Today was day 9, and we started the day by taking a train to TU Delft. This the oldest technical university in the Netherlands, and there we specifically focused on engineering as it pertains to sustainability. In TU Delft, we toured their Green Village. This is an area of the university dedicated to experiments in which new sustainable technologies are tested and innovated. It is an excellent opportunity for students to create new technologies. Additionally, there are much less permits needed for testing in the university than outside the university. As a result, some of these experiments are conducted not only by students, but also by outside companies as well as the government.

While touring the Green Village I saw many new and interesting technologies. The bridge which acts as the entrance to the Green Village is an example of one of these technologies. It is made of concrete blocks that click into each other and make an arc. What makes the bridge so fascinating is that no adhesive is used to keep the blocks together! It is purely the pressure of them sticking together from the arc shape that keeps the bridge sturdy, and it is perfectly safe. While concrete on its own is not terribly sustainable, creating a safe bridge which uses limited materials is extremely sustainable as it conserves energy and materials. Also, proving a bridge of this design is safe can lead to even more sustainable designs that use materials other than concrete. Another interesting design we were shown were 3D printed concrete manholes. These manholes only take about 50 minutes to print and so do not require a lot of energy or time to make. By also using a 3D printer, these manholes use less concrete than their non-3D printed counterpart, and therefore should help save materials and resources. While this seems sustainable, concrete is not a sustainable material. Additionally, it was not discussed the cost of such a 3D printer, or the energy usage it would require. It may be expensive to buy and use these 3D printers, making this technology unrealistic to implement. While it is a very innovative technology, I am not sure it is a long-term solution for more sustainable infrastructure. I believe a better investment in sustainable infrastructure would be to develop a more environmentally friendly material, instead of finding a slightly better way of using an unsustainable material.

After we finished our tour of the Green Village, we ate lunch at one of the university dining halls, before continuing to our next activity. We entered one of the university classrooms to participate in the Climate Fresk. This is a 3-hour long interactive discussion about climate change and possible solutions. We were split into groups and began by creating our “Fresk”, or collage, of climate change causes and effects. We were given these causes and effects on cards, about 7 at a time. We would discuss each of them and decide where they fit on our diagram. After finalizing our Fresk, we decorated it with drawings and presented it to other groups. We then were split into different groups to discuss how we can help fight climate change on three levels: citizen, professional, and government. It was a very fun and collaborative way to discuss this pressing issue. I learned that we, as humans, have caused a lot of damage to the earth, and this has cascading effects on the environment, and all the animals which live there. We are the ones who have done this damage, and so it is up to us to fix it. We can do this by implementing more sustainable technologies, such as the ones seen in the Green Village, and doing as much as we can individually. This includes recycling as much as possible, taking public transportation, eating foods with less carbon footprint, using green energies, and much more.

Once we finished with the Climate Fresk, we were allowed go off on our own. Me and some friends decided to take a bus and explore the city of Delft. It was a very nice city and reminded me a lot of Amsterdam as there were canals and small houses boardering them. We got dinner at a pizza place, and for dessert we got the tiramisu. It was delicious! We then headed back to the hotel to rest and prepare for another exciting day tomorrow!