Today we visited a very exciting place which was our very first school of the trip: TU Delft. After stepping off the train I was amazed by the vibrant energy and large amount of green spaces already visible with our short walk to the Green Village. At the Green Village I discovered a tremendous amount of sustainability initatives that the Technical University is striving towards. The Green Village is a small experimental neighborhood that is used as a field lab for sustainable innovation. It’s a space where startups, students, and researchers can test out cutting-edge ideas in real-world conditions, and I was genuinely inspired by the creativity and drive behind so many of the projects.
Our guide was Yan who was a fifth-year mechanical engineering student who clearly had a deep connection to the space. He walked us through a wide range of projects, each one tackling sustainability from a different angle. One that really stood out to me was a student’s graduation project aimed at reducing the weight of trees so they can be planted on rooftops which so cool and creative as an imaginative solution for making urban areas more green. Another impressive project was a mini hydrogen generator, completely off-grid. It used solar panels to power the electrolysis of water, creating hydrogen gas that could then be stored and used as a clean energy source for small communities. It was the first time I’d seen something like that up close, and it made the idea of a hydrogen-powered future feel that much more possible especiailly as that feels so far in the U.S.A.
Afterward, we had a long, relaxed lunch and some free time to wander around campus, which gave me a chance to process everything we’d seen. Then we regrouped for something very different but maybe even more impactful the Climate Fresco workshop.
I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but it turned out to be one of the more emotional experiences I’ve had on this trip. It’s easy to talk about climate change in a textbook setting, but the workshop forced us to look directly at the chain reactions. This included how rising temperatures can lead to droughts, crop failures, displacement, and even armed conflict. I’ve been learning about climate issues since I was a kid, but this experience deepened my understanding of just how interconnected everything is. At the end of the workshop, we each made a personal commitment to reduce our own impact. I promised to make an effort to stop overconsuming by committing to think about the clothes I buy before I purchase them and avoiding red meat. These are small changes but knowing how much higher greenhouse emissions can be without these changes feels like a step in the right direction.
