FIGURING OUT LEED STANDARDS FOR OLD BUILDINGS

FIGURING OUT LEED STANDARDS FOR OLD BUILDINGS

To figure out how to apply Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - LEED – standards to historic buildings, the National Trust for Historic Preservation partnered with the American Institute of Architects, the Association for Preservation Technology International, the National Park Service, the General Services Administration, and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers to work with U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to ensure that the LEED system promotes preservation. The National Trust and its partners have been developing preservation recommendations to inform future LEED rating systems. The criteria will likely include acknowledgment of the durability and long life cycle of existing buildings, as well as the social and economic capital to be gained in preserving community landmarks.

"The retention of existing buildings conserves the materials and the energy embodied in their construction," says Rhonda Sincavage, a Trust public policy associate. "And in thinking about what you're conserving, we also want you to think about the impacts that you're avoiding by not demolishing your building." The Trust is also tracking federal, state, and local measures that deal with preservation and green building.

Windows are a particular source of contention between sustainability designers and preservationists. Contrary to popular belief, replacing old windows does not always improve energy efficiency and also wastes the energy and resources that went into building them—and it requires the use of new materials for their replacements. "The vast majority of heat loss in homes is through the attic or uninsulated walls, not windows," wrote preservation economist Donovan Rypkema in a paper he presented at the Trust's 2005 annual conference. "Properly repaired historic windows have an R factor nearly indistinguishable from new, so-called 'weatherized' windows."Having the statistics to back up such assertions is the focus of the initiative's research component. Last fall, the Trust convened more than 30 academics and experts to discuss research priorities related to sustainable preservation. In addition, Patrice Frey, the Trust's new director of sustainability research, has begun to quantify the value of preserving older buildings by gathering data on such topics as embodied energy and building life cycle analysis. She will also be studying the less-tangible cultural and social implications of preservation, which are more difficult to quantify in a credit-based rating system. Over the coming year, her findings will be posted on the National Trust's website and blog and disseminated in a variety of other venues. "Our ultimate goal," Frey says, "is to provide tools for preservationists to make the necessary calculations to see the environmental, social, and economic impacts of their work."

Increasingly, the National Trust is also greening up its diverse portfolio of historic sites. At its Washington, D.C., headquarters—a former luxury apartment house built in 1915—the organization has begun conservation measures. President Lincoln's Cottage in northwest Washington features a LEED-certified visitors center, the first Trust site to go for USGBC certification. Kykuit, administered by t.he Rockefeller Brothers Fund on behalf of the Trust, will implement equipment upgrades and other plans to achieve its ambitious goal of a 25 percent energy reduction within five years and a 50 percent emissions reduction by 2023. Not far away, staff at ?Lyndhurst, the Gothic revival mansion once owned by a succession of New York tycoons, has just formed its own sustainability committee.

http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/current/yourtrust.htm