Today we toured the island of Hydra and conducted an interview with a local. Of the islands we’ve visited, Hydra was my favorite. It has a pleasant combination of scenery with plenty of activities to do close to the port. The architecture of the houses and fortifications also appealled to me. For my interview I talked to one of the guides for our donkey tour. Her English was not very good, but we were able to communicate basic concepts about the use of donkeys for tours instead of motorized vehicles. In my interview paper I filled in the blanks from our conversation with observations I had while riding around, and from exploring the town afterward. The day as a whole was among my favorite of the trip. I learned a lot and had a good time with my classmates.

Today I researched the sustainability initiatives related to the insurance company Interamerican. Before today I would have a hard time telling you how an insurance company could make a positive impact on the sustainability goals of a country. After reading their sustainability report and interviews from executives I have learned many procedures and policies an insurance company can take to address the three pillars of sustainability. The report focused mostly on People and Environment, with profit woven into the two. They put a focus on the wellbeing of all stakeholders whether they be customers, investors, employees, or regulators.

1. One way in which I have been pushed outside of my comfort zone is when we altered travel plans on the fly. I usually have everything planned out days or weeks in advance, but during this trip I have had to change plans on the day of or even in the moment itself.

   In class today, my partner and I looked into the controversy over the Firestone tire recall during the late 1990s and 2000s. I learned a lot about how unethical decisions by a company can lead to more than just PR problems. Firestone destroyed their long-term deal with Ford motors by shifting the blame for accidents caused by tire failures onto the vehicles. Their refusal to respond to complaints from the international community and the state of Arizona lead to a delayed response and multiple government investigations resulting in fines.

Of our readings today, the paper on Industrial Symbiosis in practice stood out to me as the most interesting. When imagining industrial symbiosis I think of perfectly in-tune factories, each creating exactly what the others need to function. Obviously, the reality presented in this article is much more nuanced. We often think of minimizing the waste we create, instead this article made me consider how we might maximize certain kinds of waste to limit resource extraction from the natural environment. The largest issue I see with industrial symbiosis is the need for central planning and/or agreements between corporations spanning different industries. There could be inefficiencies that develop because one market behaves differently from another and the symbiotic relationship may break down. These pitfalls were more specifically analyzed in the paper focusing on industrial symbiosis in Greece.

Today we toured the south of the peninsula of Attica. We spent most of our time at the ruins of the temple of Poseidon and the surrounding landscape. I appreciated that it was less crowded and we had more time to ourselves compared to the tour of the Acropolis. Overall, it was relaxing and beautiful.