It’s day two in Iceland, and already the Icelandic sustainable way of life is making itself known in some surprising and really interesting ways. As depicted by my wonderful cover image, we had the opportunity to try some fresh-baked rye bread, with some smoked trout on top. This bread is special, though. It wasn’t baked in an oven. Instead, it was baked underground, using natural heat from one of Iceland’s geothermal springs. Iceland’s famous for its geothermal power plants, but it was really interesting to see how Icelanders harnessed the earth’s heat to do something they’ve been doing since the island was settled: bake some bread.
Iceland’s sustainable way of thinking also really shows in their lack of single-use plastics. Single-use plastics are one of the biggest contributors to oceanic pollution, and Iceland’s showed some creative ways of removing them. We visited a dairy farm, saw some cows, and learned about how important dairy was to the original Icelandic settlers. We also got some ice cream. I chose mango, and it was very good, but the fascinating part was the spoon. You could eat it. In America, most vendors give you a plastic spoon or a wooden spoon that goes to a landfill anyways. But in Iceland, they avoided both plastic and the landfill. Just eat the spoon! Both geothermal baking and edible spoons of very creative Icelandic sustainability, and I’m looking forward to learning about more as the trip goes on.
Swanson School of Engineering 