Good practices

Category: Good practices

Lab Vlieland

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

This lab on the island of Vlieland (NL) presents itself as “The Workplace for Renewal & Imagination; a place where do-ers and thinkers develop skills and knowledge and put this into practice.” Lab Vlieland originated under the auspices of Into The Great Wide Open, one of Vlieland’s yearly pop festivals with limited access (max ca. 5,000 visitors). By restricting the quantity of visitors, the festival is able to function as a testbed for the smart use of sustainable energy and resources and provide festival participants plenty of space, protecting the island’s unique nature.

Lab Vlieland invites students and enterprising producers to provide and experiment with sustainable solutions, that can make a festival a self-sufficient community, with minor impact for the inhabitants and nature.In close connection, Lab Vlieland’s goal and purpose is to share the knowledge and experience developed on and near the island with its surroundings; with the rest of the island, stakeholders on the mainland, and with related festivals. Particularly, the lab is specialized in smart power management systems for festivals, the re-use of (waste)water, design for the circular economy and new production technologies, such as 3D printing.

Source: labvlieland.nl

Example of strategy 3C:

Facilitate the Establishment of Living Labs and Competence Centers

Islands are excellent places to establish living labs. Living labs can mean an environment for experimentation and testing; a methodology/approach, and a system for innovation for generating and testing innovative products, concepts, and services in a real-life environment. Living labs enable people, users/ consumers of services and product, to take active roles as contributors and co-creators in the research, development, and innovation process. The starting point for any living lab is to, in close cooperation with involved stakeholders, develop product and services from the basis of what users really want and need. The main role of the living lab is to engage and empower users to participate in the creation of valuable and viable assets.

Living labs on islands can be central meeting places, often with only simple technical facilities, serving as idea generators and project builders for innovation. The island setting -certain isolation- can serve as an additional factor for experimenting in a contained, real-life environment. Local and regional governments can help initiatives in this area, for instance, in connection with the many arts, crafts, (pop-)music, cultural-, tech-, etc. festivals and events that are commonly organized on islands. Since these festivals attract a lot of young talented people from both on-island and the mainland, an outstanding opportunity emerges to turn festival projects into longer-term programs for living labs on islands.

Samsoe Energy Academy

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

Based on the success of its’ world leading island transition project on sustainable energy, Samsoe Island (Denmark) has been able to partly re-invest the profits from sustainable energy into the establishment of theirown Energy Academy building. The building is not only a demonstrator of the newest, attractive sustainable energy technologies, but also attracts many visitors from around the world each year. It can host students and staff for longer internship periods, with nearby places like Ballen providing housing, food, and recreation facilities.

With the support of the local, regional and national government, the Energy Academy has not only conquered a unique position and hundreds of admirers and partners in the world, but via the infrastructure of the Energy Academy building it can continue to keep this front-runner position.

The world’s best and most unique energytransition minds continue to meet in and via the Energy Academy in an ongoing process, also thanks to its facilities!

Source: Samsoe Energy Academy

Example of strategy 3B:

Help to Create Housing and Working Facilities

Local governments can support the longer stay of students and staff from the mainland by providing housing and working facilities. Islands with one or more own institutes of higher education will usually possess an infrastructure for this. Others will have to improvise with the meansavailable at hand and/or efficiently create new basic facilities. On islandswith a high amount of touristic resorts, hotels, and holiday homes, ample possibilities will exist to host students and staff, particularly off-season.

Entrepreneurship triple helix (ETH)

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

The University of the Azores and SDEA (Azores Business Development Society, EPER), developed and provide mentoring guidance to a project, named the Entrepreneurship Triple Helix. There, students with training in entrepreneurship interconnect with research fellows to create multidisciplinary teams and synergies, with the goal of developing a business idea based on their lines of research.

It is developed in three phases, starting with the Triple Helix Forum, which discusses topics on entrepreneurship, research, good practices and success stories, involving government entities, the University of the Azores, and companies.

The second phase stems from the development of business ideas and the realization of workshops. The project culminates with the presentation of the business ideas in a pitch format before a jury that selects the three best ideas. All of the students in charge of the business ideas receive information on the in-place measures and incentives that support business creation.

