Today we visited Nouryon, a Dutch Chemical company. This has been the largest company that we have visited so far, as well as the longest visit that we’ve had. After a long bus ride to Deventer, where one of their facilities is, we started with a talk on safety followed by another on the company itself and their commitment to sustainability. Nouryon has made great efforts in being more sustainable, having an A- climate score and a an EcoVadis Gold rating. However, the company is still trying to be more sustainable. While it has 5 carbon neutral plants, the company wants to have net zero emissions by 2050. While it’s nice that they have this goal, it still is a bit distressing. If it’s going to take Nouryon, a company that is thoroughly committed sustainability and is making an active effort to reach net zero emissions is going to take that long, how much longer will it take companies that don’t care nearly us much? If it takes too long for companies to become sustainable, even more rural preventable damage will be done to the environment, so it would be better if more companies cared as much if not more about this issues than Nouryon. Thankfully, we also learned that some governments give incentives to companies to be more sustainable, which would encourage more companies to do so. Hopefully more governments will adopt this practice, otherwise we may end up doing more damage to our environment than we would be able to fix.

After those talks we had lunch followed by a tour of their facilities. We split into three groups, each touring each part in a different order. We got to see many different labs, such as one that was focused on making the most effective laundry detergent and dish washer soap. This was more interesting than it seems, as seeing how carefully they set up the experiments made me appreciate it a lot more. This tour was also interesting because I got to apply some of what I learned in Chemistry and Physics this year to better understand some of their procedures. For example, one lab was focused on Chromatography. Since I learned about Chromatography in my chemistry class last semester, I was able to understand how the process he described worked as well as how they could use that data much more easily. This visit was a truly fascinating experience, and I hope that our future visits are nearly as interesting.

After our visit to Nouryon, we had a quick stop at our hotel before heading out again to a Pitt alumni event. At this event we got to talk to a handful of former Pitt Alumni who are now living in the Netherlands. We got to ask them anything we could think of, from what their actual jobs are to how they like living in the Netherlands. This was also an enlightening experience, as we got to learn more about the positives and negatives of living here. For example,  while the healthcare system may cover most things, getting a referral to get covered can be rather difficult. This has made me think more about the possibility of living abroad more, something that I didn’t really consider seriously before but that I may look into if the possibility presents itself. This day was pretty busy, but I feel like the knowledge gained was worth it.