Opera is a world of grand visions and intricate detail, yet it carries a significant environmental and resource footprint. As audiences, funders, and communities increasingly demand sustainability, this project explores how opera can uphold artistic excellence while advancing environmental, social, and economic responsibility. It will pilot these practices with Detroit Opera during the company’s 2027–28 season.

The project will examine every stage of production—from planning and set design to backstage operations and post-performance processes—to uncover practical opportunities for meaningful change. Through workshops, stakeholder engagement, and operational mapping, U-M faculty, students, and Detroit Opera staff will co-create tailored frameworks, measurable goals, and reporting tools that reduce environmental impact while preserving artistic integrity.

This work will lay the foundation for ongoing collaboration and produce tools immediately useful to Detroit Opera and U-M University Productions, while offering models other performing arts organizations can adapt. Insights from the project will also inform grant applications for follow-on work that would enable the development of customizable sustainability toolkits for theaters nationwide.

By integrating creativity, research, and operations, the project will demonstrate what’s possible when the performing arts embrace sustainability, positioning U-M at the forefront of sustainable arts practice and establishing a replicable framework for environmentally and socially responsible performances.

Project team: Sarah M. Oliver, PI (SMTD), Shelie Miller, co-I (SEAS), Shawn Rieschl Johnson (Detroit Opera)

In the News

• Detroit Opera House looks to U-M for sustainability solutions (Michigan News, March 2026)