SPEECH: Sustainable Stewardship of the Built Environment
Posted September 14, 2009 | Contact pr@nthp.org or 202-588-6141
By Richard Moe | September 13, 2009
Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be in Dublin among so many friends and colleagues.
I'm pleased that INTO is highlighting climate change as a major theme of this meeting, and I'm delighted to have this opportunity to share my views on the subject. I know that the terms "climate change" and "sustainability" mean different things in different places. Each of us brings a unique and useful point of view to the discussion, and none of us has all the answers. One of the benefits of a meeting such as this is that it provides an opportunity for us to learn from one another – and in the spirit of free exchange of ideas and opinions, I propose to offer an American perspective on what I believe is the defining issue of our time.
Preservationists are not newcomers to this discussion. Back in 1980, long before the word "sustainability" came into widespread use, the National Trust in the United States issued a poster that depicted an old building in the shape of a gasoline can – a reminder that reusing an existing building, instead of demolishing it and replacing it with a new one, is a good way to conserve energy.
Nearly three decades after that poster appeared, the issues of climate change, green building and sustainability are more critical than ever. Today I'd like to share with you some ways in which the preservation community in the United States is re-examining its practices and embracing change, especially with regard to improving energy efficiency in older and historic buildings. I'll begin with some facts.
The United States has only 5% of the world's population, but is responsible for 22% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Studies have shown that 43% of America's carbon emissions comes from the operation of buildings – and this doesn't include the carbon that is generated by extracting, manufacturing and transporting building materials. Figures from other countries are similar: About 45% of Britain's carbon emissions comes from operation of buildings, as does 33-40% in the European Union countries, and 25% in Japan.
If such a large portion of the carbon we send into the atmosphere comes from our buildings, it's obvious that dealing with climate change means being wiser about how we design and use those buildings.
I'm talking about good stewardship – and that's what preservation is all about. We're sometimes said to be sentimentally fixated on the past – but in fact, preservation is strongly future-oriented. Our goal is to ensure that our historic built environment – our legacy from the past – survives so that future generations can experience it, learn from it and be inspired by it. This focus on the future lies at the very core of sustainability.
Preservationists are also accused of wanting to freeze buildings in time – but in fact, with the rare exception of very high-quality landmark buildings that deserve meticulous restoration, our goal is to keep older and historic buildings viable so that they can play meaningful roles in present-day community life. Anthropologist Ashley Montague has said that the best way to stay young is to die young – but the trick is to do it as late as possible. All over the world, preservationists are showing that old buildings put to new uses can stay young to a ripe old age. They're demonstrating that buildings are renewable – not disposable – resources. That's the very essence of sustainability.
A few months ago in the United States, the connection between historic preservation and sustainability was the theme of a conference involving preservationists, architects, green builders and energy experts. Meeting at the historic Rockefeller estate at Pocantico Hills, N.Y., this group developed the Pocantico Proclamation on Sustainability and Historic Preservation – five principles to sustain our built environment and help reduce the environmental impacts associated with buildings. In the time remaining to me, I'll summarize these principles.
Principle #1: Foster a culture of reuse
We know that the way we use our buildings causes big problems – but incredibly, we try to solve the problem by constructing more and more new buildings while largely ignoring the ones we already have. That makes no sense. In addition to building green, we must make wiser use of what we've already built.
The retention and reuse of older buildings is an effective tool for the responsible, sustainable stewardship of our environmental resources. New construction – even when done in an environmentally friendly way – still requires the use of irreplaceable natural resources. And the consumption of those resources has real, measurable impacts. For example, a recent study by the UK's Empty Homes Agency found that it takes 35-50 years for a new energy-efficient single-family home to recover the carbon expended during its construction.
When we reuse existing buildings – whether homes, schools or skyscrapers – we avoid the negative impacts of new construction. It all comes down to this: We cannot build our way out of the climate-change crisis; we have to conserve our way out. No matter how much green technology is employed in its design and construction, any new building represents a new impact on the environment. The greenest building is one that already exists.
Principle #2: Reinvest at a community scale
At one time, preservationists were primarily concerned with saving individual buildings, especially grand architectural landmarks. Today we still acknowledge that individual buildings are important – but we know that context matters too. For example, the most energy-efficient new building doesn't help our cause if it sits in a remote location accessible only by car.