The ultimate aim of this project is to create academic spinoffs and start-ups that promote the importance of research with
the leverage of competitive advantages for companies, as well as in creating value through innovation.

Source: SDEA, sdea.pt

Example of strategy 3A:

Support Students’ Innovation Projects

Municipalities or regional island authorities can support initiatives, whichbring students and their projects (thesis, graduation, PhD fieldwork,internship, special course/curriculum, etc.) to the island, to explore the islands’ problems and opportunities from a fresh perspective. Although some of the resulting ideas and proposals might be too idealistic for direct implementation, they can help to set the agenda for innovation on the island and lead to structural cooperation with mainland higher education in different disciplinary backgrounds.

Islands should profit from their uniqueposition, being perceived by students and staff as places “par excellence” to discuss and test out new ideas in isolation and on a small scale.

Local governments are in the position to strengthen the initiatives ofisland individual firms, NGOs, and sectorial organizations (agriculture, fisheries, services, tourism, recreation, transport, etc.) that are lookingfor student input from the mainland. Particularly from a municipality, a relevant own initiative in hiring students for interesting projects would be expected to set the leading example and create a “lighthouse” position.

 

 

 

 

Texlabs

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

The NGO TexLabs on the island of Texel (Netherlands) started as an idea of Pepijn Lijklema. After finishing his MSc Thesis in 2008 at the Delft University of Technology, on the design of a smart, sustainable public light system on the island, Pepijn started a one-person consultancy firm on the island. During a number of years, he helped to successfully implement the new system, as the leading smart public light system in the Netherlands. Gradually, he built such an interesting -independent, trustful and balancing- position on the island that step-by-step the stakeholders, with the municipality of Texel as a main client, started  to request his input and that of follow-up students -and staff- from mainland institutes for student job positions and vice versa.  With strong support from the municipality of Texel, Pepijn and a group of young islanders, recently established an NGO with the main goal of brokering between knowledge institutes from the mainland and the various island stakeholders who are searching for their knowledge. 

One of the novel products TexLabs has been developing is the Round-of-Texel Energy Game. The goal of the game is to explore different scenarios for the future energy system of Texel in a creative way. The concept of the yearly, International Texel Catamaran Race around the island is chosen as framework. Only through bottom-up cooperating in the creation of sustainable energy generation as well as improving efficiencies and taking demand reduction and management into account, the players cross the finish successfully and in time.Each player represents a certain stakeholder group and has its own interests and resources to submit. However, it is not possible to reach the goal of a self-sufficient energy island, without agreements with other stakeholders. On islands, the Round-of-Texel EnergyGame is played in various sessions with inhabitants, village committees, members of local parliament, students, economic sectors (agriculture, tourism, housing, service, transport, installers etc. industry), nature organizations and -other- NGOs.

Nowadays, each year TexLabs organizes ca. 10 higher education and research institution trips to the island. These range from TU Eindhoven, to the University of Utrecht, Hanze Polytechnic Groningen, the Polytechnic of Amsterdam, that of Alkmaar, and even international visits involving more than 250 students and their staff. TexLabs is a source of inspiration for the inhabitants of Texel, not only with respect to new knowledge and knowhow and as a “creative facilitator” but also as an activity that sparks new ventures on the island by students who decide to stay – closing Pepijn’s circular loop.

Source: TexLabs, 2018.

Example of strategy 3A:

Support Students’ Innovation Projects

Municipalities or regional island authorities can support initiatives, whichbring students and their projects (thesis, graduation, PhD fieldwork,internship, special course/curriculum, etc.) to the island, to explore the islands’ problems and opportunities from a fresh perspective. Although some of the resulting ideas and proposals might be too idealistic for direct implementation, they can help to set the agenda for innovation on the island and lead to structural cooperation with mainland higher education in different disciplinary backgrounds.

Islands should profit from their uniqueposition, being perceived by students and staff as places “par excellence” to discuss and test out new ideas in isolation and on a small scale.

Local governments are in the position to strengthen the initiatives ofisland individual firms, NGOs, and sectorial organizations (agriculture, fisheries, services, tourism, recreation, transport, etc.) that are lookingfor student input from the mainland. Particularly from a municipality, a relevant own initiative in hiring students for interesting projects would be expected to set the leading example and create a “lighthouse” position.

