The usual objection to a green building is that it costs more. For a building designed to run for fifty years, that gets the arithmetic backwards. Sustainability is where the margin is.
This post explains the logic, without the figures we keep for investor meetings.
Build right once
Most of a building's cost over its life is not the construction but the running: energy, water, maintenance, replacements. A traditional arena is heated, lit and ventilated whether it is full or empty, with energy bought at whatever price the market sets.
The Dome Sweden is designed the other way round. Solar on the roof, geothermal heat, battery storage and heat recovery mean the building produces much of what it uses. Smart control, with a digital twin of the building, adjusts ventilation, lighting and heat to who is actually inside and what is on the calendar. Low-carbon and circular materials cut the climate footprint of the build itself.
Our ambition is an arena where every watt, every cubic metre of water and every kilogram of material is measurable, verifiable and reusable.
Why the margin follows
Energy and maintenance are the largest operating costs an arena has, and they recur every year for fifty years. Cut them at the source and the saving compounds for the life of the building. A building that produces its own energy is also protected against future price shocks, which makes sport cheaper to offer and more accessible for everyone.
There is a financing effect too. A verifiably sustainable asset, with published data and recognised certifications as targets, qualifies for green and sustainability-linked financing. That lowers the cost of capital for the owners and widens the circle of investors who can take part.
Transparency is a principle, not an option
The Dome Sweden will publish its environmental data openly: energy use, renewable share, water, material recycling. Partners, certifiers and the public can see what the building does, not only what it promised. That is also what makes the annual impact report credible on the social side.
Not green profiling
None of this is decoration. Building today without these requirements would simply be building wrong: more expensive to run, harder to finance, and out of step with Sweden's net-zero commitment. Sustainability as standard is what a fifty-year asset looks like.
