In the summer of 2019, I traveled to Waldenburg, Germany for an internship with geff GmbH. geff stands for generation efficiency, and is a consulting company that helps other companies save energy and resources. The company is driven by the mission of increasing energy efficiency and reducing resource consumption to improve sustainability. Client companies, which have included BMW, Carl Zeiss, Deutsche Bahn, and several German universities, were audited, analyzed, and optimized to majorly curb energy/resource use and save money.

View of Waldenburg on the hill

My job as an intern was to identify potential clients and create informational briefings for contacting and connecting with companies. I accompanied my boss and co-workers on client visits in town and around southern Germany. I was able to sit in on meetings to discuss biogas feasibility, automotive production hall automation, and warehouse advanced lighting technology.

As I became more familiar with particular partners and technologies, I was put in charge of processing data logs from waste water treatment units in Asheville, NC. I would receive complex and unorganized logs from vacuum distillation systems, which I would then analyze and then summarize into monthly and weekly reports for our client. They were interested to see how this industrial wastewater treatment system would distill water in an energy-efficient manner and produce a concentrated, solid waste product.

By removing and cleaning more than 90% of the water content coming off of the die casting machines, the client company was able to reuse water and therefore reduce its demand for fresh water from the city. Additionally, it saved money and reduced its carbon footprint by reducing the amount of waste product it has to dispose of. Without the vacuum distillation system, the company would have had to pay for the constant removal and transport of wastewater to another facility. Now, the die casting company could do all of this onsite, save money, and be more eco-friendly.

The final component of my internship was cultural. I helped translate marketing material into English and helped build the companies US-facing website. Many of their brochures and website pages had been partially translated, but much of it did not make sense. I helped relay the mission messages and difficult to translate passages into natural, digestible English for US audiences. The company was planning to build a new headquarter in the US after the successful project in Asheville.

While I learned during this internship that I did not wish to enter the private sector in this way, the experience was invaluable. I learned about German and international business, and how sustainability works in the economic sphere. I expanded my language mastery and made connections with leaders in green technology. As a small family business, geff GmbH relied heavily on familial and friendly community relations, even as it expanded. I was surprised that even in the corporate world, it all comes down to people knowing other people, and working together to achieve common goals…