Tessa Vaendel
Who Nienke Bloksma lives on Texel since 1987, she was not born on Texel. From 2000 till 2010 she was in charge of Stichting Duurzaam Texel (SDT). In 2000 she was the first only employee at SDT, later she became director and was responsible for a broad range of tasks. Currently she is following a program on the energy-neutral renovation of houses. Her motivation for sustainability already emerged when she was a child.
Why Nienke Bloksma is regarded as a Planet-Local in our framework. From this perspective she is asked questions about vision on a 100% self-sufficient Texel in 2065 and the framework for the sub-system Sustain Lifestyles (Figure 1). Besides this questions are asked in order to verify our assumptions for the YUTPA framework.
About Stichting Duurzaam Texel (SDT) During the introduction the interviewee mentioned her involvement in SDT, since this is an interesting topic, it was elaborated on this. In 2000 SDT originated from work group (werkgroep) ‘Werkgroep Duurzaam Toerisme Texel’ (originated in 1997) in order to have a broader perspective on sustainability in Texel. They realized that Texel could not become sustainable by only focusing on the tourists. The province made funds available for establishment of SDT. Initially the interviewee became the first and only employee at SDT, later she became director (SDT had 4 to 5 employees by that time). The tasks at SDT are very diverse, e.g. finances, communication, making policy plan and annual reports, running projects. By running projects subsidies could be applied for, in this way SDT could keep running financially. When the interviewee was asked about her current involvement in SDT, she mentions the striking fact that SDT will be abolished in the next week. At this moment there are unfortunately not many sustainable initiatives in Texel. If there is nobody to initiate sustainable projects, it rapidly disappears within society (het zakt snel naar de achtergrond), in Texel this is especially the case within the building sector. This current decrease in sustainable initiatives is probably caused by time and money issues.
Towards a 100% self-sufficient Texel The interviewee thinks energy would fit within a 100% self-sufficient Texel, however she thinks this will be hard for e.g. or food, because you will always need things from the mainland.
Framework Sustain Lifestyles The interviewee thinks there is a lot of overlap between the Planet-Local and Profit-Local, and they are strongly intertwined with each other. It is not possible to only focus on the planet or the profit; there will always be a mix. With regard to the Tourist, the interviewee mentions that there are various types or tourists; here there could be the division in planet/profit. In order to let the Planet-Local influence with Profit-Local (and subsequently the Tourist), the interviewee highlights that the Planet-Local should show the Profit-Local that “planet can also be profitable”. Besides this there could be a division in the mindset of the Planet-Local in a nature-minded group and an environmentally aware group.
Verifying assumptions from YUTPA framework
Relation The Planet-Local group is a demographically diverse group, it is mostly the same group of people, but there is movement. The reputation of the sustainable initiatives (SDT is used as example) varies from being regarded as fantastic to “is this really needed” (“moet dat nou weer”). Most Planet-Locals that are engaged with sustainability do have a job in which this is important, in the spare time they are not always fully sustainable engaged. Looking at the communion, it again is highlighted that there is a lot of overlap within the groups, so within Texel there is a high level of knowing each other (ons-kent-ons gehalte). The interviewee mentions “one can be a friend with one another without convincing each other”.
Time Cultural events are important for all represented lifestyles in Texel (also the tourists), e.g. Struun, Sunderklaas, Meienblissen. There are sustainability events organized, but this is mostly visited by the Planet-Local, these are spread over the year and mostly nature-focused. The events from SDT were mainly meetings or readings. In order to let the Planet-Local influence the Profit-Local (and synchronize performance) other rather profit-focused events should be visited (this was successful in the past), like meetings of business associations (ondernemersverenigingen). Also there could be more interaction with the different interest groups (belangenorganisaties) in Texel. With regard to the duration of engagement the interviewee mentions that most people in work groups stay involved for many years. So once they are involved in a sustainable initiative/project, they will stay involved for a longer period of time.
Place The interviewee thinks that the Planet-Local does not necessary does have an emotional relation with Texel, but she is not sure about this. For the Planet-Local the environmental impact is relevant, however, the interviewee mentions that probably for a lot of Texelaars the feeling of independence of Texel from the mainland is even more important, this is the case for all locals. For body sense, there are possibilities to buy bio/eco-food and live a healthy/sustainable lifestyle, however most choice of freedom is in the ‘big city’. With regard to situated agency the windmills are an example in Texel, the is a division within the Planet-Local, since the environmental aware group thinks it is important to generate renewable energy, but the nature-minded group finds it a disruption for the landscape.
Action Negotiation is very important since most people will only work on sustainable initiatives if there is time and money available for this, for example from the government or from subsidies. Reciprocity is not the case, since people are not willing to invest their own time and money. The quality of deeds varies much between the projects; this depends on the right time on the right place. The existence of a promotor (aanjager) of the projects is very important, this was the interviewee in most cases, so she cannot give a good indication of the quality of the projects. However she can tell that successful projects of SDT were sustainable building, Texel energy and tourism and that difficult projects of SDT were agricultural, food and public transport. At this moment there is a pilot for public transport on Texel (Texelhopper) that looks promising, however there is still an anti-group and there is room for improvement, but a lot of the improvements are underexposed at the moment.
Miscellaneous
The interviewee gives the following suggestion: “People live on Texel, and not in Texel, because you live on an island, not in an island. Use this to avoid annoy the people of Texel.