Sustainability
From Solar Energy to Reusable Crew Shirts: How Noorderzon Is Making Sustainability Progress Step by Step
Sustainability is not a buzzword or marketing gimmick for Noorderzon—it’s a way of working. Since 2009, we have been actively taking steps to make the festival greener, cleaner, and fairer. Each year a little better—together with our visitors, volunteers, partners, and city.
What started with waste separation and reducing plastic has grown into a comprehensive and thoughtful sustainability policy. From green energy and circular catering to digital workflows and social inclusion—sustainability is at the heart of everything we do.
A Festival as a Sustainable Testing Ground
We believe festivals can contribute to the sustainable transition—not only by setting a good example themselves but also by inspiring visitors and involving other festivals in our journey. That’s why we collaborate with fellow events through the platform GROENN—a Groningen-based network for sustainable festivals that we co-founded in 2022.
Green Energy, Smart Lighting Plans, and Less Diesel
By 2025, at least 80% of Noorderzon will run on fixed, green grid electricity. For times when that’s not enough, we use a new generation of generators powered by HVO 100 (biodiesel)—quieter, cleaner, and far less polluting than traditional diesel.
We are also electrifying more of our transportation: artist transport is already fully electric, and by 2025 more internal vehicles, such as vans and Gators, will follow. Our lighting plan is becoming smarter and more efficient as well, with over three kilometers of energy-efficient LED lighting in the Noorderplantsoen.
Less Waste, More Reuse
Reducing waste and improving separation remains a key goal. Recently, we partnered with ReFood, which collects kitchen scraps and organic waste and processes it into biogas and fertilizer. This year, we’re expanding this collection to include all caterers on site.
We continue to focus on clear communication about waste separation—despite the festival taking place in the middle of a public park. With clear signage, hosts, and a ban on bringing your own drinks to the terraces, we guide visitor behavior in a positive direction.
Crew Clothing with a Story
Our crew clothing is more than practical—it’s a sustainable and personal item. All shirts are made from organic cotton, produced using solar and wind energy, and are fully climate-neutral. Volunteers get to keep their shirt after the festival—and when they return, they wear the same shirt again. Every year, we add a new graphic element, turning it into a unique, personal collection.
Circular and Unique Merchandise
This year, there’s no new Noorderzon clothing for sale: visitors bring their own clothes or buy secondhand items offered by Tien Vintage, which are printed on-site with a Noorderzon design. This way, every visitor gets a truly unique item. Old festival materials get a second life: banners are turned into bags, and a circular collection of recycled textiles is offered in collaboration with Nais/WerkPro.
Paperless Production
In 2025, we will switch to an almost fully paperless production. Technicians, coordinators, and other crew members will work with tablets instead of paper schedules and checklists. This not only saves paper but also makes work more efficient and organized.
Sustainability on All Fronts
Our sustainability approach goes beyond energy and waste. On site, we encourage reusable bottles and provide free water refill points, offer food that is as plant-based as possible, and reuse leftovers daily in our crew catering. We try to limit the number of international flights by sharing artist tours with festivals in cities like Geneva or Hamburg. We also participate in the European Festivals Forest—an initiative where European festivals jointly plant a forest in Iceland to offset CO₂ emissions.
Social Sustainability Is Part of It
For us, sustainability is also about people. That’s why we do everything we can to make Noorderzon accessible to everyone. Through initiatives like Geef een Toegift and partnerships with the Food Bank, hundreds of people with limited means or a refugee background can attend the festival for free. We also keep ticket prices low, offer a large free program, and work closely with schools, institutions, and volunteers from the city.
Looking Ahead
Our ultimate goal? A fully fossil-free, circular, and socially responsible festival. No more generators, no fuel-powered vehicles, and as little waste as possible. It’s an ambitious goal—not achievable in one year—but with each edition, we take concrete steps forward. By working smartly together, continuing to experiment, and improving our approach annually, we are building a festival ready for the future. A festival that not only surprises and delights but also shows how culture and sustainability can go hand in hand.
Want to learn more about sustainability at Noorderzon or share ideas on how we can grow greener together? Stop by during the festival or follow us on @noorderzonnl. We’d love to tell you more.
The approach - a brief overview
A festival like Noorderzon is actually a kind of village. For eleven days we use all the facilities available in a village; water, electricity, waste, food, drink and, of course, entertainment. That means a complex organisation, but also a village full of possibilities in which we can, and are, allowed to experiment. For example, in recent years we have always tried things out in the field of sustainability. We have stopped using single-use plastic, we use the leftovers from the previous day in dinner every day in backstage catering, we work with as few transport trips as possible, we have reusable crew shirts, etc. All things that contribute to the mission, but there is always room for improvement.
