Today was the long awaited tour of the Henri Willig cheese conglomerate, and so we dressed in our business clothes and prepared out tastebuds to experience and learn about the methodology behind the premier dairy fermenter in Holland. Once there, we received a quick and simplified demonstration of how they make the cheese, and then got to taste many cheeses and even ice cream, which were all really good. Although not much about sustainability was discussed, they mentioned that they use a pre-made bacterial culture that isn’t made from animals, so it is definitely more sustainable than regular processing.

After this experience, we went to the Maritime Museum, also known as the Het Scheepvaartmuseum. This museum was a very large, interactive, and detailed experience. We started the journey off by taking a ferry across to an island where much of the land was reclaimed from the ocean using dykes. We then met our tour guide to go onto an interactive recreation-filled tour of what a former Dutch seaside town was like before the dams and dykes were installed. Our tour showcased the many traditions, foods, and experiences that these people went through. For example, we saw how they used to dry fish for food and took advantage of the naturally flowing source of fish from the ocean. After this, we went to the indoor section of the museum that showcased the culture through clothes, furniture, food and also ships from these seaside communities. This museum was not truly about sustainability, but it did slightly touch upon the ideas of social and economic sustainability as the formation of the dams and dykes was socially unsustainable for these communities to function, and resulted in them fading out.

Overall, the Het Scheepvaartmuseum experience was full of eye-opening, impactful, and memorable moments. It’s important to learn from how the dams and dykes, which were made to increase land space and arguably create sustainable procedures in other ways through opening up more land, had unsustainable side effects as well. When we think about creating a sustainable solution, we should truly consider all ways of sustainability: social, economical, and environmental. Finally, we should make sure that our solutions to certain problems are sustainable in all three ways.