On day 6, we traveled from Amsterdam to Deventer to Rotterdam.
In Deventer, we had a company visit with Nouryon, a global leader in chemicals. Our visit started with a presentation on some background of the company’s history with sustainability. We learned that Nouryon received an ‘A’ climate score and an EcoVadis gold rating, which represent the company’s commitment to sustainability. As for the future, Nouryon’s sustainability goals include reducing their carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 from 2019 levels. Next, we toured a few of the site’s labs, including ecotoxicology and biodegradability, to get a first hand look at what Nouryon does on a daily basis. Out of the labs we toured, ecotoxicology was definitely my favorite. The ecotoxicology lab is tasked with finding the short and long term effects of a chemical product to determine whether or not it is safe for the environment. For example, they may test the chemicals within a new shampoo to see what effects it has in soil and to organisms in bodies of water. The scientist who gave us our tour, Mark, explained the importance of following legislation and working with environmental agencies when testing chemicals. He has to try to make sure that the chemicals Nouryon produce not only follow current legislative guidelines, but will also hold in the future based on new legislation that is passed. Before today’s visit I was pretty confident that I didn’t want to work in a lab setting, however the tours today definitely opened my mind a little bit – it’s definitely something I’ll look into. Overall, it was really awesome to see how a big chemical company is doing its part to be committed to sustainability while remaining innovative and meeting their customer’s needs.
After our stay with Nouryon was over, we took a 2 hour drive to our home for the next week: Rotterdam. We arrived pretty late in the day and we were starving, so my friends and I went to get korean fried chicken in the city center. The city is noticeably different than Amsterdam, but they still have a lot in common. We took the metro to get to dinner, and it was still exponentially better than transportation back in Pittsburgh. Additionally, although Rotterdam has a lot more cars, the city is still clearly designed to be mindful towards people who walk or bike. After seeing these methods of transportation in Amsterdam for a week, and now Rotterdam, I’d really like to see Pittsburgh become more friendly to bikes and pedestrians in general.