This article discusses the eco-innovation within Greece. It uses the eco-innovation observatory to determine all of the concluding facts. This observatory is a platform for a structured collection and analysis of extensive range of eco-innovation and circular economic information from the European Union. One of the strongest impacts on the Greek environment is climate change and intensive ecosystem pollution. These traits are the strongest due to the island nature of the country. Greek environmental policy focuses on promotion of renewable energies and energy efficiency measures that can promote eco-innovation. Renewable energies can include solar, wind, and tidal. The country also focuses on growth in green and alternative tourism and innovation within agriculture and the food industry. Greece is seven points below the European Union’s average on performance. This gives Greece a score of 75. This also shows that they are ranked 27^th out of 28. A cause of this could potentially by the low number of patent applications within Greece. Greece, however, is ranked 25^th overall on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). They show an average performance in air quality, fish stocks, and GHS emission intensity. Greece does face challenges within this sector. These include air emissions from transport and electricity power stations, overexploitation of water resources, degradation of coastal zones, and loss of biodiversity in terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The Greek economy is mainly dominated by the tertiary sector, which includes services in tourism, shipping, and the public sector. The innovativeness of the economy depends on imported technology and organizational and marketing innovations. However, eco-innovation input is determined based on national indicators of the government’s environmental and energy research and development appropriations and outlays, research and development personnel, and green investments. According to the Operation Programme on Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, it will take 28.8 million for promotion costs for research and development and another 28.3 million to support green growth efforts. This lacks a clear and cohesive framework to support eco-innovation and eco-industries. The Action Plan for Implementation of National Strategy for Research, Technology Development, and Innovation focuses on industrial waste management, anti-pollution technologies and industrial symbiosis, climate change mitigation, access to environmental information, and mitigation of natural disasters. This research relies on a large extent of external funding, which would come from the European Union’s structural funds and research funds. With Law 4685, the protection of the natural environment will ensure sustainable development and termination of energy dependency of Greece on coal.

This reading discussed the industrial symbiosis within Greece. The article goes into depth about the study of spatial allocation patterns. It mentions how there are different levels of eco-industrial networks. These include physical, spatial, economic, and environmental. The spatial scale, as mentioned above, is the main focus of this article. This sector deals with five areas. This includes the industrial park (IP), local (LOC), regional (REG), national (NAT), and global (GLO). These areas define where the producer and recipient are located within Greece. Industrial symbiosis is the relationship between 2 or more firms that exchange their waste as feedstock for the production process, which then forms industrial ecosystems. Industrial ecosystems are made up of eco-industrial ecosystems and eco-industrial networks. This approach helps pollution prevention, which uses materials, processes, and practices to decrease the creation of waste at the source. The main elements of this approach are recycling and the reuse of industrial waste and end-of-life products. Waste can be materials, energy, or water. This approach was researched through case studies within the Greek industry. Research was conducted through achieves of ministry of economics, personal professional experience of authors in the field on environmental industrial controls, and contacts and interviews with administration of a majority of industrial parks in Greece and executives of various businesses. This article researched 455 case studies and 16 eco-industrial networks. Through this research, they were able to identify and document 45 waste types. For the unit of analysis, single cases were used, not entire networks. In the article, special factors that affected spatial allocation of eco-industrial networks were discussed. Physical characteristics of waste, waste compatibility, spatial allocation of waste sources, production capacity of waste by spatial scale, land acquisition cost, labor cost, transportation cost, and behavioral factors are the main special factors that were discussed. For the physical characteristics of waste, it mentions how the transportation of waste heat energy is from power stations, which takes the form of superheated water. For the waste compatibility, it permits its direct use, and mentions how waste from agriculture activities, which can include malt, seed, and residues, can be widely used as raw material in other rural activities. Overall, this article helped define how Greece is using spatial factors and analysis to help determine the correct and most efficient way to handle waste management. Hopefully, through industrial symbiosis, Greece can control their waste management efforts to their best ability.

I absolutely loved our class trip to Hydra. This by far was my favorite island. I love how it seemed like a small town where locals can enjoy the tourists for a few days but can still enjoy their land. It reminded me a lot of my hometown. The reading for Hydra was interesting because I got to learn more about the way the island operates as a tourist destination, but also how it maintains life for the local Hydra residents. The one thing that is noticeable when going to the island is how there are no cars except for a couple of trash trucks. In this day in age, it is rare to find a piece of society that still operates this way. This trait makes them look eco-friendly because they are cutting out carbon emissions. Even though people say they do not use cars because there is no place for them to be driven, it still allows them to maintain a sustainable advantage. However, the island is not as sustainable as one may think. The garbage disposal process uses the “out of sight, out of mind” technique where they burn all the garbage in a disclosed area. This is not great for the environment, as we have learned, because this releases toxic chemicals into the area. These man-made chemicals are some of the worst ones for humans, as well. Adding to this, their wastewater is pumped into the sea in the dead of night, which can alter life in the sea. The small island has been growing in popularity as a tourist destination over the years. This raises a social issue problem. Many people have summer houses in Hydra, but these people live like locals. However, over the years, housing costs have increased, which has caused people who live on the island full time not be able to afford a place to live. A small minority becomes rich at the expense of a majority, which is not sustainable to the community. Forcing people out of their original community has increased the social tension. The main thing that is being affected are the local economic activities. This can include fishing and agriculture, which is a big part of the island. However, with the social tension, these traits have collapsed, which makes it hard to support the country economically. Overall, Hydra is a beautiful place that needs to improve its sustainable efforts.

