SEATTLE _ Amazon has purchased the KeyArena naming rights, but the venue will be known as Climate Pledge Arena, rather than using the company's name.
The arena, home to the city's incoming NHL franchise and WNBA's Storm, will be powered 100% by renewable electricity and seek to achieve a zero carbon footprint. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos broke the news Thursday on Instagram.
NHL Seattle CEO Tod Leiweke said in an interview Thursday that the arena aims to produce zero waste, will source food locally and reduce all plastics by 2024.
He said the team had long been looking into increasing "sustainability" within the arena, but added that the Amazon deal takes things to a different level.
'We were talking about Amazon and talked about community," Leiweke said. "And they came back and said 'Look, the number one community cause for us and what we believe in most is climate, and Jeff's commitment to the climate pledge.' And we came away inspired."
What resulted, he said, was something NHL Seattle, the Oak View Group arena developer and Amazon all felt could give the city something bigger to believe in during these trying times.
"I never dreamed that we would have this type of platform," he said.
In a release, Bezos said: "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. We look forward to working together with Oak View Group, a new Climate Pledge signatory, and NHL Seattle to inspire global climate action."
Shortly after Bezos made the announcement, Leiweke broke the news to workers at the KeyArena site _ accompanied by Jason McLennan, founder of the International Living Future Institute and CEO of McLennan design.
McLennan was recently hired late last year as a sustainability consultant for the $930 million all-private arena rebuild. The native of Sudbury, Ontario, who grew up a lifelong hockey fan, first met Leiweke earlier in 2014 to do some work with him when the latter was CEO of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
But he said in an interview Thursday he never imagined things getting to this stage. The arena is believed to be the first in the NHL to shun all natural gas, which is a primary component of systems used in the dehumidification of ice rinks.
"I think what's unique is we're doing so many things at the highest level possible," he said. "And I hope that it inspires a sea change in the entire sports and entertainment industry. To be honest, the real magic of this is what it will change and inspire _ and not just in the sports and entertainment industry.
"This is about as hard a building site to do this stuff in," he added. "It's a lot easier to do what we're talking about in office buildings, or schools or people's homes. So, if you can do this all in an arena, then the message here is there's no excuse for not thinking about this with everything.
"And that's really a powerful lesson."
