The first thing I noticed about Iceland, other than the cold weather, was the sustainability measures they had implemented across the city. In order to save energy, lights automatically turn off when you leave a room, stores do not offer free bags for shopping to limit the amount of trash, and their warm water is all heated via geothermal energy. In addition, Icelanders behave much differently than we do in the United States. In the US it is common for one to say excuse me or sorry if they are in the way of someone, however here people just keep moving and do not really address you if you are in their way. I found that interesting because it eliminates several unnecessary awkward interactions with the locals and allows for us as tourists to relax and enjoy our time here knowing that we are not interrupting their routines. In the US we LOVE small talk, however, in Iceland, I have noticed people are often blunt and efficient in their words and chose to get things done rather than dwell on tasks. In terms of business, Iceland operates on a much smaller scale – and when I say small I mean 13 employees in NASDAQ’s stock sales division – which is crazy compared to the NYSE. Iceland is also much less populated than other nations, only having around 400,000 permanent residents, so it makes sense as to why they can capitalize on implementing sustainable policies into their day-to-day operations. They also have access to an immense amount of geothermal energy from all of the hot springs and volcanic activity across the island. The Icelanders make sure to put the steam power to use and often use it as electricity or use power plants to transfer the heat to homes across towns to heat their water supply for bathing/dishes/etc. If the US were to attempt to implement these measures it would probably come at a heavy cost because we would need to do it on a MUCH larger scale, so although possible and beneficial it is quite difficult.
