Students in Free Enterprise, or SIFE, has partnered up with the Champaign Park District to work on the Kaufman Lake Boathouse, which the park district rents out for events.

The goal of the project is to lower the building’s energy usage by roughly 80 percent as part of an initiative to go green.

SIFE’s mission is to better the community using basic business techniques gained through the University’s College of Business. Every year, group members work on various projects that promote their mission, such as Go Green on Green Street and the Uganda Project.

Kevin Jones, one of the two project leaders and junior in Business, said the boathouse project is a pilot and part of an effort to slowly make the entire park district green.

“The (park district) has a long history of environmental stewardship,” said Andrew Weiss, park planner. “(Going green) continues to be important to us, and with the Kaufman Lake Boathouse, it’s an opportunity to put new technology in place to achieve that mission.”

The boathouse currently uses about 350 kilowatts of energy every month during the winter season and peaked at 700 kilowatts during the summer. This led group members to question why this was happening.

“We figured there could be (an insulation problem) or people forgetting to turn the lights off,” said Kyle Castner, member of SIFE and freshman in Business.

This year, Sam’s Club sponsored SIFE with a grant of $1,500. SIFE used the money to order solar panels, low-energy light bulbs and other materials such as insulation tape. The group plans to install everything the week immediately after spring break.

The group then started looking for organizations to partner with for this year’s project. The students finalized their decision to work with the park district in December.

“SIFE approached the (park district) inquiring about if we had any green initiatives in the works,” Weiss said. “We pitched a few ideas, and after some discussion, decided the Kaufman Lake Boathouse project was a good fit. Generally speaking, (we work) with many outstanding groups on campus in a wide variety of ways — including environmental groups.”

Jones said he hopes that the project will raise awareness, educate people around campus about going green and maybe even inspire people to adopt a more “green lifestyle.”

Weiss said that the boathouse project is not the last step toward sustainability for the park district, which is also rethinking how it approaches water usage, conservation and storm water runoff.