Graciela Nava Guerrero
Currently, many innovations are taking place in Texel. Local authorities are implementing new technologies such as smart lighting, inhabitants are taking initiative to develop new ideas, and overall, the island has the goal to become self-sufficient by 2065. Below we present some of the actors involved in innovation in the island as well as current innovative trends.
Authorities and institutions in Texel
The formal structure operating in Texel is partly determined by rules and regulations about sustainability from EU and the Dutch government. These rules are presented first, followed by the additional ambitions of the municipality of Texel.
EU
- The EU has the Zevende Milieuactieprogramma (Seventh Environmental Action Programme) addressing the topics which are relevant for Texel
- Energy
- By 2020, the EU asks their countries to follow the 20-20-20 rule:
- reduce CO2 production by 20% compared to 1990
- acquire 20% of their energy from sustainable sources (which looks promising)
- reduce energy use by 20%
- By 2030, the EU aims to
- reduce CO2 production by 40% compared to 1990
- acquire 27% of their energy from sustainable sources
- reduce energy use by 27% - 30%
- make sure that 15% of the european energy can be transported to other european countries
- By 2050, the EU wants the Energieplan 2050 to be executed
- reduce CO2 production by 80% - 95% compared to 1990, including CO2-free energy production
- Sustainable development in the sense of economical and social policy
- Managing waste streams
- Improving air quality
- Water management and protection
- Protection of nature and biodiversity
- Protection of the soil
Dutch government
- Energy
- Strives for 14% of the energy production to be renewable. However, it looks like this has become impossible. Action organisation Urgenda wants the government to try harder to realize 25% of renewable energy by 2020, and therefore sues the government successfully. The waiting is for the government to come into action.
- To reach this, they provide a subsidy for companies to invest in wind energy and photovoltaics are stimulated financially.
- The government invests in isolating buildings and house owners can receive financial support from a fund for energy saving measures.
- However, the Netherlands stay behind when comparing to other European countries, according to Energie Business
- The Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment has the following ambitions for 2030 regarding Environment
- Best protected delta with sufficient drinking water, climate-resistant cities and excellent air and water quality
- Frontrunner on the topic of reusing waste, by being efficient with materials and energy, and by having the least rest-waste
Municipality of Texel
- The main values of Texel are defined as
- Rich landscape of nature and culture
- The typical island character
- Diverse landscapes and land uses
- connection between inhabitants and their island
- The island community and island economy, characterised by variaty of small scale companies with high intensity of providing services
- All Wadden islands strive for becoming energy self-suffficient by 2020; a much more ambitious goal than what the EU requires.
- Texel strives for 70% waste separation by 2020, of which most waste should be processed on the island (partly contributing to producing sustainable energy)
- Subsidies are available for isolating houses
- To develop sustainable ambitions and strategies, the municipality of Texel consults multiple advisors, such as Urgenda and CE Delft
Life in Texel
Texel has a population of about 13,641 and a population density of 85 people/km2. About 75% of its inhabitants financially rely on activities related to tourism, which makes local economy highly dependant on summertime visitors. Fishing and agriculture, however, are also part of the island activities.
The 2014 Engineering for Sustainable Development students from the Public Space sub-system performed a literature research on how the population of the island is composed. To avoid redundancy, we limit our chapter to highlighting the most relevant findings in the light of innovation in Texel:
- Age composition
- High percentage of inhabitants older than 50 years
- Few people in the island older than 20 and younger than 40 years
- Few children younger than 10 years
- Visitors are mostly from the age group 45-65 years, followed by a teenager age agroup
- Yearly population flow
- High immigration from march to april due to summer cottages
- Similar shares of single, cohabit and cohabit with children households
- Unemployment
- Higher during winter season
- Depends on tourism and agriculture
- Tourism
- About 800.000 tourists visit the island each year
- 80% of the visitors have been to the island before
- Most tourists demand accommodation: <30% camping sites, about 30% summer cottages and the remaining are hotels, apartments and other
- Camping sites are increasing
- Roughly, visitors come 2/3 from the Netherlands and 1/3 from Germany
- Main activities are walking, shopping, visiting villages, dining, nature, resting, cycling and visiting the beaches
Innovators in the island: Texelaars and Texel’s friends
Similarly, the 2014 Engineering for Sustainable Development students from the Health and Happiness sub-system researched on sustainability initiatives in Texel. To avoid repetition, we present, from their report, the most important findings for the Permanently Innovate sub-system.
- Municipality
- Energy: focus on the generation of Texel’s electricity demand within the island, in a sustainable manner.
- Subsidies to stimulate energy-saving technology
- Subsidies to stimulate generation of sustainable energy
- Information to community about the benefits of alternative energy
- Agreement on energy performance with housing corporation Woontij
- Selling of plots where only energy efficient buildings can be built
- Water: focus on closing the water chain, particularly of wastewater, and to generate Texel’s (fresh) water demand within the island in a sustainable manner.
- Boer en water: tries to involve farmers in maintaining and improving water infrastructure related to farming.
