We set out to build the most diverse, inclusive team in the history of
the sport,” says Alexandra Mandrycky, DIRECTOR OF Hockey Strategy AND Research at the Kraken.
The Kraken made a promise to hire women and minority employees.
But their commitment doesn’t end there; they’re taking it into the
stands and challenging stereotypes about who plays, watches and supports hockey.
“Everyone has the ability to effect change within their space,” says Renée Hess, founder of Black Girl Hockey Club, which she formed to help Black women feel more comfortable attending NHL games. “And the Kraken are doing that. They’ve barely set foot on the ice, but they are working toward equitable space in hockey from the beginning.”
“It’s really great to see sort of this renaissance in the league and people really paying attention to this,” says De’Aira Anderson, corporate communications manager at the Kraken, who also leads the Black Girl Hockey Club merchandise program. “Everybody here as a whole is trying to make a difference.”
The Kraken’s ambition to achieve more is perhaps best exemplified by their home ice, Climate Pledge Arena.
Princess Lawrence, manager of investor relations and special projects at the Kraken, models apparel that shows off the partnership between the Kraken and Black Girl Hockey Club.
Will Trogdon, user experience and interface designer at the Kraken, poses for a selfie with colleagues.
CHRISTOPHER MAST VIA SEATTLE KRAKEN
COMMITTING TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
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CHRISTOPHER MAST VIA SEATTLE KRAKEN
You can’t have a ‘Climate Pledge Arena’ that runs on fossil fuels,” says
Jason McLennan, a sustainability leader who lent his expertise to the arena’s design and construction.
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AIMING FOR A NET-ZERO ARENA
“This arena is not named after a company but named after a mission.
We're really hoping that this project pushes the entire community to think, well, how do we go deeper? How do we transition away from fossil fuels completely? How do we really rise to meet the challenge of
climate change?” And then, of course, there’s the challenge of managing the thousands of line items that would make that mission a reality.
“There's a lot of players in the game. And there's a lot of personalities, and a lot of different levels of effort and a lot of different people that need to be involved. So it really comes down to orchestrating all the different players,” says Gretchen Toshach, who works with Climate Pledge Arena’s building team.
“That's where an organization like Smartsheet has been really valuable
for us,” says Rob Johnson, vice president of sustainability and transportation at Climate Pledge Arena. “It allows us to build a tracking tool that multiple different parties can access and use to share information freely, to make sure that we're accounting for everything that goes inside the building. Because if you're going to say you're the Climate Pledge Arena, and you're going to commit to offsetting 100% of the building's operations, you’d better be able to justify that. And we really need a technology solution like Smartsheet to ensure that we're coordinating across all those different lines of business and external stakeholders to account for all of those different variabilities.”
Workers pour the cement slab for the Climate Pledge Arena ice rink in May.
SEATTLE KRAKEN
A worker installs the first seats at Climate Pledge Arena.
SEATTLE KRAKEN
With projects at this scale, this level of complexity and this deep level of commitment and ambition, having the right tools matterS.
THE TOOLS
FOR CHANGE
From empowering employees to make innovative contributions, to enabling seamless, dynamic collaboration across contributors and teams, to shortening the space between idea and execution, Smartsheet was one of the many factors that turned Climate Pledge Arena from dream to reality.
When you have a great idea, it’s a clean sheet: a chance to do it right the first time. The tools you choose to help you along the way can either divide your teams or bring them together to make them stronger.
WATCH THE DOCUSERIES
Learn more about what happens when you start with a clean sheet in the three-part Smartsheet docuseries on the Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena.