1. Program description

Problem statement

The goal of 'Texel 2020', which wants the island to become 100% energy neutral until 2020 seems unrealistic, but the intention of Texel becoming sustainable is feasible and should be endorsed. The inhabitants have a very important role in every program that the municipality may have. However, in this case, they are not aware of what exactly is sustainability and which are the benefits. Thus, they tend to refuse their participation to this due to the fear of change towards something unknown. Knowledge and awareness are the two 'keys' of success for the achievement of the sustainable goal.

Research question

We want Texel to become sustainable, but a scenario of 100% self-support is neather feasible nor wise, due to the possibility of failure at a certain moment. Thus we aim for making Texel 60% self-supported in all systems (food, waste, water, energy, etc.). This means that a large percentage of the sources will be local, while maintaining sources from the mainland, mainly for safety reasons.

The question that we have to answer is:

How leisure and knowledge contribute in making Texel 60% self-supported?

Subquestions:

- How will the inhabitants adopt a new more sustainable way of living?

- How will Texel become famous for its educative-sustainable-innovative character?

- How will the tourists contribute to this?

Ambitions

The ambition of the sub-sociotechnical system 'Leisure and Knowledge' is to create the first island that will be mainly self-supported and attract visitors that will have fun and will be educated through different activities and points of interest.

We distinguish Leisure from Education by addressing different actors in each case. Eduaction has the inhabitants as actors, while leisure is addressed to the tourists. Education has a long-run plan that needs much more effort to be implemented than Leisure. The proposals of knowledge need to be widely accepted from the inhabitants and integrate to their everyday life.

So, we want to:

1. Create awareness to pupils, through the courses and excursions of the school (Knowledge)

2. Renovate the existing leisure companies and all building to become energy efficient and sustainable, by giving motivation and not by forcing the people to do it. (Knowledge)

3. Create the 'sustainable route' along the attraction points, which will make tourists aware and in the same time entertain them. The participants of the game will also have a discount pass for certain attractions, along with extra information about the island and its sustainable program. (Leisure) 

4. Create a 'Center of Innovation' close to NIOZ. The center will include NIOZ, a new department of sustainability, a museum of technology and a center of craftmanship and innovation, where visitors will make their own simple smart systems for energy generation/storage etc. (Leisure)