Oper Leipzig combines culture with responsibility and, following a rigorous external audit, has been awarded DIN ISO 20121 certification, the international standard for sustainable event management. This certification confirms our commitment to an environmentally friendly, socially responsible and economically viable future.
Our goals:
- Environmental friendliness: We want to reduce our ecological footprint by promoting recycling, energy-efficient lighting and utilising renewable energy.
- Social responsibility: Fair working conditions, inclusion and accessibility should be core values of our daily work.
- Economic efficiency: We want to save costs and promote the local community through the efficient use of resources.
Oper Leipzig has been certified in accordance with DIN ISO 20121, an international standard for sustainable event management. This strict standard requires sustainability goals and guidelines for sustainable action in environmental, social and economic terms, which are to be pursued and expanded on an ongoing basis. To this end, a Sustainability Working Group (AG Nachhaltigkeit) consisting of employees from various departments was formed on the initiative of the management of Oper Leipzig. Over the past two seasons, concrete measures have been drawn up, discussed and prioritised using both a bottom-up and a top-down approach.
Thomas Sakschewski, Professor of Event Management at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences, supported Oper Leipzig during the introductory phase. Lucas Zimmermann led the implementation of DIN ISO 20121 at Oper Leipzig. The sustainability working group is organised by Dirk Becker, Equipment Manager at Oper Leipzig and Transformation Manager for Sustainable Culture. The certification itself was carried out by the accredited certification body CEA. The requirements of DIN ISO 20121 are reviewed in an annual external audit and are currently not met by any other theatre company in Germany.
The planned sustainability management measures at Oper Leipzig include both small and large scale changes, ranging from optimised hearing protection and the recycling of special plastics to improvements in internal communication regarding training opportunities or information from the newsroom – to name just a few examples.
DIN ISO 20121 was created for the London 2012 Olympic Games and updated for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It requires the definition of fields of action such as emissions reduction, waste management, communication and mobility, with derived targets and the corresponding definition of guidelines, as well as the creation of documentation that clearly defines responsibilities and processes and keeps them transparent.
