Sustainability and climate policy

For Tolhuistuin, climate and sustainability are important themes. As Shell's former research centre, Tolhuistuin was the beating heart of the fossil industry for decades. A making place for inventors and techies. Now we are using the place as a driver for change towards a sustainable and just society. We invite everyone to contribute and participate.

Guiding principles

We approach this theme from the following three principles:

The climate crisis is a cultural crisis
The climate issue is not just a technical-financial issue, but a societal one. It is about how we live, work, live, eat, travel and recreate. What we are entitled to and responsible for. It is about our freedom and our belief in progress. About how we deal with safety and health risks, with disappearing land. About when climate policy is or is not fair. About how much we can bear and what is reasonable to leave to others. About how we factor in the interests of future generations. About how we show solidarity with those who have contributed the least to global warming but are already taking the biggest hits.

The climate crisis can only be approached intersectionally
The roots of the climate crisis lie in colonial times when the earth and everything on it was seen as a resource that could be appropriated and exploited. This realisation is fundamental if the climate crisis is to be put into context. The climate issue can therefore only be approached intersectionally, deeply linked to themes of social inequality and exploitation, such as colonialism, racism, discrimination and social inequality.

Climate crisis calls for radical inclusiveness
Tolhuistuin is not an official zoo, but endorses the importance of including the rights and interests of other living and non-living beings in decisions.

Policy

We express our vision of sustainability in three different ways: through the stories and programmes shared through our programming, through our operations, behind the scenes, and as a social booster.

Programme

As a cultural hub, we are experienced in storytelling. We use our stage to make the climate issue palpable, imaginable and discussable for a wide audience. We do this, for instance, with the Nature Area North programme line. Together with the Impact Makers Foundation, we initiated an annual programme on art and climate: We Are Warming Up.
We focus in the R-ladder not only on ‘reduce’, ‘reuse’, ‘repair’ and ‘recycle’ but also on ‘refuse’, ‘rethink’ and ‘rebel’. We open the Garden to the public as much as possible so that people can enjoy urban nature. We support interesting initiatives at the intersection of art and climate, such as Regeneration Festival, XR Musicians and Symbiotic Shift.

Behind the scenes

Buildings & gardens

We are - naturally - bringing our business operations in line with the Paris climate agreement. The most important step is to make the grounds as sustainable as possible. We do this in cooperation with Gemeentelijk Vastgoed, owner of the grounds.
To make the various buildings on the grounds more sustainable, a recommendation was drawn up by Groene Grachten in 2023. The manager of the Tolhuistuin Foundation will ensure that the sustainability targets are met.
In making the grounds more sustainable, it is important to also combat biodiversity loss. This means, for example, poison-free planting on the roof gardens or taking bats into account when insulating cavity walls.

We have already done a lot in recent years. All lighting works on LED. Lighting in corridors, toilets and other shared areas is activated by motion sensors as much as possible. We installed local boilers, created roof gardens and took insulation measures in several buildings. There are now solar panels on the roof of the Pavilion.
In the coming years, we will work on making the Reserve and the Staalvilla more sustainable. We are investigating rainwater harvesting options for the garden toilets.

Contracts & policies

Our energy contract is with a sustainable supplier. We have opted for a sustainable pension fund. We are in the process of transitioning to a sustainable bank.
We have no sponsorship or partnership agreements with fossil companies, such as oil companies, airlines and large industrial consumers of fossil energy, as well as with financial institutions that invest heavily in fossil activities.
Every year, we publish our main progress in terms of carbon footprint in our annual report.

Materials & waste

We purchase new materials only when necessary, if reusing and recycling materials is not an option. When purchasing new materials, preference is given to sustainable and/or bio-based materials.
We separate waste into glass, textiles, paper, residual waste. We plan to create a compost area for VGF waste.

Paper & digital

We pay attention to our digital carbon footprint. In practice, that means being cautious with AI, running the website as economically as possible, and regularly cleaning up emails and files. A handy tool to measure your website's consumption is: www.websitecarbon.com.
We are cautious with print and deploy it in a targeted way. We prefer to make large banners so that we can use them for several years.
We investigate green hosting of our website.

Food & drink

For our own team, guests and artists, the catering is vegetarian. This also applies to the daily lunch offered to the team.
In the restaurant, two-thirds of the dishes on the menu are vegan or vegetarian.

Travel & transport

Tolhuistuin is easily accessible via public transport. Visitors are recommended to travel by public transport and bicycle. There is sufficient parking space for bicycles.
As a rule, staff do not use air travel. Should this be the case, the rule is that for distances less than 750 km transport by train will be reimbursed, via aeroplane in principle not.

Social booster

As a social booster, we see our role in putting this issue on the agenda within the cultural sector. We share our knowledge through presentations and meetings. We do this together with other partners. For instance, we were initiators of the statement To Be or Not to Be, which we drew up in cooperation with NAPK, Collectief Walden, EurosonicNoorderslag and We Are Warming Up.
We are convinced that change often comes about through cross-sector collaboration and are committed to doing so. For instance, we connect artists with other sectors, such as science.
We inspire housemates, programme partners and suppliers and we take inspiration from them in terms of sustainability policy.

Good idea?

Do you have a good idea for our sustainability policy? Send us an email: beheer@tolhuistuin.nl.