Hello! My name is Drew Poling, and I am freshman at the University of Pittsburgh, originally from Columbus, Ohio. I am studying civil engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering, and I hope to pursue an Engineering for Humanity certificate and possibly a minor in architecture. Outside of my academic pursuits at the university, I…
Tag: Plus3 The Netherlands
The Netherlands
All Roads Lead To Netherlands
Hello, my name is Juan Pablo Colmenares Bittar. I am a first-year Natural Gas, Renewables, and Oil Engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh. Originally, I am from Downingtown, PA, about 45 minutes away from Philadelphia, and I chose Pitt because of the excellent opportunity it provides. I’m very excited to pursue a career in…
Plus3 & Me: to the Netherlands!
Hi! I am Madelyn Palmer, a native of the Pittsburgh suburbs and a first-year Swanson School of Engineering student. I intend to major in chemical engineering, minor in chemistry, and complete the Certificate of Sustainability. At Pitt, I am in the Frederick Honors College, the Engineers for a Sustainable World club, and the Resident Student…
Excited for The Netherlands!
Hi! I’m Aleks Fiedler, a Pittsburgh native and a First-Year student in the Swanson School of Engineering studying Chemical Engineering. I also will be working towards a minor in Materials Science Engineering and the sustainability certificate during my time at Pitt. While at Pitt so far, I’ve joined the Engineers without borders chapter, Pitt AIChE,…
Destination: Netherlands
Hi, my name is Maggie and I am from the Philadelphia area. I am a first year student here at SSOE and FHC studying Civil Engineering. I want to use my life to build a greener world for everyone, so I am really excited to learn about sustainability in the Netherlands. While I am here…
Afloat With Possibilities: Floating Farms of the Netherlands
For the twelfth, and last proper day within the Netherlands, our Plus3 Group went to the world’s first and only Floating Farm. During this visit, we learned about the various products produced by the Floating Farm’s cows. The process revolves around circular design; every piece of produce gets used. One example regards the reuse of…
Grow With the Flow: The Natural Irrigation of Rotterdam
For the eleventh day of the Plus3 Netherlands trip, our group toured the city of Rotterdam’s natural infrastructure to understand how urban designers accounted for sustainable flood prevention. Holland heavily emphasizes floodwater control due to the elevation of the Netherlands mostly remaining below sea level causing floods to occur often. As part of the guided…
Tot Straks, Holland
Today was our last day in the Netherlands. I can’t believe how fast time passed, but I’m so grateful to have shared this experience with my fellow students and professors. We started our day at the Floating Farm, which was one of our most anticipated visits of the trip. We attended a brief presentation on…
Day 12: Goodbye, Holland! :(
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…
Final Fantastic Day in the Netherlands: Day 12
Sadly, today was our final full day in the Netherlands, sadly meaning my amazing experience with this trip and trip group is coming to an end. Despite this, today was one of the most rewarding days regarding sustainability topics, with today’s visits to the floating farm and to RDM both producing a litany of interesting…
Day 12: Double Dutch (Company Visits)
Today we had the opportunity to visit not one, but TWO different companies for our last full day in the Netherlands. Our day began with a long shuttle ride to the Floating Farm, which is, you guessed it, a dairy farm that floats on water. The idea behind the business is to minimize the effects…
A Finale of Cattle and Innovation
Today was our last day in the Netherlands. We went to a floating farm, a warehouse of learning and business development, and finally, a nice farewell dinner. After a hotel breakfast and a short water taxi ride there, we toured the Rotterdam floating farm. We first got a short presentation about the farm and its…
A Floating Farm Farewell (5/22)
Day 12, our last day in the Netherlands, was a relaxed ending to our amazing trip. We started our morning with a visit to the Floating Farm. Karel, our guide, explained how the farm was inspired by a floating cities presentation that Minke and Peter, the two founders, went to in New York right around…
Day 11: Romping Around Rotterdam
Today was a short day, but it was still packed with activity. The day began with a walk to the seven-floor office building housing DakAkker, an entirely green, 1,000 square meter rooftop garden. In the lobby, we met with our tour guide, and we turned right around to see the surrounding areas before stepping onto…
Dakakker
5/21/25 Today, we had the pleasure of touring Dakakker, a facility with over 1,000 square meters of green roof space. This space includes a vegetable farm, bee hives, and a chicken coop. This space is extremely sustainable in many ways. To begin, producing local produce and animal product is inherently more sustainable. The roof top…
Ranch & Research
5/22/25 Today, we had the opportunity to tour the floating farm which (as one may guess) is a farm that is floating on the water. As with any farm, the floating farm had to consider a path to make themselves a sustainable place. One stride they make towards sustainability is utilizing food that would otherwise…
See you next time Netherlands! Day 12 in Rotterdam
Today we had our last day in Rotterdam, and more importantly The Netherlands, before leaving tomorrow morning. We started out by visiting a floating farm that was founded in order to find a better solution to feeding the community while combatting climate change. Extreme temperatures and rain events are becoming more common, which makes farming…
05/22 – Floating Farm & RDM Rotterdam
Today was a really nice way to wrap up our trip–we toured the Floating Farm, which was the company I presented on during our pre-departure meetings, so I was excited to see it in person, and we also toured RDM Rotterdam. These visits were both very informational and inspiring to see the plethora of ways…
Day 12: Sea the Future of Farming
Our final day started with an exciting visit to the Floating Farm. We first started with a quick presentation that went over the Floating Farms entire premise and promoted its sustainable efforets. Our presentator explained that the Floating Farm is a small farm that is in the water supported by a platform that moves with…
One Last Day (Day 12)
All good things must come to an end, and this stood true on Day 12–our last day in the Netherlands before departing back to Pittsburgh. Today was a day filled with lessons on sustainability, but also a bittersweet goodbye to this experience that I have cherished. In the morning, we visited the Rotterdam Floating Farm,…