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2023 GSA Seattle Summit Recap
Climate Pledge Arena, the host of last month’s Green Sports Alliance’s 13th Summit, was the event’s shining star. The spectacular Oak View Group property showed that it dots most green-sports venue i’s, crosses its green-sports venue t’s, and invents some new green-sports venue i’s and t’s to dot/cross. The home of the Seattle Kraken and Seattle Storm provided an inspirational backdrop for the two-day Summit. Here are some of the highlights of bit Green-Sports actions and ideas and some of the most memorable quotes.
Climate Pledge Arena – Star of the show
I’ve been on countless stadium and arena tours in the decade since I started writing GreenSportsBlog but the Climate Pledge Arena tour prior to the Summit’s opening session was next level. Brianna Treat, the welcoming, informative and open sustainability director of the Seattle Kraken who led the tour, shared the arena’s green bona fides and goals in a matter of fact manner that made the accomplishments to date all the more impressive:
As of now, we have zero Scope 1 emissions¹ as the entire arena is run on electric. And we’ve offset all of our Scope 2 emissions thanks to our purchases of green energy. Scope 3 emissions from our supply chain are our biggest challenge. To rein those in, we’re grabbing data on all of our merchandise sales and fan travel-related emissions. And for concerts, we track how the talent got here. And we track food and waste travel. For Kraken games, we measure opponent travel-related emissions to and from the arena as well that of our own players and staff.
At the merchandise store, Kraken jerseys from the Adidas’ prime blue line are all made from plastic ocean waste through the company’s Parley for the Oceans partnership.
The Living Wall (shown in the photo at top) on the west concourse and the Signatory Wall on the east tell the Climate Pledge Arena story to fans in ways that get many to stop and take the time to think. The Living Wall is 1,700 square feet of greenery fed by rainwater…Our horticultural team is in twice weekly to manage the wall. The Signatory Wall informs fans about The Climate Pledge — a commitment by signatory companies to go Net Zero on carbon by 2040, 10 years before the target date set by the Paris Climate Agreement.
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