Cirque du Soleil performances pair extravagant acts with efficient operations.

Cirque du Soleil, the famous traveling circus show that blends arts, theater, music and dance, is jumping through a number of hoops to make sure its environmental performance is the best under the big top.

The company, which debuted in 1984with a crew of about 75people, today employs more than 3,800people worldwide, including close to 1,000artists. Step onto its Montreal headquarters and signs of not only its creative culture but also its social culture capture the spotlight. An installation by artist Peter Gibson decorates the parking lot, which is made of a vegetable oil–based material rather than asphalt.

An organic garden, irrigated by a new rainwater collection system, provides vegetables for the employee cafeteria. When chefs are overrun with zucchini and tomatoes, employees get to take surplus produce for free. Busy moms and dads can order reasonably priced prepared meals from the cafeteria to take home for dinner.

Nearly 200 bicycle parking spots accommodate employees who pedal to work, and company- owned bikes encourage people to cycle to workday meetings (unicycling is optional). For those without pedal prowess, Cirque du Soleil subsidizes employees’ public transportation passes. Led by founder and CEOGuy Laliberté, Cirque du Soleil has held a longtime commit- ment to social justice. Yet the company’s executive committee just recently adopted an environmental policy.

“It all starts there,” says Sébastien Cloutier, Cirque’s environmental adviser. The company’s first order of business included commissioning a third-party analysis to develop a set of indicators to track its environmental performance. “It will define the actions we’ll take in the future,” Cloutier says.

When a third-party inventory showed that energy consumption accounted for nearly 70 percent of of Cirque du Soleil’s greenhouse gas emissions, the company implemented new lighting control measures at its headquarters. In the past year, it installed the above-mentioned rainwater collection system, began using biodegradable cleaning products, and started using Forest Stewardship Council–certified, non- chlorine-bleached, 100percent post-consumer recycled paper on its Montreal campus. Yet while implementing such strategies at its headquarters is a good first step, taking them on the road tends to be a bit of a juggling act, Cloutier says.