The week started off strong in Barcelona. Sara, Sam, Neave, Lili, Sachi and I arrived on Friday night and had the most delicious tapas meal. Each dish at the table was better than the next, and this has been my number one favorite meal I’ve had so far. The next day we went to the Basílica de la Sagrada Família and explored some shops and then walked by one of the houses of Gaudi. A highlight of the night was seeing DJ, John Summit, perform at a club called Pacha, and seeing other Lehigh students. This weekend, some of us girls stayed in Rapallo on Saturday night, and enjoyed two beautiful beach days in Santa Margherita on Saturday and Sunday. I had no idea what to expect, as I hadn’t heard of this beach town or Rapallo before, but it blew away all of my expectations. The Airbnb we stayed at had an amazing view of the mountains and we spent the night exploring Rapallo, which we learned was a very lively and authentic city.
A highlight of class this week was the case study regarding the ethical evaluation of Apple’s suppliers. After Apple was under fire for using Foxconn and Pegatron, who have both been criticized for unethical working conditions, the question was posed… if you were Tim Cook, how would you respond? In class we debated if Apple should hold all of their suppliers to the same ethical standards, or apply different standards for different suppliers. I enjoyed hearing different perspectives of the class, and can see both sides of the argument. Apple is an American company with American customers criticized by Americans, so one would think it should be held to American codes of ethics. However I understand that each country is different and there are nuances when it comes to what is acceptable in one country vs another. The WSJ article I read this week also related to this debate. Instead of Apple it was reevaluating Shein’s job of auditing its suppliers.
This week at work was shorter, as I did not work on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Sesto, and Thursday and Friday were spent in Villasanta. I started to make a PowerPoint presentation in order to present a business case to another company. There were some things I needed to add to my write up of the business plan. I did some research regarding the feasibility of the use of hydrogen for glass and metal heating and quenching. One thing I learned is that right now, the cost of using green, renewable hydrogen fuel for such things is 5x as expensive and therefore not worth it to make the switch at this point. In the future, the government may allocate funds and give incentives for companies to make this switch, so once that happens, the market will be larger.
