Sustainability Students Visit the German Embassy

On Thursday, April 30, as a final activity of the 2025-2026 academic year for the Sustainability LLC and Sustainability Minors, Professors Angela Melidosian and Michael Svoboda led a group of 35 students on a visit to the Embassy of Germany, just east of GW’s Mount Vernon Campus on Reservoir Road. There they were met by Clemens Helbach, Counselor for Environment, Climate, and Urban Development. Standing at the front of the glass-walled auditorium, an architectural expression of Germany’s postwar commitment to openness and transparency, Helbach addressed questions about the origins, design, and organization of the embassy, about the lives and short in-country tenures of members of the foreign service, about Germany’s experience of climate change and its role in climate policy and sustainable development, and about his own experiences in the U.S. (He very much enjoyed living in DC—he and his family are returning to Germany in July—and he was quite taken by a short trip he made to Montana earlier this year.)  On the walk back to the Vern (and the Vex to Foggy Bottom), students expressed their appreciation for this revealing look at the work of international policymaking in sustainability.