The Preservation Green Lab

About the Preservation Green Lab
Well over 40% of the nation’s carbon emissions come from the construction and operation of buildings, which makes reusing and improving the energy efficiency of older and historic buildings an essential part of a sustainable future. The Preservation Green Lab, located in Seattle, develops strategic policies for integrating the reuse and retrofitting of older and historic buildings into city and state efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Learn More »

"Green" - Friendly Guidelines

How Preservation Commissions Can Balance Preservation and Sustainability

By Erica Stewart | From Main Street News | April 3, 2011 |

Excerpted from Developing "Green"-Friendly Guidelines: Advice for Preservation Commissions by Noré Winter | From Forum News | December 2010 | Vol. 17, No. 4

Perhaps more now than at any other time since their formation, historic commissions have a vital—even essential—role to play in their communities. Fully 43 percent of carbon emissions in the United States come from the operation of our existing buildings. We simply won’t be able to reach aggressive carbon reduction targets needed to stave off the worst of global warming impacts without addressing the performance of our existing building stock—and older and historic buildings must play their part.

Too often, historic preservation is viewed is an obstacle to achieving energy efficiency or other environmental improvements in older buildings. Sometimes this perception is ill-deserved, but sometimes this negative view of preservation has resulted from inflexibility in the application of preservation standards. There are, of course, ways to meet both preservation and sustainability objectives, but it may require commissions to re-think how preservation interests are balanced with environmental concerns. Often these goals will be mutually supporting, but when they are not, difficult decisions will need to be made.

Re-thinking Design Guidelines

Ideally, sustainability policies for preservation are first set forth in the community’s preservation plan, which is often a component of its comprehensive plan. But where such policies are not in place, it is important to address them in the preservation design guidelines. This should be a top priority for all preservation commissions.

The basic principles of most guidelines certainly call for preserving original materials and other character-defining features, as well as respecting the inherent energy-saving properties of historic resources, but they usually only touch on sustainability indirectly. Commissions should take steps to move beyond that point and provide clearer, positive guidance to users.

Real World Examples

Several cities and states have already adopted regulations and incentive programs that focus on the environmental aspects of sustainability. In Boulder, Colorado, for example, the city council adopted a GreenPoints program in 2009. Boulder's program requires remodeling projects and additions to meet a minimum threshold of energy efficiency as determined through a scoring system.

Some cities are adopting development code amendments that promote green-friendly improvements such as eco-roofs. 

Portland, Oregon, has adopted a “green bundle” of development code amendments that promote the installation of solar panels, water cisterns, wind turbines, and eco-roofs. The focus is on removing regulatory “obstacles” to these actions by exempting certain work from review, or providing “by-right” approvals when specific design standards are met. For example, installing solar panels is exempt from the design review process for properties within historic districts when the installation meets certain specified design standards, such as placing the panels flat with the roof, and setting them back a specified distance from the front of the building. (This exemption applies only to “contributors” in historic districts, not to individually designated landmarks.)

The Unified Development Code (UDC) in Dubuque, Iowa, consolidates design guidelines for zoning, subdivision, site development, historic preservation, and signage. Historic District and Downtown design guidelines address architectural design as well as streetscape and landscape design, while form-based Old Town Neighborhood design guidelines promote compatible site development in older areas outside these districts. The UDC design guidelines successfully balance contemporary development trends and historic preservation while recognizing the diverse physical attributes of Dubuque’s resources.

The Nitty Gritty

How should commissions address specific design topics within their guidelines? One approach is to group these topics into three categories:

• Energy conservation measures (awnings, canopies, windows, building insulation)
• Energy-generating technologies (solar collectors, wind turbines)
• Landscape and site design (plant materials, rain barrels, cisterns).

There are, of course, other methods for organizing these topics, and others related to sustainability, but this approach provides an easy way of thinking about different designs based on the underlying objectives they may seek to achieve.

The guidelines might also include some discussion about basic principles of sustainability. This can be helpful in laying the groundwork for an informed evaluation in the design review process, but it should not overload the document or be considered a substitute for clear guidelines.

While it may be tempting to include a lot of facts about the performance of certain systems (such as windows or solar collection systems), this approach should be treated with caution. Technologies continue to evolve, and the data frequently change. Focusing more on broader principles and the intent of the outcomes desired will keep the document sound in its policy.

Looking Forward

Commissions should consider this an opportunity to refresh their thinking about their design guidelines in general. If a major update is in store, then the process of organizing thoughts about sustainability will also trigger refinements to other long-standing policies.

All told, this should be viewed as an exciting opportunity to improve the design review process and help all players, including property owners, staff, and commissions, reach clear, understandable decisions.

Nore Winter explores this topic in depth in a new Preservation Books booklet,Developing Sustainability Guidelines for Historic Districts, which includes an overview of the different approaches that communities can use for writing and organizing local sustainability guidelines. Winter will also be presenting on this topic at the 2011 National Main Streets Conference in Des Moines. His session, “Greening Your Downtown Plans and Guidelines," will address how integrated sustainability policies can contribute to Main Street revitalization objectives as well.

Don’t miss this chance to bring your Main Street district to the forefront of sustainable development!

