Sustainability and preservation — one can't exist without the other. That shouldn't be front-page news, but in many minds the goals of preserving historic places and preserving the planet remain separate. How can we get historic preservation and environmental advocates seeing things similarly?

One person who thinks about this question a lot is Barbara Campagna. As the Graham Gund Architect for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, one of her main charges is to work on sustainability policies. An architect and former president of the Association for Preservation Technology, she has worked with historic landmarks ranging from James Madison's Montpelier to Philip Johnson's Glass House.

Barbara was in North Carolina at the beginning of November to talk to students at UNC Greensboro's Department of Interior Architecture about "Sustainability Stewardship: Making the Case for Preservation's Role in Addressing Climate Change."

The National Trust is concerned about climate change, she told the students, because the operation of existing buildings accounts for almost half of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Add to that the considerable carbon emissions generated by new construction, demolition and sprawl, and it's apparent that preservation can help slow climate change through:

• Reuse of existing buildings (prevents emissions from demolition, new construction).
• Reinvestment in older communities (to reduce sprawl and infrastructure needs).
• Retrofitting buildings with systems that cut down on energy consumption.
• Research into how existing buildings actually use energy.

One tool Campagna has been working hard to improve is LEED. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a voluntary certification program developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. It recognizes buildings that use less energy and achieve higher levels of environmental performance. Builders, architects and developers can earn silver, gold, or platinum certification based on points given for use of sustainable materials and sites, water and energy efficiency and other qualities.

The quickness with which LEED has been accepted as a standard has surprised almost everyone. And developers have on occasion tried to use promises of shiny, new LEED-certified structures as an excuse to tear down existing buildings (see notorious examples in Lexington and Indianapolis). Even one of the pilot projects for the new LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) rating system, Ladd Tower, in Portland, Ore., included demolition of a 1907 apartment building.

Fortunately, Campagna and other representatives of the Sustainable Preservation Coalition are working closely with USGBC to make the new version of LEED and the official release of LEED-ND — both scheduled to come out in 2009 — more compatible with preservation principles (and incentives).

John Larson (Old Salem), Barbara Campagna, Jo Leimenstoll (UNCG) (photo Shawn Baugess)

As it is currently, LEED overlooks cultural value. It doesn't account for a building's embodied energy (that is, the value of the already-expended energy used in making it). And certification can also focus on the latest technology rather than on some of the traditional, often low-impact, work that goes into restoration.

Thanks to preservationists' input, however, the new versions will evaluate points based on environmental performance over a building's full life cycle, rather than just immediate impact. One proposal in the updated LEED-ND will make no demolition of existing buildings a pre-requirement for certification.

Still, LEED remains only as good as its application. "The potential pitfalls I see are with the users of LEED," says Campagna, "not specifically the system or various products . . . and consultants who inappropriately interpret or implement LEED credits without a sound understanding of the actual causes of the energy loss in a building."

To this end, research is a key component in the sustainability work the National Trust and others are promoting. Laboratory studies in Europe, for example work by English Heritage that reveals how well traditional sash windows actually perform in terms of energy use, are a big influence. The National Trust's own Green Lab, to be opened in Seattle, will continue this type of research to help prevent misconceptions about leaky old buildings from being used as an excuse not to preserve them.

As Campagna says, "everyone needs to collaborate to make a difference," and sharing information is key to fusing that link in people's minds between preservation and sustainability. Individuals and local organizations can "inform everyone about studies or data that you have heard about or participated in . . . Adopt sustainable practices in your organization and then tell everyone what you're doing and why."

North Carolina is starting to make the connection. Golden Belt in Durham — a mill rehabilitation project that's scored LEED certification while taking advantage of preservation tax credits — is just one example.

Keep up with the news and views about sustainable preservation in North Carolina at PreservationNC.org.

Glenn Perkins is Director of Outreach Education and Website Editor for Preservation NC. Contact him about this story at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .