NO&B is an organization with approximately six hundred employees and a large number of freelancers, divided into 22 departments. “We create everything ourselves,” Julie explains. “From costumes and sets to wigs and makeup. In Amsterdam, we have our own theater building in the city center and a 14,000-square-meter workshop in Southeast Amsterdam, where our sets are made. A wide range of craftsmanship comes together at NO&B. Of course, there are artistic matters related to ballet and opera. Additionally, there are areas such as IT and marketing communication.”
The theater building in Amsterdam and the set workshop in Amsterdam Southeast are both BREEAM-certified for sustainability. “Before my role as sustainability coordinator existed, there was already a lot of intrinsic motivation to work on sustainability,” Julie continues. “Especially within the technical and production teams. Searching for technical solutions, choosing sustainable materials, storage, and logistics have all been embedded in the organization for years.
“I expected the environmental impact of streaming to be lower than that of a physical performance, but not that it would be so much less."
NO&B has a good understanding of its own CO₂ emissions and has developed measures and policies documented in a sustainability plan through 2030. “The specific CO₂ emissions of our digital services are not yet included in this plan,” Julie adds.
Mobility as the largest source of emissions
For physical performances, mobility proves to be a significant source of CO₂ emissions. NO&B has researched the travel patterns of its audience. “When a ticket is sold, we can see where the visitors come from,” Julie explains. “We know how they travel to the theater by having them voluntarily fill out a survey.”
Based on this data, NO&B calculated that approximately 1.3 million kilometers were traveled to and from the theater. This amounts to 180 tons of CO₂ emissions. From what we can measure now, 20 percent of the audience comes by car. To pinpoint this more precisely, we actually need more data about our audience.”
A sustainably produced opera
‘The Shell Trial’ is an opera produced as sustainably as possible, addressing Shell's responsibility for climate change. The production involved 82 costumes, many unique props, and several special effects, whose emissions were measured. The performance emitted at least ten times less than previously measured NO&B productions.
“We reused as many existing products and materials as possible, and the unavoidable CO₂ emissions from creating ‘The Shell Trial’ were offset,” Julie reflects.
The production was a co-production that sparked significant discussions internally. “The production has led to many conversations about sustainability in a broad sense. I personally worked with the artistic, business, and technical departments to formulate ecological sustainability goals for areas such as communication, marketing, and materials. We also discussed ticket pricing, accessibility, reach, diversity, and inclusion.”
‘The Shell Trial’ was available for free as VOD on OperaVision from December 2024 to April 2025. The four live performances attracted 5,185 visitors, while 5,600 online views were counted from viewers in fifteen countries. “But you have to handle that data carefully,” Julie notes. “Considering that it amounts to 770 hours of viewing time, this means an average of eight minutes watched per person. Ten percent watched for more than half an hour. However, we also don’t know how many people were watching on one screen simultaneously, so the total number of viewers could be much higher.”
The additional CO₂ emissions caused by offering ‘The Shell Trial’ as VOD via OperaVision amount to less than 1% of the total emissions of the performance. For the digital part, the equipment for recording and editing, crew mobility, cloud services for encoding, storage, and streaming, and the online audience’s usage during playback were all taken into account.
Streaming reaches more audiences with minimal additional environmental impact
To reach a larger and more diverse audience, NO&B decided to record ‘The Shell Trial’ and offer it via the streaming platform OperaVision. “Since I wanted to know the environmental impact of Video on Demand (VOD) compared to the physical performance, I was happy to collaborate on the research conducted by DEN and PHI Factory,” Julie explains.
The results surprised her. “I expected the environmental impact of streaming to be lower than that of a physical performance, but not that it would be so much less. The most polluting element is still the mobility of the camera crew. So, you need to pay close attention to that in your operations.
Props were specially created for the recording - which were also included in the emissions of streaming - and there was no live audience in the hall at that time. “Whether we will stream more in the future, I cannot yet say. But for management and leadership, this is valuable information: you reach a broader audience, including internationally, without adding much extra environmental impact.”
Sustainability dilemmas around AI
NO&B closely follows digital innovations and sees great potential in artificial intelligence. “A production is currently being made with AI content for the set. We are also measuring the emissions of that.”
According to Julie, the challenge lies mainly in visualizing the impact of digital designs. “My personal dream is for AI to help me implement sustainability faster and more efficiently.” Within NO&B, active discussions are held about both the ethical and sustainability dilemmas, as well as the opportunities of digital developments such as AI. “I find it important that everyone gains the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions.”
Innovation as a condition for future-proof opera
In addition to the necessity of sustainability, Julie emphasizes the importance of opera as a future-proof art form. “You need to stay relevant and be able to offer new opera formats. To attract new audiences, but also to remain interesting for the creators.”
Since NO&B operates internationally, it is, according to her, necessary to stay ahead in technology and be willing to take risks. “Even if we don’t know whether this will have an adverse environmental impact.”
Julie Fuchs graduated as an architect in her native France. She moved to the Netherlands because of the mentality, which is more focused on innovation and experimentation. “The way buildings are designed and cities are built here, where people are not afraid to leave the past behind, appealed to me. I ended up at an architecture firm where sustainability was deeply embedded. That felt very good.”
With the desire to focus more on sustainability, Julie was hired in 2021 as a sustainability coordinator at Dutch National Opera & Ballet. “At the time, there were about five sustainability coordinators in the opera world. Now, I exchange knowledge with an increasing number of sustainability colleagues at home and abroad. A positive development.”
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Want to dive into the data of 'The Shell Trial'? Read the article by NO&B on how they made this opera as sustainable as possible.
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