A Photo Tour of Green City 2024

Aug 29, 2024 | by Catha Mayor

Twenty students participated in this year's "Green City" German/Engineering FSP based in Berlin. Students combine coursework focused on "green" engineering with German language and cultural immersion in an environment where sustainability is a lived practice.

"Being part of the Green City program has been an incredible journey, not only for our students, but also for the faculty," says Dartmouth Engineering Professor Petra Bonfert-Taylor, the program's co-director. "Watching students immerse themselves in Berlin's vibrant culture and seeing them develop into thoughtful, globally-minded engineers and environmental advocates has been truly inspiring."

Generous host parents invited the entire group over for dinner.

Visiting "Bagger 1452," a 36-yard-tall bucket wheel excavator used for brown coal mining until 1997. The tour guide, who had operated the excavator, spoke about missing his work and the community he had with his fellow miners. Hearing his mixed feelings about Germany's transition to clean energy helped students realize how profoundly energy transitions can affect people's lives.

Students attended a zero-waste cooking workshop.

Taking the ferry to Pellworm Island—a tiny island of 14.3 square miles just off the Northern-German coast.

Pellworm Island is home to approximately 1,200 people and almost three times as many sheep. The group visited to explore the strategies people on the island use to combat climate change. The island itself is between 1.5 and 2.5 meters below sea level and completely walled in with a dike. Rising sea levels presents a severe threat to life on Pellworm, and living sustainably has become an existential question for its people.

Some residents of Pellworm Island.

In Their Own Words

"It felt uniquely northern German to be on Pellworm and have the privilege of hearing from locals about the reality of how climate change and energy legislation affect them." —Aedan Brundrett '25

"Pellworm served as a case study of climate change's impact and an opportunity to see it on multiple levels. The existence of such an island was surprising to me in and of itself. The commitment of the residents to preserve the island was similarly so." —Thea Kunzle '25

"Through the dikes we felt the island's climate adaptation and mitigation methods with our very feet, and through the animals and beautiful lands, we felt the real, urgent necessity of combating climate change to protect vulnerable places such as Pellworm. It was fascinating to hear about the German energy policies and their changes over time from a local resident living through the policies' impacts." —Helen Deng '26

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