Our visit with Allied Irish Banks and Goodbody Clearstream was an incredibly rewarding experience, and I learned a great deal of valuable information and insights.

Firstly, I want to share that my dreams of sitting in a boardroom in business clothing with my notebook and pen have been fulfilled (yes, this is actually something I have always wanted to do). Not only that, but they provided us with coffee, tea, and fresh, warm pastries. Yes, they were warm. The apple pie pastry was everything I’ve wanted and more.

Once we began, we got the privilege of hearing and learning from Paul Kelly, Katie Heston, and John McGeown. They shared with us that the entirety of the EU is striving to be carbon-neutral, which made the environmentalist in me very happy.

John McGeown shared information about AIB’s climate action fund, specifically that their climate action target is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030. I found this to be wildly impressive, and I hope that more American companies will begin/continue to implement similar targets and initiatives for the sake of our planet and overall betterment of society. John also noted the importance of trusting and believing in science and taking sustainability initiatives seriously. He informed us that focusing on sustainability practices is critical, as it helps the communities AIB and Goodbody Clearstream serve. As he noted, not only is it helping communities, but it is just the right thing to do.

I genuinely enjoyed our visit to AIB, and I cannot wait for all of our other visits we have planned for the rest of our trip!

Sláinte!