I have learned a significant amount about linear and circular economies during the span of the course, which is interesting because I was not informed about this topic prior to the class. I understand the traditional form of supply chain, which is the linear model. This is where the products or services are thrown out at the end of the cycle. However, a circular economy closes this traditional loop, which allows products and services to be used as long as possible. This reduces waste because everything that is produced can be transferred and used somewhere else within the supply chain. The circular economy designs out waste and pollution, keeps products and materials in use, and regenerates living systems. This makes this economy more sustainable for our world. The mindset with this economy is that “nothing is lost, everything is transformed”. Regeneration is a key concept within a circular economy. This means that products and services, within this form of economy, contribute to systems that renew or replenish themselves throughout various life cycles, which means that there are multiple forms of uses. Over 90% of raw materials are not reused, so this shows how much of a need a circular economy is in this day and age. Our current industrial economy is dominated by the linear process, which supports the fact that humanity today uses an equivalent of 1.6 Earths to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. Even more scary, 8-% of the $3.2 trillion worth of materials used each year is not even recovered. We need a circular economy more than ever. There are benefits within the economic, business, environment, and consumer sectors. For example, new jobs are created, volatility is stabilized, greenhouse gas emissions are lowered, and health is improved. However, there are some barriers within a circular economy. The barriers are within cultural, market, regulatory, and technological sectors. With the cultural sector, we lack awareness and willingness to engage with the circular economy. In the market sector, we lack the economic viability of circular econ business models. In the regulatory sector, we lack policies that support a circular economic transition. In the technological sector, we lack the technology needed to implement a circular economy. Overall, I hope we will be able to slowly phase out of the linear supply chain model and adopt a circular economy due to the sustainable impacts that come with making the transition.

Over the week, we were able to listen to two guest speakers during our Green Supply Chain Management course. The first speaker was from the American College of Greece’s department of sustainability. Here, she spoke about what the college does to help improve their sustainable mindset, goals, and attitudes. I found the most important details in the discussion to be about how sustainability is not just focused on environmental issues. Sustainability can feature social, political, environmental, and other topics. I enjoyed getting to hear her perspective about how creating funds for the students to attend the American College of Greece allows a social sustainable mindset to be formed. I liked her perspective about changing the sustainability colors for the school from green to blue and orange. This allows the topic to cover more of a broad scope and allows people’s perceptions to think about other topics and not just environmental issues.

I loved getting to hear the discussion between the people who work at the United State’s Embassy in Greece. I was not educated about international business or even what the United States Embassy provides, so everything that was discussed was truly interesting. I am interested in working for small businesses, and eventually opening my own, and it was interesting to hear about the services they provide for these businesses who want to expand internationally. I enjoyed hearing the stories about how they started working for the embassy, and what their roles are currently. The amount of travel was what truly shocked me the most. After hearing that diplomats can be relocated every four years, I understood that it takes a special person to do this occupation. It was interesting to hear how the government pays for the necessary items, that would be expected in the United States, for the United States employees. I found it interesting the kind of work the diplomats must do. I was not sure exactly what their job consisted of, so it was exciting to hear about all the trade decisions they get to be a part of. I thought all the ladies were incredible presenters who truly wanted us to get the most out of their conversation. I never thought about expanding a business internationally, but they truly made me consider it for the future. I am glad to have learned from the office of sustainability and the United States embassy during class this week.

This week, we discussed chapter 1, 2, and 6. Before this class, I only knew the general overview of the supply chain. Throughout this week, I learned about how supply chain is the distribution of products and services through the factory level and onto the retail level. I learned that communication through the different stages can be difficult, and planning is essential to keep businesses afloat. I learned that there can be multiple forms of supply chains. The closed loop supply chain allows products to be kept in a circular motion, which allows sustainable practices to be present within the distribution process. This is unlike the traditional, linear method, where once products are delivered, they are completed. The products do not get to live another life. Within the closed loop supply chain, reverse logistics can be applied. This means that products can be recaptured from the original point of origin, which highlights sustainability. I learned that eco-design is important to the supply chain. I was not aware that 70 to 80 percent of costs to produce products are determined and fixed within the design stage of the product’s life cycle. This allows companies to consider environmentally friendly designs, or even incorporate the reuse of materials. This eco-design is considered the ultimate pollution prevention tool. There are five major steps for creating an eco-design product. Companies must assess environmental impacts, research the market, run ideas workshops through brainstorming, select design strategies, and design the product. Certain tools that should be added to eco-design products include simplicity, are easily obtainable, are precisely defined, are objective, valid, robust, and enhances understanding. Another topic I enjoyed learning about was pollution and how the supply chain is affected by it. Extraction is causing our planet to run out of resources, which in turn, trashes out planet. One-third of the natural resources have been consumed because of toxic chemicals. Humans create four billion pounds of pollution per year, which does not put our world in a good position for the future. This affects the supply chain by influencing companies to sell toxic junk as quickly as possible. 99 percent of products are trashed within six months. This has led to a decrease in overall happiness within our population. We need to address the problem that is creating a harmful environment for our future. Through a green supply chain, the world can have solutions to fix our damaged environment.