As winter temperatures drop and Physical Plant ratchets up the thermostats, opening a window to let in a bit of cool air in may seem enticing, but two student environmentalist groups on campus are trying to change that. On Wednesday, Feb. 20, the Sustainability Advisory Group for Environmental Stewardship (SAGES) and the Environmental Organizer’s Network (EON) sought to address the issue of heating inefficiency in the University’s dorms and wood frames in their jointly sponsored event, “Some Like it Hot.”

All students were invited to join the think tank and contribute to the discussion with representatives from SAGES, EON, Residential Life (ResLife), Physical Plant, and other constituents of the University community.

“SAGES holds monthly meetings where administrators, staff, and faculty meet with student representatives to discuss sustainability on campus and environmental issues,” explained Oliver James ’14, a former coordinator of EON. “EON is a student group that does the same thing except with students. At the end of my term, one of the things I wanted to make happen was to bring those two spheres together. It was logical merging that needed to happen.”

Sustainability Coordinator Jennifer Kleindienst has been working over the past few months to make SAGES a more effective presence on campus.

“One of the ideas we came up with was to develop these think tanks related to sustainability that we might not be able to talk about extensively,” Kleindienst said.

The idea for the community think tank talks began after many students took interest in sustainability on campus, according to Kleindienst.

“The issue of the co-generation plant ended in heated discussions,” Kleindienst said. “We realized this was a great opportunity for us to be able to talk about other issues.”

The topic of Wednesday’s discussion, energy waste in dorm buildings and wood frames, was chosen as a topic because energy inefficiency is largely dependent on student habits. Because temperature can be drastically different in different rooms of the same house, students who open their windows to cool their overheated rooms may cause other students’ already cold rooms to become chillier, and consequently cause a positive feedback loop that drives up heater output, increases the number of windows opened, and nevertheless leaves students dissatisfied with the indoor temperature.

“Where I live in the Nics, it’s always overheated,” said Kate Weiner ’15, a sustainability intern at SAGES and an attendee of the think tank.

The meeting began with a report about recent and ongoing sustainability initiatives on campus. Major maintenance work includes replacing old, dysfunctional appliances with ENERGY STAR appliances and conducting air infiltration tests in many of the wood frame houses. Since 2008, 1000 old windows, primarily in the wood frame houses, have been replaced with new, better insulating ones.

Director of Utilities Management Peter Staye additionally reported that since 2001, the University has lowered its energy consumption from 5 megawatts to 3.6 megawatts. Furthermore, the University has invested $15 million over the past six years on exclusively conservation-related activities.

“The University has been incredibly proactive and sincere over the last six years in particular,” said Staye. “The thing that vexes me is that efforts in reducing consumption have not become part of the University’s culture yet. The University continues to waste 20 percent of energy consumption. And we do that through habit and culture.”

Some students attribute their habits to Physical Plant’s slow response to fixing the problems.

“I feel powerless,” said Corey Guilmette ’13, a current EON coordinator. “If something goes wrong, and it’s not going to be fixed, why call again?”

Staye noted that it is better for students who have dysfunctional heaters to inform Physical Plant about their problems.

“If the word doesn’t get back to Physical Plant, we’ll never figure it out on our own,” he said. “We [have] got to be told, even if you have to tell us frequently.”

In the discussion, Guilmette also brought up the disconnection that students feel in terms of taking responsibility and ownership of their University residences.

“There’s something different about living in these houses [as opposed to living at home],” Guilmette said. “I wouldn’t think about closing storm windows.”

After an hour of serious discussion, the think tank came up with three approaches for addressing the energy waste: generating a document of general information about temperature control, similar to a Frequently Asked Questions list; finding ways to better enable student access to house-specific building guides; and giving Residential Advisors (RAs) and House Managers sustainability training.

“I see a communication issue between individual residents, individual houses, and Physical Plant, and a way of logging what has been done and what work has yet to be done,” James said.

Physical Plant members also raised the possibility of bringing back the WesHome program, in which students would be educated by volunteer staff on how to maintain their University homes.

A second think tank is planned to be held on April 24; the topic has yet to be decided.

“Possible ideas include looking at paper use [and] energy use in terms of people having different gadgets and whatnot,” Kleindienst said.

Kleindienst added that any suggestions or sustainability projects that students have are welcomed by the Sustainability Office.

“A lot of the things are interconnected,” Weiner said. “The purpose of the think tank is to bring it all together.”