From promoting policy to upgrading sites, the National Trust goes green in a big way.

BY KIM A. O'CONNELL

The National Trust for Historic Preservation's Kykuit (Historic Hudson Valley)

F rom its remarkable vantage in the Pocantico Hills above the Hudson River, the famous Rockefeller estate known as Kykuit seems too old and ornate, its classical revival walls too historic, to accommodate cutting-edge sustainable technology. Yet the National Trust historic site has taken several steps to reduce its environmental impacts, including purchasing all of its electricity from wind power, switching to fluorescent lights, and using nontoxic paints. Future plans for the site could greatly reduce energy usage and carbon emissions.

The work at Kykuit is just one part of the National Trust's far-reaching sustainability initiative, launched in 2006 to promote the environmental benefits of historic preservation. The initiative specifically addresses the current boom in "green" building by emphasizing that sustainability is both intrinsic and achievable in existing structures. "Historic preservation is inherently a sustainable activity that should be widely embraced," says Trust President Richard Moe. "We now have an opportunity to make the case more clearly and more effectively, in the context of the national discussion on global warming and carbon emissions."

Last fall, scientists from the University of Arizona projected that rising seas could seriously encroach on our nation's coastlines within the next 150 years, inundating such landmarks as the Jamestown settlement and Cape Canaveral. Buildings remain a primary contributor to the accumulation of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Studies by the U.S. Department of Energy have shown that buildings contribute up to 40 percent of carbon emissions, 30 percent of waste output, and 70 percent of electricity consumption. Yet most sustainable development is geared toward new buildings.

Through this initiative, the National Trust and its partners are advocating for the continued use and sustainable restoration of older buildings to conserve materials and energy and prevent the environmental, social, and economic impacts of demolition. The initiative concentrates on four areas: public policy, focusing on including preservation in new green legislation and building standards; research on sustainability topics, such as embodied energy; education and outreach; and finally, incorporation of more energy-efficient practices at both the Trust's headquarters and its 28 historic sites. "The prevailing perception is that green building is about new construction," says Emily Wadhams, the Trust's vice president for public policy. "But we can't build ourselves out of this crisis."

The alarm that awoke many Americans to the climate crisis can be attributed to a number of sources—Al Gore, or Hurricane Katrina, or perhaps the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Since launching its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program in 2000, the council has certified more than 1,000 sustainable buildings, and thousands more have been registered with the organization as a first step toward certification. The notion of sustainable design is now so commonplace that many localities have begun to offer tax breaks and other incentives to developers if they incorporate green practices into their work. More than 40,000 architects, contractors, and other consultants have taken the rigorous USGBC exam to become LEED "accredited professionals."

Until recently, however, all this occurred without thoughtful dialogue on how to apply LEED to historic buildings. To address the lack, the National Trust has 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 USGBC to ensure that the LEED system promotes preservation. The groups had been developing separate sustainability agendas, Wadhams says, when they recognized the gains of working together.

Following a meeting last March with USGBC, the 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.

Too often, municipalities miss the (old-growth) forest for the (sustainably harvested) trees. In Los Gatos, Calif., the city planning commission recently wrangled over a plan for an energy-guzzling, 9,000-square-foot house—complete with three-car garage—that would have been built with "green" technology and materials. In Boulder, Colo., a "sustainable" contractor renovated a historic house by replacing all the original windows with supposedly more energy-efficient ones. Other examples abound. Windows are, in fact, 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 (see article on page 26). Kykuit, administered by the 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.

"I'm really glad that we made the effort to do a LEED-certified building," says Barbara Campagna, the Graham Gund Architect of the National Trust, who also happens to be a LEED accredited professional and the president of the Association for Preservation Technology. "That adds credibility to our working with other organizations and walking the talk as far as integrating LEED into historic buildings. At a lot of our sites, staff members have been asking me what they can do to increase sustainability." In addition to being a primary liaison with USGBC, Campagna has been revising the Trust's best practices manual for its historic sites to include a section on sustainability, which should be completed this summer. She also sends bulletins to Trust site managers with such recommendations as changing light bulbs to compact fluorescents, switching to renewable energy sources like wind and solar, and planting native vegetation. Once these practices are implemented, Campagna hopes the Trust sites will become sustainability models for other American landmarks.

The Trust's National Main Street Center, which encourages downtown revitalization, has also promoted sustainability in the past year, making it the theme of its 2007 conference in Seattle. This year's conference, beginning in late March in Philadelphia, will hold more sessions on the topic. "It's not just green technology, it's not just sustainable design, but you also need sustainable organizations and sustainable businesses," says Andrea Dono, assistant editor with the Main Street Center. "Preservationists like to say that historic preservation is recycling on the grandest scale. And revitalization is finding new uses for old buildings. We're giving Americans reasons to live in established communities."

This message is reaching the larger design community and the general public as well. Sustainability was a focus of several sessions at the Trust's annual conference in the Twin Cities last fall, and Trust President Moe gave a major speech on the subject in December at the National Building Museum in Washington (see article on page 6). Trust staff also will be writing articles and editorials and presenting at sustainable design conferences throughout the year. "I've been pleased to see that sustainability is something many people talk about now," Campagna says. "But I don't think it has filtered down to all of the preservation community yet. We're also trying to get the word out for people outside the preservation world to realize that we've taken this initiative and we're at the table. Our work is just beginning."

Kim A. O'Connell is a writer in Arlington, Va.

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