Helping save the planet, one historic building at a time . . .

The greenest buildings—as Carl Elefante, a noted Washington DC architect, told us during Preservation NC's 2007 Annual Conference—are the ones already built, and many are the historic places that tell North Carolina's story. "Taking into account the massive investment of materials and energy in existing buildings," Elefante has written, "it is both obvious and profound that extending the useful service life of the building stock is common sense, good business, and sound resource management."

Across the country, owners of old houses are being encouraged to remove their original windows and replace them with new energy-efficient models. Manufacturers of new window technologies advertise that old windows are inefficient, causing houses to leak energy and contributing to excessive heating and cooling bills, and to deterioration of the planet's environment. Replacing historic windows is touted as the "green" choice.

(Reprinted from North Carolina Preservation magazine, spring 2005)

In the fall of 2004 I attended the World Urban Forum in Barcelona. The World Urban Forum is UN Habitat's biennial gathering of people from around the world who are dealing with issues of cities. Five thousand people from 150 countries attended, with perhaps 300 sessions — workshops, plenary addresses, panel discussions — and, of course, thousands of less formal interactions.