My name is Josephine. I am a junior at Dickinson studying international business and management and German. I chose to do this course program because I have an interest in using my business degree to help corporations switch to more sustainable business models. I have always been interested learning more about environmental studies/science, but I decided to incorporate it in my business degree when I took Environmental Science for Non-Majors as a college requirement. Taking that class inspired me to want to do better for this planet. I want to start at the top by dealing with corporations who are creating waste products and using dirty energy.
While I grew up moving around the Greater Philadelphia Area, I consider my home to be Unionville, Pennsylvania. This is an area about an hour outside of Philadelphia but has the beautiful scenery of the countryside. Living in Unionville, I was able to walk to local farms to get fresh milk, vegetables, and eggs. I’ve always had some connection to nature. Me and my family love going paddleboarding or hiking with our two dogs. Moving to Unionville really helped me fall in love with spending time outside which is why I call it my home.
Unionville is filled with beautiful horse and dairy farms, nature preserves, and big flowing trees. Some of my favorite memories are from driving around back roads in the summer with all my windows down. The cows grazing the fields, the trees swooshing in the wind, and everything except nature just disappearing. Spending time outside was just something my whole community did. We like to support local businesses mostly because a lot of community members have their own business in town. The socio-economic divide was pretty big however. Because Unionville is an hour outside of Philadelphia and only 30 minutes from Wilmington, Delaware, there are a lot of families who are upper/upper-middle class. I think that because of the higher income levels, the community is more open to supporting local, slightly more expensive, businesses.
In my own home, we try to think consciously about sustainability. My mom is vegan so we do not typically eat a lot of meat, no one else in my family is vegetarian or vegan, we just try to think about what we are eating. As often as possible, we use our reusable grocery bags for shopping and lately we have been buying laundry detergent sheets to cut down on plastic waste. While we are able to do the small stuff around our house, we know that something bigger needs to change.
Despite having such a strong connection to nature, sustainability was never really at the top of anyone’s mind in the wider community. I do not remember talking about environmental issues in schools or at home. Maybe it is because I only lived in Unionville for high school but the area cares about schooling and getting into good colleges. It created a very stressful environment in schools. I hope that sustainability becomes something important to the community because the land we live on has been so good to the area.
Fariyal February 5, 2023
Hi Josephine! It felt extremely refreshing to read your thoughts about sustainability and your experiences in Unionville, Pennsylvania. I really appreciate how unfiltered your thoughts were and value that you took the time to share this. After reading your description of Unionville, I think I understand why you call that place as your home. After all, home is all about the feeling and just imagining a raw environment away from the chaos of metropolitan cities makes me want to visit Unionville. Despite considering the efforts that your family makes to become a sustainable household as “small stuff”, I still believe that you are trying to make a change at your level. Moreover, I really admire your thought process when it comes to choosing your major. It is certainly true that majority of the environmental problems can be associated with big corporations and their waste disposal techniques. It was published in an article that just 100 companies have been the source for 71% of greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. However, do you think that corporations are solely responsible for creating this mess or consumers have a big contribution to why firms act in this way?
Judy afana February 5, 2023
Josephine, you have a genuine interest in combining your passion for environmental studies with your business education, which I find greatly admirable. Alike you, I want to help corporations transition to more sustainable practices and make a positive impact on the planet. It’s amazing to see that your interest in the environment was sparked by a college requirement class, Environmental Science for Non-Majors, and it inspired you to pursue a meaningful career path. Your strong connection to nature, growing up in Unionville, Pennsylvania, and spending time outdoors with your family and dogs, is evident from your descriptions of the beautiful countryside, horse and dairy farms, and big flowing trees.
You and your family are trying to live sustainably at home by being mindful of your food choices, using reusable grocery bags, and cutting down on plastic waste with laundry detergent sheets, which has been greatly appreciated, by not only me but others as well. I find is very endearing that you acknowledge that more needs to be done beyond the small actions taken at home. Unionville seems like a very beautiful place, and you express hope that sustainability becomes more of a priority in the wider community, especially in Unionville, which has such a rich connection to nature. It’s interesting that sustainability was not at the forefront of people’s minds in Unionville when you grew up, and schools focused more on academics and getting into good colleges, which created a stressful environment.
Finally, I would like to say that you have a well-rounded understanding of sustainability and the environment and a desire to make a positive impact. Your background and experiences have equipped you with the knowledge and drive to become an advocate for sustainable business practices and environmental protection.
Ali AlMulla February 5, 2023
Hi Josephine! Thank you for sharing your experience in the place you consider home. Reading what you wrote about Unionville, Pennsylvania reminded me a lot about our culture. Here in the UAE, we spend most of our time on our farms taking care of our camels and falcons. Another similarity we have is hiking, from time to time I head to Ras al-Khaimah and walk there on the mountains with my uncles as they are initially from there. It is something about our culture that we cherish. I also admire your understanding of sustainability and the environment and the desire to make a positive impact.
Tala Shihada February 5, 2023
Hello, Josephine, it’s fascinating to learn about your interest in sustainability and how it has developed from your college studies to your daily life. It’s encouraging to see people take action to protect the environment. Your youth in Unionville, surrounded by magnificent scenery, has had a huge influence on your interest in sustainability. It is disappointing that sustainability was not a common topic in the larger community of Unionville, but it is encouraging to see that people like you and your family are making an impact in small ways. Your attempts to reduce plastic waste by recycling reusable shopping bags and laundry detergent sheets are an outstanding example of how modest adjustments can have a significant impact. Your international business and management courses, paired with your German knowledge, may be a great weapon in assisting firms in transitioning to more sustainable business models. I feel you have the capacity to make a major advancement in the field of sustainability with your enthusiasm and ambition. Keep up the good work and never lose track of your ambitions. Your efforts toward a more sustainable future will be sincerely valued. However, how do you view your degree benefiting you in supporting eco-friendly company practices?
shamma April 11, 2023
Hello Josephine,
Thank you for sharing your trip experience and survey. I really enjoyed reading it. It was really interesting learning about German sustainability, especially since I visited Germany a lot. I did not know that WWI and WWII affected green spaces, but after you mentioned it made sense to me. The new idea you pivoted your research is really interesting to me hope to read it after you are done. I think the results of the older people who lived and saw the change will be more useful for your research as they will have better responses compared to the younger generations. However, I think in order to communicate with them you need to know German because based on my experience communication is really hard there, especially with older people. I was also shocked to know that the government did not do much to bring back forestry. The visit to the VW manufacturing plant seems really nice, I’m an industrial engineering major and I’m really curious to visit a car manufacturing plant, especially in Germany. The VW electric cars ID 4 and ID6 and really popular in the UAE in the last few months. I think Germans depend more on public transportation compared to other countries and it is used by everyone, in our class, we learned about public transportation in the US and that not everyone uses it. I also think that the German economy depends heavily on Automobile manufacturing so it may be affected by the shift and reduction of sales in Germany.
What are some of the difficulties that you faced when doing the survey and getting responses? And if you were to change something in your trip, what would it be?
Good luck!
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