Where Longevity Meets Community: Designing Sustainable Venues with Lasting Impact

Through bold, future-focused design, we create venues and destinations that strengthen communities, support healthier urban infrastructure and generate lasting economic, social and cultural value.

This Earth Day, through a selection of our projects, we celebrate the architectural and design innovations driving meaningful progress in sustainable stadium and arena design.

As the world’s first arena to achieve Zero Carbon certification by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), Climate Pledge Arena more than lives up to its name, sending a powerful message that it’s possible to create complicated, beautiful structures that are environmentally sustainable and contain every contemporary amenity.

Climate Pledge Arena is Seattle’s largest arena — an entirely new venue built under an existing roof. It has revitalized a historic landmark, which was originally built for the 1962 World’s Fair, and cultivates the ultimate experience for fans coming to watch the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, WNBA’s Seattle Storm, concerts and other events.

The new construction required the 44-million-pound roof to be lifted and suspended above the site while another 680,000 cubic yards of soil was removed underneath to nearly double the size of the former venue and create 360-degree pedestrian access. The original glass curtain walls were also restored, making Climate Pledge Arena the first in North America where someone can walk entirely around the facility while never losing sight of what’s inside.

Hong Kong’s former Kai Tak Airport has been transformed into a 28-hectare community-focused sports park, featuring a landmark 50,000-seat stadium overlooking the city’s iconic harbour. Completed in 2025, it has been designed with sustainability at its core and received the Grand Award in the New Buildings Category (Completed Projects – Institutional) at the Hong Kong Green Building Awards.

Our vision for sustainability stewardship is reflected in every phase of the project. Spanning over 28 hectares, KTSP has set new benchmarks for sustainable event hosting in Hong Kong. With initiatives focused on green building standards and energy efficiency, KTSP fosters environmental responsibility while engaging the community and supporting athletes, ensuring long-term stakeholder value.

KTSP boasts a green space ratio of over 30%, with over 1,000 trees planted to reduce urban heat island effect. The design includes 14 hectares of open space, green roofs, and vertical greening, utilising native plant species to enhance sustainability. The park is designed for universal accessibility, featuring amenities that accommodate diverse needs, ensuring all community members can participate.

Designed to be the most sustainable entertainment venue in Europe, the function, materiality and public realm landscaping of Co-op Live all work cohesively to minimise CO2 emissions, waste, water consumption and energy use.

The drive for environmental responsibility began during construction, with materials from the local Manchester region prioritised wherever possible. The venue’s cutting-edge sustainable features include 10,500 square metres of rooftop solar panels, 100% LED lighting, air source heat pumps, rainwater harvesting systems, high spec insulation and a facade designed to reduce heating and cooling requirements.

Co-op Live is not just an arena; it’s a commitment to a sustainable future, embodying the ethos of its community and setting a global benchmark for environmentally responsible design. With an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM accreditation, Co-op Live is poised to become one of the most significant cultural and environmental landmarks in Europe, showcasing Manchester’s leadership in innovation and sustainability.

In an environmental world first, the façade of the stadium’s new south stand uses panels made from upcycled sections of decommissioned A340 aircraft fuselages that act as a sun-shade or ‘brise soleil’. Not only aesthetically striking but also functional, the sustainable design utilises materials that would otherwise have been destined to simply go to waste.

The panels will cover a total surface of 4050 m² across the whole rear of the stand. With the white sections of upcycled fuselages creating an elegant and shimmering façade, emerging from the adjacent park to become the embodiment of the green environment which surrounds the Stadium. The project elevates the concept of sustainable stadium design and informs wider conversation on ways that upcycling and material reuse can enhance the sustainability of large-scale projects.

The concept for the façade sunshade was originally conceived during the Covid-19 pandemic, when planes were almost entirely grounded and airlines resized their fleet and flight operations. The design sought to make use of decommissioned aircraft, using upcycled architecture to deliver the innovative concept at the heart of an environmentally sustainable design for the revamped stadium.

CommBank Stadium in Paramatta, Australia, is the first stadium in the world to receive LEED v4 Gold certification for sustainability by the U.S. Green  Building Council (USGBC). The stadium is Australia’s first LEED v4 Gold building and it was featured as a case study in the Building 4.0 CRC research on Circular Economy in the Built Environment.

The stadium caters to 30,000 spectators, provides an improved game-day experience and brings major economic benefits to the Western Sydney community.  But at the core of the action is a story of circular stadium design.

Completed in 2019, materials from the previous stadium that was demolished were reused in the new stadium’s construction, other materials were locally sourced where available, and the stadium’s design followed a modular approach being designed for deconstruction so that at the end of its lifecycle the steel can be reused for future projects if disassembled.