It was announced on Thursday afternoon that Amazon secured the naming rights to the future home of Seattle’s new NHL franchise and plans to make it the first carbon-neutral arena in the world.
As such, the company has decided to call the venue Climate Pledge Arena.
Welcome to #ClimatePledgeArena!
Today @amazon, @oakviewgroup & @NHLSeattle_ announced a partnership that will name the New Arena at #SeattleCenter, #ClimatePledge Arena. It will be the first net zero carbon certified arena in the world.
Learn more → https://t.co/SLPNtdRWuy pic.twitter.com/TorqGWaZ42
— Climate Pledge Arena (@Climatearena) June 25, 2020
“We’ve secured naming rights to the historic arena previously known as KeyArena. Instead of naming it after Amazon, we’re calling it Climate Pledge Arena as a regular reminder of the importance of fighting climate change,” said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. “We look forward to working together with Oak View Group, a new Climate Pledge signatory, and NHL Seattle to inspire global climate action.”
Planned highlights of Climate Pledge Arena include all-electric operations powered with 100-percent renewable electricity, durable and compostable “zero-waste” containers and ice frozen from reclaimed rainwater.
“One of the things I am most excited about is we got rid of all fossil fuels in this venue,” said Jason F. McLennan, NHL Seattle’s lead sustainability consultant. “It will be a zero-carbon arena. That’s never been done before. The next level is calculating all of the carbon emissions related to getting fans and workers to the arena for all events and providing offsets for that as well.”
Seattle’s NHL franchise is set to play its inaugural season in 2021-22 at the arena, which is being redeveloped from a historic landmark that was originally built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. The WNBA’s Seattle Storm will also play at the 18,100-seat arena.
Amazon has already committed to become a net-zero carbon business by 2040, a decade ahead of goals set in the international Paris Agreement. In March, Bezos announced he was committing $10 billion of his net worth to climate change relief efforts, and earlier this week Amazon pledged to create a $2 billion venture-capital fund focused on investing in technology to reduce the impact of climate change.
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