Winter is approaching and the cold easily becomes unbearable for all types of international students In the University College Utrecht campus. Within the campus, heating is included in costs and is not regulated by usage– which leads students to often abuse of heating without consciousness.

EcologiCo is a student committee focused on bringing awareness to sustainable practices, creating events, and engaging with students in regard to climate action. I am part of this board, apart from interning here at Duurzaam Utrecht 2030, and we received some training together last week alongside Energie U representatives. We will be insulating heaters within campus buildings, which are getting older and do not have the most effective insulation. We wish to create more effective heating to reduce the intensity of heater settings and ensure that fewer resources are used.

This is a first step towards a bigger insulation campaign, all in the hope of lowering gas consumption. Until now, campus fees (rent and facility costs) have increased yearly due to heating behavioral patterns within a gas crisis, leading to an expensive outcome. Students often blast their heaters at setting 5 without closing all windows or use the faucet’s hot water every time they wash dishes and do not use the kettle. We want to tackle these behavioral choices further by creating a conscience around resource usage.

Here are some pictures from the training, we learned how to use two types of aluminum insulation foil applications. One that is put directly on the heater’s backside, and one that is on the wall directly. The point of this is to reduce the amount of heat that is lost towards the outside wall, which in old buildings such as the ones we have on campus is often the case.