Great Preservation Opportunities

            “The greenest building is one that’s already built,” say preservationists. But there still is a need to improve the efficiency of many old buildings, or to plan renovations that conserve natural resources, and it’s not always easy to know what is really sustainable. Two new publications offer information and assistance to anyone who wants to make their historic green buildings even greener.

            The National Park Service has released The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and Illustrated Guidelines on Sustainability for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings. The 34-page booklet offers specific guidelines, with illustrations, for sustainable rehabilitation of historic buildings. The guidelines cover a wide range of topics, from maintenance to windows to solar technology and water efficiency, indicating Recommended and Not Recommended treatments.

            The guidelines point out that the first step in enhancing the sustainability of an historic building is to understand how it was designed to operate: “Historic building construction methods and materials often maximized natural sources of heating, lighting and ventilation to respond to local climatic conditions. The key to a successful rehabilitation project is to identify and understand any lost original and existing energy-efficient aspects of the historic building…”

            A second publication is Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Historic Preservation: A Guide for Historic District Commissions, prepared by Clean Air-Cool Planet, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding practical solutions to global climate change. The group, which has an office in New Canaan, has a particular interest in historic preservation and sustainability.      

            The first section of Clean Air-Cool Planet’s book is specifically addressed to local historic district commissions, and offers information on integrating preservation with other local efforts for sustainability and energy efficiency. The second section provides practical information for homeowners and can be used within or outside of designated historic districts. As an appendix, the book includes sustainability guidelines from Nantucket.