In short, the way our communities are laid out is just as important as the quality of our buildings – and plays an equally important role in our efforts to address global warming. Instead of building more and more highways and strip malls and subdivisions, we should be reinvesting in the communities we already have.
Preservationists in the United States have been fighting wasteful sprawl and advocating smart growth for years – and our message is being heard. More and more cities are using preservation as an effective tool for improving the quality of life in older neighborhoods and allowing older buildings to shelter people instead of pigeons. Creating viable alternatives to sprawl by turning abandoned or deteriorated urban areas into lively, attractive places to live and work – that's what historic preservation is all about, and it's also the very core of sustainable development.
Principle #3: Value the lessons of heritage
It's often alleged that historic buildings are energy hogs – but in fact, many older buildings are as energy-efficient as recently-built ones. A 1999 survey of government buildings in the US found that utility costs for historic structures were 27% less than those for more modern buildings. In fact, data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency suggest that buildings erected before 1920 are actually more energy-efficient than those put up between 1920 and 2000.
Why? Many older buildings have thick, solid walls, creating greater thermal mass and reducing the amount of energy needed for heating and cooling. Buildings designed before the widespread use of electricity feature high ceilings, covered porches and big, operable windows to provide natural light and ventilation and reduce solar gain. They employ careful siting and landscaping to help maximize sun exposure during the winter and minimize it during warmer months. In short, these buildings were designed and constructed to exist in harmony with the natural environment.
Here's another fact to consider: In most older buildings, individual components – such as windows, for example – can be easily repaired or replaced when necessary. Even more important, unlike their more recent counterparts that celebrate the concept of planned obsolescence, older buildings were generally built to last. Because of their durability and "repairability," they have almost unlimited "renewability."
In short, we can learn a lot from heritage buildings that were constructed with respect for traditional practices. I'm enormously heartened by the spirit of innovation evident in the planning and design professions today – but I'm convinced that innovation in the green-building field must be grounded in the hard-learned design lessons of the past.
Principle #4: Capitalize on the potential of the green economy
In America and elsewhere, the current economic situation has everyone scrambling to identify ways to stimulate local economies and create jobs. The situation reminds me of what a British statesman told his colleagues during the darkest days of World War II: "Gentlemen, we are out of money; therefore, we shall have to think."
This is another area in which preservationists can make a meaningful contribution. Over the years, we've discovered some important things related to the economics of reusing buildings and reinvesting in existing communities.
Here's the basic message: Dollar for dollar, rehabilitation creates more jobs than new construction. One study in the US, for example, found that $1 million invested in the rehabilitation of an existing building creates 9-13 more jobs than the same $1 million invested in new construction. Why? Because rehabilitation is more labor-intensive than new construction – that is, it requires more man-hours and fewer materials. An economy that is more labor-intensive and less materials-intensive is a greener economy.
In America, the creation of more "green" jobs is a prominent component of President Obama's economic-stimulus plan. Many of these jobs focus on developing and improving solar panels, wind turbines and other high-tech solutions – but we shouldn't overlook the wisdom of a recent book entitled The Green Collar Economy, in which the author states that "the main piece of technology in the green economy is a caulking gun."
Principle #5: Realign historic preservation policies with sustainability
In the early years of our movement, we preservationists concentrated on keeping buildings from being torn down. Now we know that just saving them isn't enough – we also have to do our best to improve their energy efficiency and ensure that their impact on the environment isn't harmful.
Happily, there is a large and growing number of projects that show how historic buildings can "go green" without losing their distinctive character. We don't have to choose between getting the energy-efficiency we want or keeping the historic character we love; we can have both.
Our colleagues in the green building community can help us be smarter about preserving and reusing historic buildings in environmentally responsible ways – but there can be real conflicts between preservation and sustainable development goals. Here are some examples:
- We know that part of the solution to global warming is the development of renewable energy such as wind – but sometimes the siting of windmill farms threatens viewsheds and sites of cultural significance.
- In many cases, solar technologies can be accommodated in historic rehab projects – but there are other instances in which aesthetics or concerns about historic fabric make their use undesirable.
- Higher density is a key element of sustainable development – but efforts to increase density, especially in urban locations accessible to mass transit, sometimes put historic buildings and neighborhoods at risk.
