We solemnly started our last day, waking up early and prepared for a lot of morning tours. Our first destination for the day was the Floating Farm, an innovative dairy farm design aimed at transitioning to a greener alternative for dairy farming through the reduction of many high-carbon emitting processes.

One of the ways the Floating Farm reduces carbon emissions is by reducing the travel time of produce by being stationed near urban cities. The idea for having the farm floating was born out of a conference on floating cities, where one of the two creators of the current Floating Farm was in attendance. Here, he realized that having farms be floating near cities would eliminate the need for transportation on a mass-scale, and also reduce the need for giant farmlands. The floating farm is small and can be fitted easily into most water spaces, which allows for it’s wide-scale future use.

However, since the farm is so small (25m by 25m), it can only carry around 36 cows. Compared to a regular dairy farm, this number is minuscule and the price of the produce shows it. The dairy products from the farm are sold for almost double the price they would be from a normal dairy farm.

The other ways that the farm reduces carbon emissions are through green energy sources and food-waste cow feed. The farm has a floating array of solar panels next to it, which powers around 60% of the farms energy usage. They are also experimenting with university students on small wind power systems. Although this doesn’t fuel the entire farm, it does enough. Finally, the farm uses food-waste to incorporate into the cow feed, which results in both a reduction in methane production by the cows digestion, and utilization of food waste.

After the farm, we went to the RDM, a center for innovation that is inside an old part of a port. The RDM is a space that collaborates with both the University of Rotterdam and Rotterdam Technical School to provide students with spaces to work on design, creation, and real-life applications of the concepts they learn. They encourage student innovation and ideas on how to improve the building. Additionally, they offer a space for rent to companies and start-ups that need a place to work. However, they have an interview system and only rent out spaces to companies that meet the vision of RDM: improving the port/city, and pushing forward green principles. This way, many smaller companies with good plans have a place to work as well.

Overall, both these tours were really interesting and educational, and I was excited at everything I was seeing throughout my time.