Noré Winter is president of Winter & Company, a preservation and urban design consulting firm based in Boulder, Colo. Emily Wadhams, vice president for Public Policy at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, also contributed to this article.

Keep it Simple: It IS Easy Being Green

By Kathryn Bohri | From Main Street News | April 22, 2011 |

Too often, the environmental sustainability movement is confused with an all-or-nothing, vegan-or-bust approach or lost in the jargon of photovoltaic cells and energy credits. By making environmental sustainability (or “greening”) a priority in your local district, you increase investment, marketing potential, and community involvement.

“Going green” means adopting an environmentally friendly approach to life. As complicated as it can get to make the greenest choice, it’s important to remember that every choice made every day is an opportunity to help your community, habitat, and the earth. Experts may argue about whether choosing locally produced food is better than organic food or clash over whether we should market electric cars or overhaul the entire transportation system, but keep the big picture in mind. Cutting waste (reducing), extending the life of objects by using them more than once (reusing), and making sure that items go back into the chain of production, and not a landfill, when you’re done with them (recycling) are among the most basic ways to go green.

Revitalization and Sustainability: Mutually Supporting Goals 

Historic Preservation is inherently green. The adaptive reuse of historic buildings is an excellent example of recycling. Credit: Jerry Sowden.

We say around here that the greenest building is one that’s already built. Historic preservation is inherently green – it reuses historic buildings, reinvests in our communities, and retrofits historic buildings. Extending a building’s life and reducing the need for new construction – and the use of new materials – reduces the often-unnecessary energy expenditure of constructing a new building. Whenever a building is destroyed, all of the energy put into that building is wasted. Every brick, board, and window contains “embodied energy” – energy it took to extract, manufacture, transport, and install those materials.

Similarly, a Main Street program is also inherently green. Reinvesting in existing infrastructure, encouraging neighborhood walkability, and shopping locally all do double duty as good for the local economy, environment, and community. One specific example common to many Main Street districts is the installation of street trees. Trees can reduce asthma rates of young children in your neighborhood while slowing traffic and adding a pleasing aesthetic to the streetscape. Trees also sequester carbon dioxide (a major pollutant), catch storm water, and shade buildings (which can decrease air conditioning needs by 30 percent).

Starting a Main Street program is an important first step into the world of “green,” and there’s a lot more that can be done!

“Green” Benefits the Budget

Everyone has heard the mantra “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” but has your program thought about how the mantra can stretch your own budget further? By becoming a careful consumer of goods (reducing your consumption of new products), you’ll see your expenses decrease since, of course, when you use less paper, you buy less paper. Similarly, if you plug electronics into power strips that are turned off at the end of the day (electronics and appliances still consume power when they’re off), you’ll save on your energy bills.

To save money on lighting bills, replace incandescent lights with compact florescent lights or LEDS. Credit: Linda S. Glisson. 

As light bulbs burn out, replace them with CFLs or LEDs to scrape a couple dollars from the lighting bill. Both types of bulbs last longer than traditional incandescent lights, and since LEDs are so efficient, they give off less energy as heat. What does this mean? They won’t push your air conditioner into hyper drive this summer. Literally add a little green by bringing a stay-at-home houseplant into the office to do some work! Office plants clean the air and reduce stress. Varieties like Peace Lily and Dracaena don’t even need tons of light to do their duty.

Suggestions for greening your life quickly become overwhelming! Instead of throwing in the towel, choose one or two tips to work on at a time and then move on to others as they’re completed.

Organize, Recognize, and Prioritize

In its Going Green Downtown Guide: A Sustainability Guide for Maryland’s Main Streets, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development offers four easy steps to help your Main Street go green.

• Organize. Create a list of the things you’re doing that are already green. Do you use biodegradable plates and cutlery at events instead of purchasing plastic? Add it. Did you help connect a restaurant to a local farmer to source fresh herbs and produce? Great work! Put it in the portfolio.
• Recognize. Next, take a look at everything you’ve accomplished and come up with ways to add to it and tell others about it. Look, too, at local businesses to see what they’re doing that’s green. Do they have a recycling bin next to their trash can? Do they sell their leftover fry oil to bio-fuel developers? This will help you find out if there are already great ideas cooking so your program can share them and encourage others to implement them, too.
• Prioritize. Once you make a list of what you’ve done and what others have done, take a good look at it. Work out a plan to add a few projects to the portfolio – including “quick wins” that can build momentum for bigger projects.
• Network. Stay in touch with other Main Street managers – every person and every program has a different approach to going green. Connecting with colleagues can keep your mental gears greased and serve as an inspiration mill.

Stay Updated

Adding a couple of green websites to your morning reading list can keep you up to date on what’s the greenest way to go as well as give you new ideas from other communities. Check outtreehugger.com, planetgreen.com, and thedailygreen.com for everything from green product reviews, politics, fashion, tips, technology, and transportation. Also, be sure to keep tabs on theNational Trust for Historic Preservation’s sustainability site.

Taking part in the sustainability movement is less about installing a wind turbine and more about installing a mentality of conservation. Throughout all your efforts, remember that every day is an opportunity to help out your habitat and the planet. Through a Main Street program, you can see these efforts – and their benefits – multiplied throughout the community. The Main Street program can facilitate and connect the eco-efforts of the program’s community and strengthen the results across the board.