Innovation and institutional change: the transition to a sustainable ...

168 Chapter 6
in the municipality of Tilburg 14 led to the launch of the concept in the
province of North Brabant in 1995.
Analysis: green electricity, a new concept and new governance arrangement
Analytically, the introduction of green electricity and the partnership with
WWF introduced practices in terms of product, organisational forms and
modes of coordination within the electricity industry that radically broke
with established ways of doing things. Accounting for the nature of
electricity on the demand side was unprecedented. This introduced a new
level of accountability and transparency within the industry, where exact
details needed to be provided regarding the amount of green electricity
produced, the inputs used (both in terms of energy resources and capital
equipment/energy technology), and the numbers of customers using green
electricity. Moreover, an external party was to verify these data in order to
realise credibility of the product. All in all, this leads to the conclusion that
the introduction of green electricity also included a new governance
arrangement, implying new linkages, exchanges and contracts at the local
level of the innovating company, NGO, and lead users (see Figure 6.1).
Figure 6.1 Governance arrangement for green electricity
Data on greenness
Approval of greenness
NGO
Green
label
Green electricity
Guarantee of greenness
Trust in green profile
Company User
Price including premium
14 The project took place in May-June 1995 with support from the municipality. The first
customer for green electricity was the alderman of environment of the municipality.