In some classrooms in Sackett Building, strips of duct tape rather than thermostats regulate room temperature, leading some students to wonder if this type of innovation was meant to be part of the Penn State engineering experience.

As a member of Penn State's newly forming Green Design Team, Tara McDonough (senior-civil engineering) has been researching the environmental impact of the building with several other students.

"We've been looking at how to reduce environmental impact through green design," she said.

McDonough explained green design as a concept applicable to everything from works of art to huge buildings.

"Green design is with anything. It's reducing your resource consumption," she said.

The students plan to assemble a "Sackett Report" similar to the Mueller Report released last fall. That report addressed the condition of Mueller Building. It suggested that the university could save both money and resources by implementing simple changes to make it more ecologically efficient.

The group is working to make the upcoming report "more accessible to different people such as students and administrators," said Chris Russill (graduate-communications), head of the Environmental Stewardship Initiative for the College of Communications.

"People can use these solutions," he said, adding that the report will emphasize the importance of sustainability as an everyday practice. "It's a matter of pointing this out and giving people the things they need to do this."

Eric Burnett, professor of architectural and civil engineering, has an office in Sackett Building.

"Sackett is a grand old building; it's just that it's old. The university would have to spend money to refurbish it," he said.

While newer buildings on campus are more ecologically efficient, many adjustments can be made on the older buildings, he added.

Burnett said one of the main problems with the building is the condition of the windows. They are important in terms of energy efficiency and appearance for the building itself, he said.

McDonough said that if the university installed double-paned windows in Sackett rather than the single-paned windows that are in place now, less heat would escape and less energy would be used.

"The windows are the biggest thing for Sackett," she said. "Replacing them could save energy, money and environmental resources."

Russill acknowledged the fact that price is often a concern in considering the refurbishment of buildings, but he said it becomes less of a concern when examining the money that can be saved over the long term.

"You don't look at (the changes) as costs, you look at them as investments," he said.

McDonough pointed out that while the civil and environmental engineering departments are based in Sackett, what they teach in the building is not reflected by the condition of the building itself.

"So much amazing learning is going on here. This kind of fragments it," she said.