Wow! I can’t believe it is officially the last day in the Netherlands. It has gone by so quickly. Today, we started by heading over to the Floating Farm. The Floating Farm is the only one in the world to start raising cows and making cattle-based products on the water. Here, they make a lot of milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. The top floor is the cowshed, the middle floor is where they focus on the production of products, and the lower level, which is below water level, is where they age the cheese, and they have recently started incorporating the growth of vegetables and plants. They strive to reach 100% sustainability and expand their company to other cities around the world. As of right now, for sustainability measures, they have a floating area attached to the farm full of solar panels. Additionally, they have a rainwater collection system, leading it to the cows to use as drinking water. Moreover, they have found a way to separate the urine from the cow manure to be able to make water and pellets to be able to use the manure as fertilizer and make bio-based products. They have automated the feeding and milking systems by using chips around the cows’ necks to be able to detect which cow it is, as well as monitor their health. Overall, even though only 65% of their energy comes from the solar panels, they have implemented many different aspects to incorporate sustainability in their work.
We later went to RDM Rotterdam. RDM is an old shipyard that has been converted into a mixture of startup areas, labs, and maker spaces for both the Technical College of Rotterdam and the University of Applied Science of Rotterdam. To be more specific, they divided the area in half, one half for the universities to use for student projects, making it easy for students to have the freedom to perform and test school projects in a safe and controlled area. On the other side, they have divided the area into rentable spaces for start-up companies for a cheaper rate than outside and have a community of a lot of other companies and universities in the same area. In the middle of the building, they have also included a greenhouse where they have the main maker space area accessible by both the startups and the students. This idea was really inspiring to me, seeing how people from different ages, backgrounds, and levels of education can all come together to help each other thrive and succeed.
This global experience has been an incredible opportunity both to grow as a person and enhance my learning in engineering subjects, but more specifically, in sustainability. Thanks to the SSOE Global Experience Office, Dr. Kerzmann, and Dr. Dukes, I’ve grown intellectually and expanded my knowledge in subjects I am very much interested in.