Sustainable dance club

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

The original idea of the Sustainable Dance Club (SDC) was to provide the club circuit with a broad portfolio of advanced sustainable products and services, making dance clubs a lighthouse of sustainable innovation in Dutch society. The product idea was that forces exerted on the floor could be converted into electricity through an electromechanical energy generator and stored in another medium or immediately used by other equipment. Although the ambition of the firm was initially to sell these flux floors to clubs, the clubbing market did not take off and the business model transformed into a rental scheme for events and other organizations. Since the beginning of 2011, Sustainable Dance Club has been developing a new application, called Sustainable Energy Floor (SEF). SEF is designed as a large-scale application for public spaces where a large volume of people walk, such as stadiums, airports, and shopping centres. The floors are also now used as renewable energy demonstrators at consumer oriented conference presentations and road shows of green energy suppliers and distributors, aimed at getting attention of the public in order to increase their market share. The technology used in SEF is the same as SDC however design considerations and market contexts are different.

Example of strategy 2D:

Facilitate the Use of Modern Business Models

Policy makers and implementers can also act as supportive agents and intermediaries of modern business models in different contexts. Two approaches should be mentioned here, the more generic effectuation model approach, and since islands in comparison to the mainland are usually isolated when it comes to the fast availability of various resources, the Bricolage model.

Figure 3 – Effectuation Model
Source: Keskin (2015), adapted from Sarasvathy et al (2014).

Sarasvathy (2008) and Keskin (2015) argue that for successful start-up innovation, standard-marketing approaches are less relevant. They argue that instead, the understanding of the behaviour of “expert entrepreneurs” is crucial, as illustrated via a special framework of the Effectuation Model. This model includes four main “effectuation principles” which are essential for the explanation of entrepreneurial decision-making logic in uncertain situations. 

Birds in hand 

  • The process starts with means (not specific goals). 
  • A certain dream or motivating perspective is leading: what do I want to achieve? 
  • Ask yourself these 4 questions: Who am I? What do I know? What are my potentials? Whom do I know? 

Affordable Loss 

  • Don’t take big risks. 
  • How much loss can I afford (instead of asking: how much will I gain)? 

Crazy Quilt 

  • Partnership is crucial, with self-selected stakeholders who make real commitments. 
  • Sharing risks. 

Lemonade 

  • Aim to exploit unexpected contingencies. 
  • Make lemonade out of it. 

As the PhD dissertation of Keskin indicates, most of the activities and managerial decision-making steps for the SDC development follow an effectuation approach, including a role for the effectuation principles, rather than the standard rational-marketing approach. In close connection, local and regional governments should observe their partners in industry and the start-ups they cooperate with from a modern perspective. They should be active in bringing in and following Effectuation Model insights, including their own observations and insights in the field of “opportunistic” entrepreneurial behaviour. In this way, as active intermediaries, governments can also play an important role in the diffusion of new business insights in their region or municipality.

Bricolage Model

In an emerging island economy context, innovation approaches like described by Jin (2015), such as “Bricolage” -an adaptive approach creatively using scarcely available means- can be quite relevant. Bricolage is a process that is linked to observation and assessment of resources available in the environment, and then taking a preference for using “whatever is at hand”, rather than searching for new resources.

Island governments can stimulate creative Bricolage through workshops with challenging goals like: “do more with less”, “keep the island in our own hands”, “-virtually- cut the infrastructure lines with the mainland”, and by building on the collective memory.

For a good example of Bricolage see: The use of straw for the distributed heating system on Samsoe Island – Samsoe Energy Academy energiakademiet.dk

EU regio craft project

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

Kavala, Greece, has a long tradition of making candles. In the last decades, knowledge of and interest in hand made candles is decreasing. The challenge for the craft ladies involved was how to interest new target groups while preserving the craft knowledge, by using it in a new way, not necessarily in the same form or same function. The KAVALA craft ladies were carefully matched to a designer of textile and ceramics from Latvia via a  House of Design’s shaped Craft Design Pressure Cooker. The designer had a valuable know- how of international crafts and the story behind their designs. During the Pressure Cooker workshop, she suggested to  be inspired by patterns of old Latvian textiles in different modern design objects. The result from the Pressure Cooker was a wax kit design, inspiring you to ‘play with candles with your fingers’ like most children like to do. The kit  includes a canvas, wax, colors to mix and a manual. The users can shape various colors of candle wax and paint it on the canvas by spreading the wax on it with their  fingers. As soon as the wax is dry, the canvas can be put on the wall like a painting. 

