To Preserve is to Sustain - Let’s get Green together

Yes, it is better to reuse than to toss out. That applies to just about everything, except maybe old toothbrushes.

It is most applicable to our building stock. To emphasize this point, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is walking the walk and talking the talk. The Trust has launched a Sustainability Program. If you care about the environment and our climate problems, the Trust website should be a regular stop for you. You should also consider giving them some of your money. They do and have always done great work.

The Trust has recently launched Preservation Green Lab, headquartered in Seattle. Here’s an excerpt from the Trust website:

As a key component of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Sustainability Program, the Preservation Green Lab will focus on these three goals:

Good Policy, Green Results: The greenest building is often the one that is already built, which is precisely why the Preservation Green Lab will work in various cities and states to develop and implement policies that support green retrofits and adaptive reuse, as well as reinvestment in existing communities.

Greening by Example: To demonstrate that older and historic buildings can, in fact, be retrofitted to achieve high levels of energy efficiency, the Preservation Green Lab will launch a number of green retrofit projects in pilot cities across the country.

The Go-To for Going Green: The Preservation Green Lab will lead the conversation on best practices and model policies for greening our country's prized older and historic buildings, functioning as the go-to resource for those navigating the intersection of historic preservation and sustainability.

We just might have to coordinate a visit from these folks. Or maybe we need our own New Albany Green Lab?

The 100K house – get small, get cheap, get green

Despite carrying the “preservationist” label (which seems to carry a load of negative stereotyped baggage along with it in these parts) I’m also a huge fan of modern architecture. New construction design that mimics or replicates an earlier architectural style looks fine if you are walking down Main Street at Disney, but looks absolutely ridiculous in the real world. Design has been a topic covered before on this blog. New Construction needs to look new.

Our focus in these parts should be our existing housing stock. Building reuse is an absolute no-brainer. It is not rational to destroy resources that can be adapted and reused. This is true for entire structures and the elements that make up the structures (yes, even windows which are filling up our landfills at an alarming rate).

There is, however, plenty of room in our center city neighborhoods for new construction. This project (The 100K House) caught my attention recently. The project leaders have a conviction that "green" and "affordable" can go hand-in-hand. They are actually building that conviction.


The design is modern. It’s green. It’s LEED Platinum certified. It’s affordable.

How about we do it here?