Hi my name is Mikaela Dougherty and I am an international business major at CofC with a minor in Global logistics and transportation and a minor in marketing. I decided to attend ACG in Athens for my study abroad. So far this trip has been awesome. My favorite experience from this trip has been meeting new friends and getting to explore multiple islands with them. We took the ferry to aegina island last week and got to walk around the town and swim at their beach. It was so beautiful and so fun. We also got to visit a variety of different temples around Greece.

Our second day of the course was wonderful! We were able to visit Poseidon’s temple which was really beautiful. It stood out to me amongst the other temples because of its beautiful location overlooking the sea. It was followed by a wonderful traditional lunch on the beach where lots of us swam and relaxed before our return to Athens. We also read about Eco-innovation in Greece. It was really interesting to learn that Greece is 25th on the global scale of the Environmental Performance Index which is really good. While they are still working to reach a higher score in Eco-innovation, they are certainly improving each year. They currently have a standing score of 70, while the EU average is 100. The government has placed lots of initiatives to increase their eco-innovation in lots of different categories such as energy production, waste management, water resources, and more. Greece is certainly improving its environmental standards each year!

The readings from today were very interesting, especially the Eco-innovation in Greece. I did not know how important it was for Greeks to use renewable energies and energy efficient methods. It is really encouraging to see their efforts to improve their eco innovation performance. I have noticed many Greeks take the metro places and I feel like taking public transportation is just one way they a trying to reduce their global footprint. Additionally, I thought the section about energy efficiency in Greece was interesting. The way the have been developing technologies for solar energy and photovoltaic is huge for them. Overall, I really liked reading this article because it opened my eyes to the environment of Greece and what they are trying to do as country.

I really enjoyed our tour of Temple of Poseidon today. I thought it was beautiful how it was right on the water. It reminded me a little bit of the Parthenon. It was so cool how you could see it from the beach at lunch and when we went swimming in the ocean. I learned that it was built in the 5th century and is the typical Greek style. Overall, I really enjoyed our tour and will always remember how beautiful the views were.

Something I have experience that has been out of my comfort zone this trip was definitely taking public transportation. I had never taken a public bus or metro un the U.S. so doing it for the first time and in another country was definitely a little frightening at first. I am glad we have been taking the public transportation options here and I am starting to get more comfortable using them. Also, I think it is a great way to save money because they are much cheaper than getting taxis.

A fact I learned about Nike was that they have been dealing with acquisitions of sweat shops since the 1990s. Nike is a popular company who we researched has sweatshops in developing countries like India and Indonesia where they pay their workers below minimum wage. These factories are in terrible conditions and they often violate fire hazard rules. They have tried to come out with lists of each factories location to prove their conditions are better but as a multi million dollar company, they should be doing way more for their employees.

Here is a picture of me from the Parthenon below! I loved seeing this site and the history here!

Elizabeth Hall

05/30/22

This picture is from a beach club we visited for lunch in Mykonos.

Last weekend most of our class went on a short trip to Mykonos. Lila and I booked an air bnb to stay in together; we also had to book our transportation. We decided to buy ferry tickets because they were cheaper than airline tickets and they offered a student discount. When booking the tickets, I accidentally booked them for the weekend of June 17^th; and we only realized this mistake at 1am the night before we were leaving. Although we fixed the mistake, it was very stressful. Making my own transportation arrangements here is stressful because I am unfamiliar with public transportation and I am in a foreign country where I do not understand the language. 

The company I researched in class was Nike. Nike has been known to produce their sneakers and activewear in unethical sweatshops since the 1970s, but it was only in 1991 that activist Jeff Ballinger published a report describing the low wages and poor working conditions in Nike’s sweatshops. There most common in developing countries like India, Indonesia, and Thailand where labor laws are rarely enforced. These factories are often hosted in decomposing building which are overcrowded with underpaid employees and pose fire dangers. Under pressure to make changes to improve the wages and conditions of their workers, Nike worked to become a member of the sustainable apparel coalition. Nike has claimed to use reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated from their operations and supply chains; but there is no evidence to support this.

Between chapter one and two my favorite reading was chapter one. It was interesting to discover all the different resources that business ethics includes. Such as psychology, business management, organizational behavior, leadership studies, and sociology. The chapter gives you the tools to investigate ethical questions that arise at individual, organizational, and social/political levels. The chapter also lays out the clear goals of our business ethics class: creating ethical organizations, thinking through social, economic, and political policies that we should support as citizens; developing our knowledge base and skills that we need to identify ethical issues, understanding how and why people behave unethically, and deciding then how we should act, what we should do, and the kind of person we should be individually.

The tour of Sounio was very informative and opened my eyes to another part of Athens. I enjoyed the tour of Poseidon’s Temple and it was fascinating to see the historical artifacts surrounding it. The entire city was beautiful and it was very unique compared to the other parts of Athens I have previously visited.
The reading on Industrial Symbiosis is very intriguing and informative. I had never heard of the term “Industrial Symbiosis” before and now I know that it refers to the relationship between two firms and how they exchange their waste products. I also learned that waste is separated into 7 categories based on its physical characteristics and were the waste originated from.

The article “Industrial symbiosis in Greece” was most interesting to me, as I enjoyed the way the paper was structured and showed how companies created multilevel eco-industrial networks to combat the creation of waste at the source. Industrial Symbiosis is the relationship between 2 or more firms that exchange their waste, whether that be materials, energy, or waste. To fully understand the factors that play a role, they are divided into economic, environment (physical), and social factors. This way we are able to see what is causing the most damage. Todays tour was about an hour outside of Athens on the coast in Sounio. We got to visit Poseidons temple, which is an Ancient Greek temple dedicated to the Greek god of Poseidon. My favorite part of this tour was being able to see the water behind the temple. It reminded me a lot of the acropolis, as well. 

Something new I learned in our readings was that Greece was so concerned with climate change due to the fact it is in an island environment. One fun thing from our tour yesterday was swimming in Poseidons pool that was cool.

Hi my name is Delaney Lambert! I am a rising senior at CofC studying international business with a minor in global logistics and transportation. On this trip so far one thing that has brought me out of my comfort zone was traveling alone to Europe and once I arrived here figuring out the different modes of transportation. The company I researched in class today was Exxon and I learned a lot I did not know about their unethical business practices. Exxon knew for years that their unethical business practices were altering the climate and chose to deceive the public by downplaying the issues they are creating. They have been sued multiple times due to their effects on the climate, making them less competitive with other forms of energy such as solar or wind energy. One of my favorite parts on this trip has been experiencing the culture of Greece and seeing all the stray cats on the streets.

Two things that got me out of my comfort zone this trip was talking to locals that I met and taking the public transportation. Talking to locals can seem intimidating at first, especially not knowing if they speak English and not wanting to be disrespectful either. I haven’t had one bad experience though, and everyone I met has been super friendly and outgoing. Taking public transportation was interesting to figure out as a group especially with the signs being in Greek and remembering the correct train station name and bus stop number. Today, I learned about Walmart’s ethical scandal that I had no prior knowledge about. Walmart has been accused of violating a variety of workers rights, from underpaying foreign workers and denying over time pay. There has even been malpractice lawsuits within the company.