sports games and concerts, and Selle said she’s overheard attendees chatting about the importance of properly sorting waste, compost, and recycling on their way out of an event. “Our fans are deeply invested in what we’re doing,” she said. 

A blueprint that travels

What began beneath Seattle's Space Needle is now shaping how entertainment venues are conceived across the globe; other sports and entertainment venues are emulating the Climate Pledge Arena’s model for more sustainable approaches to development. Oak View Group has invested in Co-op Live in Manchester, England, a 23,500-capacity arena that opened as a signatory of The Climate Pledge. The venue uses electric power, collects rainwater, and has achieved zero waste direct to landfill.

“We’ve had a ripple effect,” Yalkin said. “Whether it’s across the pond or in the U.S., we’ve talked to every professional sports league out there.”

In California, the Intuit Dome that’s home to the Los Angeles Clippers is LEED Platinum-Certified, a rating system recognizing buildings that prioritize energy savings, water efficiency, reduced carbon emissions, and indoor air quality. The Moody Center in Austin, Texas, is also LEED-Certified and has set waste-reduction goals, like reducing single-use plastics by 80%.

Rooted in community

The arena's impact extends past its walls. One Roof Foundation is its philanthropic arm, focused on youth access to sports and play, youth homelessness, and environmental justice.

"We started with the fundamental belief that issues like homelessness, climate change, and inequity of opportunity are our collective responsibility to solve,” said Mari Horita, executive director for One Roof Foundation. “We’re focused on taking care of each other and taking care of the planet—under one roof.”

An early $250,000 Climate Equity Fund grant helped the foundation start supporting frontline communities. Climate Pledge Arena has since donated $1 million to communities in the Pacific Northwest. A few of the foundation's recent notable achievements include: Donating 30 HEPA-grade air filters to Title 1 schools; collecting 7,000 pounds of trash in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood; creating new water stations and donating 700 reusable bottles to Lowell Elementary School, so kids and staff could have access to clean, safe water throughout the school day; developing two living green walls in the arena; and establishing a community garden in a neighborhood that needed one with the help of Lake City Collective.

“Like the Climate Pledge Arena team, we believe that the future and health of humanity is tied to the health of the planet,” Horita said. "I’m inspired by that original vision that continues to drive us, and I’m inspired by what One Roof Foundation has the opportunity to do moving forward.”

What comes next

Climate Pledge Arena has proven that a venue can welcome millions, host world-class sports and music, and still operate as if the planet is watching—because it is. Among the venue’s future goals: Continuing to provide an exceptional experience for the fans, teams, and performers it hosts; adopting all-reusable dinnerware for its food and beverages; and returning more water to communities than the arena uses.

"There was a lot of excitement when we opened this building,” Yalkin said. “We’ve done some amazing things, but we still have a lot of work left to do.” Climate Pledge Arena plans to continue leading in the sustainable buildings space, and Yalkin said he hopes other venues will model themselves after the arena. “The more we work together, the more we’re able to help each other.”

Learn more about Climate Pledge Arena.

Read The Climate Pledge Report.