For Pelle de Laaf, Head of Finance & Reporting at the ArenA, this is not a semantic upgrade but a fundamental reframing of what success looks like for major sporting venues in the 21st century.

“Net Positive forces us to rethink why we exist as a venue,” he reflects. “It’s no longer just about hosting great events as efficiently as possible, but about whether our presence genuinely adds value to people, the environment and the neighbourhood around us.”

In responding to questions from Global Sustainable Sport (GSS), the ArenA leadership team framed the publication of the Impact Report as a step change – moving from narrative sustainability commitments towards measurable, decision-led impact.

“Storytelling has its place,” de Laaf adds, “but ultimately data is what changes decisions. If we can’t measure impact, we can’t manage it.”

Redefining Success: From Net Zero to Net Positive

While much of the sporting world is still grappling with the realities of achieving Net Zero, the ArenA is already setting its sights on a more ambitious horizon. For de Laaf, Net Positive is about mindset as much as metrics.

“Net Zero is about reducing your footprint. Net Positive is about asking what you give back. That’s a much harder question – and a much more uncomfortable one.”

In five years’ time, success will not be defined by a single number. Instead, the ArenA wants every major event to leave a demonstrably positive footprint across the full value chain – from clean energy and waste reduction to stronger social outcomes in Amsterdam-Zuidoost.

“We don’t believe in one magic KPI,” says de Laaf. “The real test is whether our activities, taken together, leave the world in a slightly better place than before.”

Crucially, the ArenA is seeking to anchor this ambition in evidence. The leadership team point to a small number of priority indicators – energy and CO₂ across the value chain, waste per visitor, and meaningful social outcomes – as the metrics that should shape decision-making. At the same time, the Impact Report is candid about data gaps, particularly around Scope 3 emissions and long-term social impact.

Powering the Pitch – and the Neighbourhood

On a typical concert day, the Johan Cruijff ArenA consumes enough electricity to power multiple households for a year. Rather than simply offsetting this demand, the stadium has turned itself into a testing ground for energy innovation, investing in large-scale battery storage and smart grid solutions.

“Energy resilience is no longer a ‘nice to have’ for us,” de Laaf explains. “With grid congestion becoming a real constraint, we need to ensure the stadium can operate reliably – but we also see it as our responsibility to contribute to solutions for the wider area.”

Projects such as EnergieHub Zuidoost illustrate how operational resilience and community value can align.

“If we only optimise for our own building, we miss a huge opportunity,” he says. “The real impact comes when the stadium becomes part of a wider urban energy system.”

The Circularity Puzzle: Seaweed Trays and Stadium Cups

The ArenA’s ambition to become a fully circular stadium by 2030 has required a willingness to experiment – and to accept that not every innovation works first time. Trials with seaweed-based food trays have reduced plastic use, but composting them at scale has proven more complex than anticipated.

“Circularity sounds simple on paper,” de Laaf admits. “In practice, it’s about constantly testing, learning and adjusting. Sometimes you realise that a solution that looks perfect in theory doesn’t work in the system you actually operate in.”

The same is true of cups. With tens of thousands of drinks served at major events, the environmental trade-offs between single-use and reusable systems are far from straightforward.

“People assume reusable is always better,” says de Laaf. “But when you factor in logistics, safety, water use and cleaning, the picture becomes much more nuanced. That’s why we’ve commissioned independent research – we want evidence, not assumptions, to guide these choices.”

More broadly, the stadium is seeking to move beyond pilots towards system-wide change, embedding sustainability expectations into guidelines and commercial relationships with promoters and suppliers.

The Stadium as a ‘Clubhouse’

If the environmental agenda is about systems, the social agenda is about people. Located in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, the ArenA sees itself increasingly as part of the social fabric of the neighbourhood.

“We don’t want to be a fortress that comes alive only on match days,” de Laaf says. “We want the stadium to feel like it belongs to the community around it.”

From talent programmes to accessibility initiatives, the ArenA is trying to move beyond participation numbers towards longer-term outcomes.

“Counting how many people take part is the easy bit,” he reflects. “Understanding whether we are actually changing opportunities, confidence or life paths – that’s where the real work starts.”

Radical Transparency and a Call for Common Standards

In a sector often criticised for greenwashing, the ArenA’s openness about challenges is deliberate.

“We decided early on that we would be honest about where things aren’t working yet,” de Laaf says. “If we only talk about the successes, we don’t learn – and neither does the rest of the sector.”

As Global Sustainable Sport develops its GSS Impact Assessment Programme to benchmark the real-world impact of sports organisations and venues across the sector, early indications suggest that Johan Cruijff ArenA is likely to score highly on the index. The ArenA’s willingness to move beyond activity-based reporting towards measurable outcomes across climate, circularity, inclusion and community impact positions it as one of the more advanced venues currently emerging from the data.

The ArenA also sees a role for venues in pushing sport towards common frameworks for measuring impact.

“Everyone is publishing sustainability reports now,” de Laaf notes. “The next step is making those reports comparable and meaningful. Otherwise, we risk creating a lot of noise without much signal.”

The Road Ahead

Transforming a stadium of this scale is, by the ArenA’s own admission, a long game. The biggest challenge lies in Scope 3 emissions – particularly visitor travel – where responsibility is shared with cities, transport providers, promoters and fans.

“We can’t solve that alone,” de Laaf concludes. “But we can use our platform to bring partners together, test new approaches and show what’s possible. Net Positive isn’t about perfection – it’s about momentum.”

Beyond the Scoreline, the Johan Cruijff ArenA is seeking to redefine leadership in sport – not just by reducing its footprint, but by using its influence to create shared value. The real test will not be how strong the strategy sounds on paper, but how effectively it translates into measurable impact on the ground – for communities, cities and the wider sports ecosystem.