The Climate Pledge Arena is Set to be the First Net-Zero Certified Arena in the World
This fall, vaccinated sports and music fans attending events at a certain Seattle venue will have further reason to cheer from the stands: a small carbon footprint—at least for the duration of their visit to Climate Pledge Arena, set to be the first net zero-certified arena in the world. Part re-build, part new-build, the glass-and-aluminum structure by Populous occupies the site that had been the Seattle Center Coliseum, designed by architect Paul Thiry in 1962 for the World’s Fair, alongside the Space Needle, and is capped by the coliseum’s original hyperbolic-paraboloid roof. Inside, the bowl seats up to 17,000 for concerts, 18,000 for basketball games (it’s home to the WNBA’s Storm and the NHL’s Kraken), and features 150,000 square feet of suite and dining spaces by Rockwell Group, which is instilling a warm Pacific Northwest aesthetic via reclaimed and locally sourced Chinkapin oak and Bigleaf maple millwork. As part of the Climate Pledge, the commitment founded in 2019 by Amazon and Global Optimism for companies to be net-zero carbon by 2040, CPA will use no fossil fuels in its daily operations, be powered entirely by renewable energy, have an expansive water-conservation program including a rainwater-to-ice system, offer no single-use plastics by 2024, and generate functionally zero waste at its opening. Jason. F McLennan of McLennan Design provided strategic sustainability and regenerative design consulting for the project. The firm continues to coordinate, advise, and improve the performance of the facility through the formation of a Climate Pledge Council, co-led by McLennan.
