Serving as the sustainability lead for partnerships at an NHL team’s home arena is about the last thing Kaan Yalkin ever imagined himself doing.
For one thing, he was one of those rare Canadians that never showed any interest at all in hockey. While others around him in his native Vancouver, B.C. were busy firing pucks in local rinks, he’d be in the pool pursuing his love for swimming.
“My parents watched hockey, sure, but I was just a swimmer, so I just never really got into it, funny enough.” said Yalkin, who now works regularly out of Climate Pledge Arena as an Amazon partnerships point-man.
Sustainability was a different matter and Yalkin was always interested in that, just not as a career path he felt “you needed to be trained in or have some kind of special knowledge or expertise in.
“And I didn’t have that, so I just thought that maybe it wasn’t for me.”
But that changed when Yalkin joined Amazon after moving to Seattle a decade ago to be with his now-husband, Paul. Five years into working there, he took advantage of a company initiative allowing employees to explore areas outside their typical expertise and finally jumped into sustainability work that seemed years in-the-making.
“Amazon provided this great opportunity for me to move into this sustainability space and it’s been awesome,” said Yalkin, now a Partnerships and Engagement Lead for Amazon and The Climate Pledge, a commitment it made towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions across operations by 2040. “I don’t really think this could have happened anywhere else.”
And on Green Night, presented by Boeing, during Saturday’s Kraken home game at Climate Pledge Arena against the St. Louis Blues, Yalkin will celebrate arena sustainability efforts and achievements that began almost exactly after he switched departments.
Climate Pledge Arena is the world’s first arena certified as net zero – meaning zero carbon and zero energy -- by the International Living Futures Institute. The venue offset 100% of carbon emissions associated with its construction, and did the same with annual Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions since opening in October 2021.
It has also achieved a Total Resource Use and Efficiency (TRUE) platinum certification for diverting from a landfill more than 90% of generated waste. And been designated LEED Silver by the U.S. Green Building Council for its sustainability performance during construction.
The building’s Rain to Rink system is the NHL’s first of its kind, diverting more than 400,000 gallons of water to help fashion the Kraken’s playing surface. On-site solar panels generate about 0.5% of arena energy, while the rest comes from Seattle City Light and is offset by renewable energy credits. Climate Pledge Arena is also one of the first signatories to City Light’s Renewable Plus program guaranteeing it will be powered by 100% new renewable energy later this year.
And, of course, there’s the arena name itself. It’s a sports rarity in which millions were paid to christen the venue after a cause as opposed to the corporation shelling out the money.
Amazon now tasks Yalkin, in addition to managing sustainability partners, with overseeing the naming rights deal as well.
It’s all a bit of a balancing act.
Much of Yalkin’s work involves hosting arena events for current and potential corporate signatories of The Climate Pledge. But it’s not just a one-way relationship of catering to their needs.
“It's been an incredibly inspiring and rewarding experience” he said of partners that have signed the Pledge and taken on ambitious sustainability goals. “We’ve transformed the fan experience to be more sustainable and that has subsequently inspired companies to make big changes in how they operate”
Within all that, there’s also the challenge of Yalkin knowing his job will never be fully done. That’s because, he said, the technology that will help achieve his company’s 2040 “Climate Pledge” target has yet to be invented.
It’s somewhat humbling, but there’s comfort knowing unexpected innovation will inevitably arrive at some point to lighten the load.
“I mean, five years ago we didn’t have the knowledge to be doing what we’re doing today because the products and services we need to decarbonize our business had yet to be developed or built,” he said. “And so, we’ve all made this commitment to be net zero by 2040, which is what The Climate Pledge is. But a lot of what’s going to go into that doesn’t yet exist.
“So, there has to be this pioneering, innovative spirit if you’re willing to make that commitment,” he added.
Some more recent technology includes an Amazon deal with Rivian in 2019 to bring 100,000 electric vehicles to the road by 2030.
“That scale of purchase wouldn’t have been possible before,” he said. “Like, the thought of somebody building 100,000 electric vehicles just wasn’t around.”
He’s also encouraged by exploration into non-traditional ways of producing carbon free, such as through hydrogen or nuclear sources to complement wind and solar solutions.
“We’re looking for a mix of solutions to get where we need to be,” he said.
One recent venture with a direct impact on the arena itself has been Amazon’s expansion of its purchase of high-quality carbon offset credits from various sustainability projects pertaining to reforestation efforts in Brazil and other tropical countries. Amazon will then sell such carbon credits to Climate Pledge Arena to help the venue meet its own sustainability targets.
Where things go from here is still anybody’s guess but Yalkin is excited about progress on multiple fronts. And more progress will be needed, he added, to meet his company’s target date 15 years from now.
“It's exciting to know we’ll be working together until 2040 for sure,” he quipped, tongue-in-cheek.
He also has renewed – and somewhat renewable -- energy on a personal front for a sport he never imagined watching while entertaining partners night after night.
“I didn’t see my first hockey game until the 2021 opener at Climate Pledge against the Canucks,” he said. “I never really saw that coming, to be honest. But as I’ve learned doing this, there’s a lot you never see coming. And often, it works out for the best.”