Source: EU REGIO CRAFTS Project 

Example of strategy 2D:

Facilitate Pressure Cookers 

Pressure Cookers are design- creativity based events in which stakeholders and creatives attempt to find solutions for certain local or regional problems within a short period of time (under pressure, in 1 day for instance). Pressure Cookers have proven to be very effective and efficient means to suggest options and ideas out-of- the-box, particularly for complex and persistent problems (House of Design, 2018; DeLille et al, 2010). 

Since the organization and execution of a pressure cooker can be realized in a low-cost way – mainly via the creative brains of the involved participants and their facilitators- it is a highly recommendable tool for innovation in a TIPPING context. Particularly, at the start of an island challenge, local and regional governments are advised to stimulate or take the initiative in the use of this tool. 

Cupje

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

Stimulated and co-financed by the Province of Fryslan, Lab Vlieland andMSc TU Delft design engineering student Marta Axpe (2013) developed a foldable drinking device -CUPJE- for festivals and events, which is biodegradable -with local plant seeds inside for local re-growth- and plastic free. High-quality water is tapped from the locally available grid.

Cupje and its design variations have found their way well into the events market today. Source: Library TU Delft. (ref: Educational Repository – Axpe, Creating Drinking Water Awareness at the Into The Great Wide Open, 2013.).

Source: Library TU Delft.

Example of strategy 2C: 

Stimulate and Support Product Development

As a local/regional government you can support the development of new products, services, and processes by your local industries. This may include more efficient production processes, with more efficient use of local resources. It can also concern new concepts like circular design (slowing, narrowing and looping the material fluxes on the island), the combined design of products and services (PSS), ecologically responsible landscape and town development, nature services, and new business development.

As partner in these development processes, a basic understanding of design methodology and tools is recommended. Good starting points are industrial design programs like those  from the Aalto Design Factory  (2018) and the Delft University of Technology, with its’ Delft Design Guide (2010). With respect to the creation of novel product-service combinations, Bocken et al (2013) propose a straightforward method based on a value mapping tool.

For island urban development methodologies such as that from RMIT on sustainable scenario development and eco-acupuncture (Gaziulusoy & Ryan, 2017), or from AMS Amsterdam -Institute of Advanced Metropolitan Studies- are also sources of inspiration (AMS,  2018). Most recently, Fabrizio Ceschin of the Brunel University London and Idil Gaziulusoy of Aalto University Finland published a comprehensive overview of  the design for sustainability field (Ceschin and Gaziulusoy, 2019). A PDF version of the book is available for free in Open Access from Routledge at www. taylorfrancis.co.  If local governments want to be a serious partner in a TIPPING development process, basic knowledge of such methods and tools is a must.

Vlieland’s own natural beer

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

As of winter 2019, the island of Vlieland (Fryslan, The Netherlands) will have its own brewery. Only local ingredients such as oyster filet, seaweed, dune herbs and Vlieland’s own high-quality natural dune water will be used. The location, annex to a special protected nature area, has been granted by the local nature governance organization, “Staatsbosbeheer”. Small theatre and film productions and performances will be integrated into the activities of the brewery. Due to a substantial regional grant from the “Waddenfonds”, and support from many local organizations, the island-based entrepreneur Bojan Bajic, with support from colleagues from the Frisian mainland, has been able to develop this unique local produce annex local nature and culture experience. 

Example of strategy 1B:

Stimulate the Development of Creatives’ New Products and Ventures

Directly or indirectly, island governments can stimulate their creative industries (arts and crafts, product designers, architects, communication and media designers, service and app developers, etc.) to develop new, sustainable concepts based upon local conditions and strengths. With an emerging tourism market on many islands, new products based on local -not yet fully explored- materials for instance, can create interesting new product-market combinations, that tourists love to buy. Such local materials could be produced through new applications of known natural resources, like cork (isolation), shells (building material), wool (isolation) and grain (local food, local beer).