That is why we always ask ourselves: can this be done more sustainably? Is this the best solution or are there already better innovations? We teach ourselves to be critical and to use smart solutions. All with the mission: to produce a festival in a few years that is completely energy neutral.
Sustainability has grown into Noorderzon's broader 'view of life': care and attention for people, the environment and material. Environmental friendliness and a social volunteer policy, investing in the relationship with local residents. We are a learning organisation, not a scoring organisation. Just like our artistic policy, this policy moves along with developments in society.
How?
Of course, we don't do this alone, we do this together with our crew, our volunteers, our artists, our audience and our partners & suppliers.
Basically, we have a simple starting point: if it can be done locally, we do it. This means, for example, that more than 90% of our food & drink is provided by local companies. There is a lot of good stuff under the local sun! It also means that these companies are all committed to a sustainability statement. This statement concerns the use of (sustainable) disposable tableware and power consumption.
We improve every year, partly thanks to developments in society and science. For example, a few years ago it was unthinkable that the kilometres of ribbon lighting could be used sustainably. But it has now succeeded. This year we are working on making our transport and electricity more sustainable.
In addition, we use hard-cups at Noorderzon, coffee grounds are collected, we print less and the merchandise is made sustainably to deal with the planet in a responsible way. Noorderzon also encourages visitors to bring bottles that can be filled at various water taps throughout the park, installed by Waterbedrijf Groningen.
We also started a collaboration with European Festival Forest. An initiative that, together with festivals, wants to plant as many trees as possible to combat climate change. The trees are planted in Iceland by the Icelandic Forest Service. A tree can already be planted for €2. You can make a donation in the Noorderzon ticket shop during ticket sales. 30% of this donation goes to the European Festival Forest.
On the more 'soft' side, the so-called CSR (corporate social responsibility), we also have a number of great partners and a number of partners that change each year for (temporary) initiatives. Such as the Clubhouse for the Deaf Groningen, with which we also select performances for the festival that are suitable for the hearing impaired and/or the deaf to visit. Our inclusive volunteer policy is also important in this regard. And every year we offer a platform for initiatives that do not necessarily have art as a starting point, but social themes: such as debates about basic income or urban planning, collection for charities, social themes such as health, cohesion in the city, etc.
Regulations and rules
We naturally – and rightly so – have to comply with various regulations, laws and rules. This is, for example, the Handbook for events, but also the location profile Noorderplantsoen and General Local Bye-Laws, the municipal rules in the field of public order and safety. All this is summarised in our extensive permit application, which ultimately comes together in the permit for our event.
Additionally, the Quality Mark Foundation for the Environment, Safety and Quality (KMVK) has a handbook for public events. This can be viewed on their site. We commit to that, this means that we carry out what is prescribed, that we provide 'dry' evidence such as documentation of everything we publish to purchase invoices and that we are inspected annually on location during the festival by an inspector.
Greenkey
Noorderzon is the first public event in the Netherlands to receive the Green Key for annual public events in 2010. The first years were Silver level and we now have the 9th Green Key (2024) Gold level in our pocket.
Green Key is the international quality mark for organisations in the tourism and recreation industry and in the market for meeting and conference locations, which are seriously and verifiably engaged in sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), with care for the environment in their own organisation[- activities] and the nature in their surroundings. To qualify for Green Key, an organisation must take many measures with regard to environmental care and CSR. These measures are partly mandatory, partly optional. Green Key Netherlands has three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. The more optional measures, the higher the final result. We are inspected twice a year by an external inspector: once for Noorderzon and once during the festival. Noorderzon can proudly say that level gold has been achieved for quite a few years in a row.
Green Key is a means - not an end in itself - to focus on sustainability and to be able to visibly communicate and monitor this.
GROENN
GROENN stands for Groene Evenementen Noord-Nederland and is the brand-new platform for making events more sustainable, founded by Noorderzon and three other major organisations in Groningen: Paradigm, Bevrijdingsfestival Groningen and ESNS, and is supported by the Municipality of Groningen.
Our ideal is a future-proof world, starting in the Northern Netherlands, in which people, society, the environment and art go hand in hand. To realise this ambition, it is important that we join forces. We want to share our knowledge and experience with politicians, fellow organisers and with you.