We can't allow conflicts such as these to cripple our efforts. We must demonstrate an open mind and a willingness to be flexible in our ongoing dialogue with the green building community. We must remain committed to re-examining our practices, thinking critically and creatively about how our work can be improved to reflect the realities of the climate-change crisis.
Those are the five guiding principles of the Pocantico Proclamation. Now we must roll up our sleeves and put them into practice. The facts are in, the challenge is clear, and now it's time to go to work.
With this in mind, the National Trust in the US has launched an ambitious Sustainability Program, with a wide-ranging agenda that embraces practically every aspect of the organization's work.
In the area of educational outreach to the general public, our message is this: Addressing the challenges of climate change and sustainability isn't the sole province of big corporations with high-tech solutions; we all have a role to play, and small steps can make a difference. We've already spotlighted sustainability in special issues of our magazine and at several conferences and seminars. We're producing a comprehensive guide to weatherization of historic buildings, offering suggestions for dealing with insulation, windows, roofing and mechanical systems so that they function with maximum efficiency. This and other material is available on our website, which we hope to establish as the premier source of information and advice for owners of historic buildings in the United States.
In the advocacy arena, our aim is to show policy-makers how reuse, reinvestment and retrofit can contribute to a sustainable future, and then help them build the legislative framework that will make it happen. We're working in support of federal transportation policy that promotes reinvestment in existing communities and is sensitive to the needs of historic buildings. We also want to secure legislation that will expand existing incentives for energy retrofits to older commercial buildings and offer new incentives to encourage homeowners to "green" their homes. We've already made encouraging progress in this area, and we expect more when Congress reconvenes in the fall.
At the state and local levels, many American states and cities are currently developing Climate Change Action Plans that outline how they intend to fight global warming – usually through expanding recycling programs, encouraging the use of mass transit, and so on. Few of these plans say much about retrofitting and reusing existing buildings. In effect we're encouraging people to recycle cans and newsprint while throwing away sound, reusable buildings. This is a serious mis-step, and we'll work to correct it.
We recently established an office called the Preservation Green Lab, a true laboratory for generating creative policy and solutions to help integrate preservation and green building practices. Through our Green Lab, we are engaging directly with state and local governments to develop cutting-edge policy that recognizes the environmental and economic value of our existing built environment and to encourage the retrofit of existing buildings to the highest standards of environmental performance. We're also developing an ambitious research agenda – focusing particularly on the field of life-cycle assessment, which offers the most thorough and sophisticated means of evaluating the environmental impacts associated with building construction and reuse. Our research is already underway, and we're eager to share what we learn with our colleagues in other countries.
On Wednesday at 10 o’clock, in a session titled "Evolving Response: How organizations are responding to, and leading in, this changing world," Emily Wadhams of the National Trust in the US will present more details of our sustainability program. I encourage everyone who wants to know more about our efforts to attend this session.
For all of us here, the climate-change crisis presents an important opportunity. In the United States – and, I suspect, elsewhere – many people still view preservation as a "frill," an activity primarily for antiquarians and historians. By mounting an effective response to climate change, we can demonstrate that wise stewardship of our built environment is relevant to the quality of life of millions of people who would never dream of calling themselves preservationists.
We have a choice: We can do nothing for a while longer – until we're forced to take action by soaring energy costs, the disappearance of irreplaceable resources, and the realities of climate change. Or we can take steps now to help lead our respective nations in the development of a smart sustainability ethic and the policies to support it.
Historic preservation has always worked to protect and celebrate the evidence of our world's past. Now, preservation can – and must – play a leadership role in the sustainable stewardship of our world's future.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a non-profit membership organization bringing people together to protect, enhance and enjoy the places that matter to them. By saving the places where great moments from history – and the important moments of everyday life – took place, the National Trust for Historic Preservation helps revitalize neighborhoods and communities, spark economic development and promote environmental sustainability. With headquarters in Washington, DC, nine regional and field offices, 29 historic sites, and partner organizations in all 50 states, the National Trust for Historic Preservation provides leadership, education, advocacy and resources to a national network of people, organizations and local communities committed to saving places, connecting us to our history and collectively shaping the future of America’s stories. For more information visit www.PreservationNation.org.
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