- Optimization of wastewater treatment
- Information to Texelaars regarding water systems
- Housing Corporation Wootij
- Company in the business of energy saving and energy neutral buildings. It has made agreements of energy performance with the municipality of Texel and wants to play a role in buildings development in the island.
- Texel Energy
- A cooperative not aiming for profit that provides green energy to Texelaars and other Dutch people, since 2007. It aims at covering Texel’s green energy market.
- TESO
- Founded and controlled by Texelaars, it is the company in control of the ferry to and from Texel. Most shared of the company are owned by Texelaars.
- The municipality funds the large infrastructure that is required (source https://secure.texel.nl/actueel/nieuws-en-persberichten_41833/item/ondertekening-contract-noodaanlanding-teso_44840.html)
- Festivals and outdoor activities
- Texel air show, music festivals for tourists, sports events such as marathons, and guided tours
- Local development groups
- 10 for Texel, an association that protects the nature and culture of Texel from the impact of tourists
- Texels Belang, a Texel political party (no focus on sustainability)
- De Verzamelpost (the gathering post)
- An initiative to connect individual entrepreneurs to each other and to connect young and old inhabitants of Texel. This should contribute to design and create the future Texel, by sharing knowledge and talent.
- Stichting Duurzaam Texel (Foundation Sustainable Texel)
- A network platform to connect knowledge and people. They no longer initiate projects themselves, but bring together people, knowledge and projects.
- However, we are not sure if they are still active. In their website the last update in the news section was in 2014.
- Community education projects
- Sustainable farming projects
- TOP (Texel Entrepreneur Platform)
- Contact with the municipality, for example organising an event where the rules and regulations are explained to entrepreneurs.
- Joins meetings from the municipality about designing new policies which are relevant for TOP members.
- Cooperates supports the tourist information centre, which is also supported by the municipality. The goal is to promote Texel in the Netherlands and abroad
- JONT (Young Entrepreneurs Network Texel).
- JONT wants to support young entrepreneurs in the development of their business by connecting to peers. There appears to be little communication with the municipality
Interaction between the above actors
In Texel, official and non-official actors interact and give place to innovations. From a formal, or governmental perspective, the EU imposes rules on the Dutch government. The Dutch government develops a strategy to realize these ambitions in the Netherlands. The municipality of Texel listens to these regulations from the Dutch government, but regarding sustainability they go way further in their ambitions.
Within Texel,the municipality interacts with non-governmental actors such as the inhabitants, the farmers, and groups and collectives that promote innovation in the island. Initially, we categorized the actors in five major groups to understand their role in the Texel landscape.
Then we went further in our analysis, to try to understand the interactions between the actors and also what are the opportunities for improvement. In Figure 1 we define all the interactions we could identify between the major actors related to innovation in Texel.
In this diagram it is possible to identify some actors who play major roles in the system. For example, the municipality of Texel, with the aim of achieving their sustainability goals, coordinates or has influence over most of the actors we can see in the diagram.
Besides the municipality, inhabitants and tourists are, as expected, very important actors. The inhabitants, control or have influence in two important institutions in Texel (Texel Energy and the Teso Ferry); and the tourists are an important source of income for many actors in Texel.
It is important, regarding the diagram, to make a distinction between Inhabitant and Sustainable Initiatives. We classify the inhabitant as every person who lives in Texel, and the Sustainable Initiatives as any action or organization that contributes to the development towards sustainability. These two categories are not exclusive, an inhabitant can be an innovator as well as sustainable initiatives can be triggered by inhabitants.
Figure 1. Graphical representation of the interaction between actors involved in innovation in Texel.
After analyzing this diagram (Figure 1), we noticed that there are some points that should be improved or adapted for the self-sufficiency regarding permanent innovation in Texel. Figure 4 shows the draft of our identification of four areas in the interaction diagram that should be improved.
The first and main adjustment that should be achieved is the change of behaviour of the innovators in Texel. As emphasized by the Health Happiness and Well-being research of 2014, the individualistic behaviour of Texelaars is a barrier for innovation; this leads to lack of communication among innovators and few change of ideas. Texelaars should be stimulated to understand the sharing of ideas and collaboration as a mean to achieve the common goal of self-sufficiency.
The second factor to be optimized is the lack of intermediaries for the sustainable initiatives. We understand the role of intermediaries as paramount for the development of sustainable innovators; providing advice, connecting the right people and helping the innovations to succeed.
The third point is deeply related to the second. In our research we identified the STD (Stichting Duurzaam Texel or Foundation Sustainable Texel) as a very important actor regarding innovation, as they work as a network platform to connect and share knowledge in the island. However we are not sure if they are still active.
The fourth and last point regards the Municipality. In the Figure 3, we can see that the Municipality of Texel influences many actors. It would be insightful to learn more about the actions of this particular actor.
Figure 4. Graphical representation of the interactions that should be improved or adjusted.
We used this preliminary scoping to write Section 1.2 of the report.
