During our Green Supply Chain Management Lectures, we were able to hear from 2 guest speakers, one from the US embassy and one who works in sustainability at the American college of Greece. They were both interesting and very unique, and made me feel immersed in the business economy of Greece. For the first one revolving around sustainability on campus, she discussed how these practices have come to fruition over the past few years, and how both faculty and students have taken positive steps toward sustainability on campus. One point she made that I found interesting was about the reusable water bottles. She said students recently have been carrying them around more, and just filling up at the water bottle refilling stations around campus when need be. She made the connection that reusable water bottles have been popular in the states for some time, and that this being an American college in Greece, its almost as if the American students have started a “trend” towards reusable water bottles. She said for a while, and many people still do just buy plastic water bottles from the store then throw them away when they’re done. This made sense to me because when grocery shopping, I noticed how cheap these plastic water bottles were. They were less than or around 50 cents a bottle. Meaning there isn’t much of a financial incentive to reusable water bottles, which doesn’t necessarily help this transition. But by outsiders coming in and showing a new way of doing things, practices have started to change on campus. 

Our second guest speaker came from the US embassy. I really enjoyed hearing the three women talk, because it is a field that me and many others could pursue, but maybe haven’t heard much about. Being an ambassador is a very unique lifestyle that is vastly different from what I grew up with, which made it very interesting to hear from them. Being someone who grew up in the same house her whole life, and never moved until college, and didn’t even leave the country until 2023, I can’t even imagine moving every 4 years to a different foreign country. Additionally, I hadn’t considered the business aspect of a job like that. From my prior (and brief) understanding of ambassadors, it seemed like they dealt more with governmental and policy issues, as opposed to business. So it was interesting to hear how she implements American products and chains into Greek culture. I also found it cool to hear about her experiences working with the president. While I knew it must be a lot of work to invite the President of the United States, who knew they had to even rehearse angles for pictures, and everything down to the glass of his hotel room had to be perfect. Overall I really enjoyed hearing from them, and learning about a new perspective, that I hadn’t quite considered yet.