They are also valuable for completely new products and ventures with new sources of inspiration, like the use of seaweed for food and cosmetics or the use of salty water areas for the growth of high-quality salty food plants. Likewise, algae from the sea are now used as building blocks for the small-scale production of bio-based materials, applied in furniture, house building, etc. (Source: Studio Veenhoven, 2017. Amaral, 2019). The local government can support the on- island creative community in their discovery of such new options. Not only with the establishment of new creative businesses and alliances on the island but also by actively mobilizing their policy network on the mainland and EU-wide.

Circulair Vlieland

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

The Province of Fryslan supports an initiative from the island of Vlieland to redirect its linear economy towards a more circular one. The project has started with a metabolism study in which all in-, through- and outward material(including water and energy) fluxes have been mapped by Circular Economy specialist Metabolic.Based upon the outcomes, first options on narrowing, slowing and closing the island’s material loops –better than today- have been formulated. For instance, value can be generated by utilizing nutrients from wastewater flows, instead of discharging them into the sea, composting of organic wastes can be improved, and an online but local marketplace can be created to buy, sell, and share re-usable goods. In the next phase of the project the various options will be further explored for implementation. In addition, creative sessions with tourists and other stakeholders will be organized, both for extra idea generation as well as to stimulate their practical contribution to the implementation plan.

Source: Metabolic (metabolic.nl)

Example of strategy 2C: 

Stimulate and Support Product Development 

As a local/regional government you can support the development of new products, services, and processes by your local industries. This may include more efficient production processes, with more efficient use of local resources. It can also concern new concepts like circular design (slowing, narrowing and looping the material fluxes on the island), the combined design of products and services (PSS), ecologically responsible landscape and town development, nature services, and new business development. 

As partner in these development processes, a basic understanding of design methodology and tools is recommended. Good starting points are industrial design programs like those  from the Aalto Design Factory  (2018) and the Delft University of Technology, with its’ Delft Design Guide (2010). With respect to the creation of novel product-service combinations, Bocken et al (2013) propose a straightforward method based on a value mapping tool. 

For island urban development methodologies such as that from RMIT on sustainable scenario development and eco-acupuncture (Gaziulusoy & Ryan, 2017), or from AMS Amsterdam -Institute of Advanced Metropolitan Studies- are also sources of inspiration (AMS,  2018). Most recently, Fabrizio Ceschin of the Brunel University London and Idil Gaziulusoy of Aalto University Finland published a comprehensive overview of  the design for sustainability field (Ceschin and Gaziulusoy, 2019). A PDF version of the book is available for free in Open Access from Routledge at www. taylorfrancis.co.  If local governments want to be a serious partner in a TIPPING development process, basic knowledge of such methods and tools is a must. 

WalkMe Madeira

Posted on by Dennis Sieperda

At Madeira, a team of software engineers at the University of Madeira loved to hike on the more than 50 adventurous trails in the splendid nature that the island offers. With the support of the regional government, they decided to apply their strengths to this favorite outdoor activity, to create the WalkMe app: a digital guide with all the information required for hikers on the island. The app offers a trail map and tour information, also without an internet connection, as well as points of interest, like waterfalls, lagoons and ‘levadas’. Since 2012, this WalkMe app is at the top of the list of applications of the Island of Madeira, downloaded by almost 100 thousand people, both tourists and residents, who explore the natural richness of the island. Being created by a team of local walkers, scientists and new ventures, the involved regional government and innovation agencies (including ARDITI, the Regional Authority for the Development of Research, Technology and Innovation of Madeira) are co-organizing facilities and means to maintain a leading position in this typical Madeira development area.

Source: walkmeguide.com

Example of strategy 2B:

Stimulate the Market for Local Products and Produce

Island municipalities and their larger regions can play a significant role,both directly and via indirect ways, in helping to stimulate the market for their locally produced goods and services. Directly: for instance, by becoming a -larger- user of the local producer’s services. Indirectly: by promoting those services or supporting the local organization with innovation subsidies and/or with the formation of a strong business- infrastructure, for example, with the options to trade and test local products during public events, e.g. festivals, fairs, etc.

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