Today, we started our day by heading to Vrije Universitiet Amsterdam, which is one of two major universities here is Amsterdam. We followed the VU equivalent of a Pitt Pathfinder around the campus for about a half an hour before going for lunch. 

After lunch, we spent another 20 minutes looking for the bus stop before eventually finding it and then traveling to Schiphol Airport. Once we did arrive at Schiphol, we were taken to a KLM hangar, where we met Donald. Just as with the last KLM-related activity with Karel, Donald gave quite a bit of insight into many aspects of both sustainability and the supply chain. When we first met Donald, he lectured for a little about the logistics of the maintenance team at KLM before eventually leading us to where the planes were being worked on. I thought it was amazing to see the inner workings of the plane, and especially the engine, so up close. I was especially impressed with the intricacy of the engine. Throughout the visit, Donald kept bringing up sustainability, which I felt truly exemplified Karel’s impact on the company. One idea Donald brought up was the fact that even though aviation uses about 2-3% of the total energy, network infrastructure takes up almost 5-6%. This is almost double the amount just because people need the convenience of the internet. This was very thought provoking, because it conveys the idea that sustainability is everyone’s responsibility.

After visiting KLM, we then went to dinner at Pakhuis de Zwijger, which is essentially an organization that offers free programs to the public regarding global issues. Today was a program on sustainable cities in which the panelists talked about how a new economy must be reconstructed in order to provide a sustainable future. My personal opinion, however, is that many of these panelists are being naïve in their thinking. One of the panelists mentioned the idea of sending electric cars to third world nations rather than diesel cars, which in theory would be a much more sustainable way of helping these countries. This, however, is not sustainable nor realistic, as the grid would not be able to support such an increase of electric vehicles, and the emissions released by the power plants when charging these cars would negate any positive results. They also mentioned that war was purely for capitalist gain, which is obviously false. After speaking with Ryan after the program, however, the speaker rescinded the war comment. Essentially, they talked a lot about how the “hope” for change, but in the words of Frank Bursic, “hope is not a plan”.