Environment and Climate Change

Freezing In Frigid Offices While the Planet Burns

When you’re running a space heater under your desk because the central air is too cold

So many things about trying to reduce our energy consumption are really hard but one thing is really easy: Stop keeping offices at 60 freaking degrees Fahrenheit.

I used to work in a newsroom so cold — in summer — that I kept a space heater going under my desk and frequently wore my winter coat all day.

Meanwhile, the male editor had a small fan blowing against him at all times. He thought the room was sweltering and forbade anyone to touch the thermostat. (When he was fired and I took over, I walked directly to the thermostat and adjusted it to 70 degrees.)

I used to wear light summer dresses that were comfortable to walk to work in and then I’d enter the meat locker of an office and have to put on outerwear. That’s insane.

It’s a common complaint that women are always cold and men are always hot. It’s a stereotype, but true in my experience.

It isn’t possible to keep everyone happy in the same environment. So let’s choose an environmentally friendly compromise and keep the rooms a little warmer in summer and a little cooler in winter.

We live in a big old house that’s expensive to heat and cool, so in winter we keep it quite cold and I layer up. If climate change and high utility bills weren’t a consideration, believe me, I’d keep my house toasty warm in winter, but it’s more prudent for the planet and my pocketbook for me to wear sweaters and thick socks instead.

In the summer, we keep the windows open when we can. As I write this, the forecast calls for today to be the first day of the year that will break 90 degrees. (And it was still cold a couple of days ago!)

Old houses with lots of windows and high ceilings do better in hot weather than in cold, so we hold off on closing up the house and using air conditioning until it’s unbearable.

As a side note, when my European husband moved here almost exactly 16 years ago, he scoffed at American air conditioning. “I don’t see why you need it. We don’t use air conditioning in the Netherlands,” he said one day.

Then he experienced Illinois humidity. “Let’s get that air conditioning going!” he said.

(It reminds me of the first time he experienced a Midwestern blizzard. Before he could drive home from work, he had to dig out our little car. Then he got stuck on the way home and had to walk the rest of the way. He announced, “Now I finally understand why you Americans drive those big-ass trucks.” Alas, I only had a Neon, and it took a while before we could afford a second vehicle.)

Everybody’s tolerance for high and low temperatures differs, every region has a different climate and everyone’s housing and work situations are different, so some flexibility is called for. I won’t tell people they shouldn’t use air conditioning at all. Even though I like summer, I hate it when the humidity is so high that my clothes are damp when I’m doing nothing but typing.

But adjusting the temperature in the workplace is an easy thing to change, and it’s even easier now that dress codes are generally relaxed. When people were expected to dress in suits, they needed cooler temperatures. Most office dress codes accept short sleeves now, and that’s a good thing.

No more wastefully frigid offices!