Hallo! Welcome back to day 3 of my blog. Today we traveled to the town Deventer, which is about 90 minutes outside of Amsterdam. Here we toured the chemical manufacturing company called Nouryon. This is a private equity company with around 8200 employees that manufactures many different polymer-based chemicals for a variety of purposes, including agriculture and food, household items, and natural resources. Some of the largest customers include the companies Johnson and Johnson, Proctor and Gamble, Bayer, Exxon Mobile, L’oréal, and Sherwin Williams. Their company recently expanded the current location to a facility in Belgium(due to ease of production and regulation) , and the site in Deventer mainly has research labs and organic production labs.

As for the history of Nouryon, they started as a flour mill in 1837, formed by two brothers. Then in 1920, they popularized the production of white bread in Europe (aka they literally created sliced bread). After this, they discovered how to make polymers from separating flour in a certain way, which then led into the production of many different plastics, polyester, and chemicals formed from organic peroxides. The chemical production portion of this larger company, known as Nobel Industries(yes, related to Nobel of the famous Nobel Prize), split off from the larger corporation in 2018 to form Nouryon. Our connection to the company was a past Pitt alumni named Christina who was a chemistry major, now VP in sales at Nouryon. This is a testament to how having diversity of skills such as teamwork, communication skills, and reliability can take you to many fields in the corporate world, no matter what background. 

Christina and her colleague (the site manager at Nouryon) talked about the company and its goals relating to sustainability, as well as other facts about the company and its concept to consumer line. They also answered hundreds of questions we asked. The energy usage of the company is about 35% renewable, and 5/80 of their factories are completely carbon neutral. All five of these manufacturing facilities are located in Brazil, because they are paper polymer plants and they are a newer market for Nouryon, meaning the new building could be constructed in a more sustainable manner. They received a A- on CDP climate score, which is a very good score for a company to have, probably because of their use of bio-based polymers and renewable energy. However, as in many companies, there is always room for improvement in sustainability. They sell to fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobile, which combats their initiatives, but they also sell lithium separation chemicals to solar cell companies, which help the cause. They included information on how they adapt to energy costs rising in Europe, pertaining to supply chains. Additionally, they mentioned the buzz word “glocalization” which applies to being close to the market, which ends up being more sustainable due to reduced energy usage due to transportation in the supply chain. Nouryon stands at many different area of the supply chain depending on the customer, and is part of many aspects of the concept to consumer process. 

One of the most emphasized aspects of this tour was the safety of this company, and how it takes pride in its safety policies. They are seven years injury-free, an impressive company figure. During the tours of the facilities, this was also emphasized with requirements of lab coats and safety goggles, as well as general lab safety instructions being communicated and alarms being easily accessible. 

The tours started with a safety lab introduction, where we talked through the lab and saw how they tested their products under different pressure and temperature conditions in order to provide a standard of safety handling for chemical transportation. The lab was extremely high-tech and rare for companies to have, meaning that this technology was an asset they had over competition. They have smaller rooms where they blow up organic chemicals safely, with walls of 1m depth. Additionally, there is an outdoor chamber that can hold 10L of product and withstand extremely high pressures and reactions. It was probably about the size of a small Amsterdam apartment (I wish I could have gotten a picture but we were not allowed).

The second part of the tour was of the research facilities relating to chemical testing, using spectroscopy which is basically giant microscopes that take really close pictures of chemicals. They had their favorites hanging on the walls. The application of chromatography was extremely relevant to labs I have done in chemistry this year, which I found interesting. The final part of the tour focused on an entire room of just dishwashing and laundry. They had 8 dishwashers and 4 washing machines, and they used dishware and cutlery of many types soaked in a mock dirty conglomerate of mustard and milk, as well as towels and pillowcases soaked in many different substances to show customers the benefit of using their product. It was like something directly out of a laundry detergent commercial. 

It was evident that the scientists were very passionate and interested in their work, and knew a lot. They learned their jobs through doing them, rather than studying this specific topic in school. Most people had a slightly unrelated degree to their field, meaning they grew a network and skills over time. 

At the beginning of this tour, I had some preconceived notions about the sustainability of a chemical production facility, but after hearing it from a business perspective, I understand the difficulty of fully integrating a system of sustainability in a short amount of time, and see that many companies including Nouryon have plans to work this in through the future. But one thing I would add is that the sustainability plan will never really “end” but only become stronger and more preservative. Therefore, sustainability is constantly making any company “the best thing since sliced bread.”

Next, we had an alumni dinner with around 10 Pitt alumni that all live in Amsterdam. Christina was there, and I had to opportunity to network with the others. They told us about adapting to life in Europe, their pathway to get there, and their plan for the future. Most of them said they never wanted to leave, and most were often there by company transfers or new job offers for several years. I talked extensively about the financial situation of living in Amsterdam, and many said it was extremely different than the Americas. There are many social programs that are great, but it is around 50% tax rate for highly skilled workers, and housing is extremely expensive. Additionally, better healthcare than what was offered usually costed extra money than what was already paid with taxes. However, everyone said the money was worth it to live in such a great city and country. Christina even emphasized how much she loves the work life culture, how she gets 27 minimum paid vacation day required per year, and one year of maternity leave, which is extremely different than the States work culture. I got to know Mohan Ramani, who is an information systems worker at Leftfield Servies that does sustainable machine learning technology for plastic recycling facilities. His company is expanding to Ireland, US, and Amsterdam this year, and he mentioned possibly working a global internship with his company next summer, which I was extremely excited about. Overall, the experience of networking with Pitt alumni was extremely rewarding and interesting, and the friend food we got was great too!

After dinner, a few friends and I headed to a local annual food truck festival that had hundreds of food trucks and live music. There were many people there, due to the Ascension holiday tomorrow. The live music was a great atmosphere and it was my favorite activity of the day. Today was the best day since sliced bread (catch my reference?) Tomrorow, we are seeing the Our Lord in the Attic and the Anne Frank museum. Until then, Doei!