Kykuit, the National Trust Historic Site in Tarrytown, NY. Managed by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, this site was one of the earliest anywhere to adopt sustainability practices as a core function.
Welcome to my first posting on the National Trust Historic Sites blog. I have been writing for the past 2 years on PreservationNation’s “Beyond Green Building” blog and will continue to write about bigger picture sustainability issues there. But this week I join my Historic Sites’ colleagues, Max Van Balgooy and Terri Anderson, on this fabulous blog that Max created and they both have molded over the past year. The name of my blog is “True Green” and I think it will become apparent why I’ve named it this. This will be a regular blog where I specifically discuss how to improve the innate green-ness of our sites and how green housekeeping and sustainability issues and practices can impact historic sites and be seamlessly integrated into all of our actions and activities.
This month, Preservation magazine published our second annual “Green Issue”. I’m really delighted that green practices at our sites are highlighted in one of the articles. The entire issue can be downloaded from our website. But I suggest you start with “Climate Change: National Trust Greens American Attitudes and Practices.”
Is the Existing Building Really the Greenest One?
For some time now, we, at the National Trust, have taken up the mantle “The greenest building is the one already built”, first declared by my good friend, architect Carl Elefante, FAIA of Washington, DC. And while it would seem a no-brainer that it would be less of an impact to climate change to reuse our existing and historic buildings than to build new, we cannot just rest on our laurels. Doing nothing is not an option. Because after all, we got into this problem with our current building stock – by the wasteful way we have been constructing and operating all of our buildings, including our historic sites. We have to do better now – by understanding the inherent green-ness in historic sites and working much harder to make them better.
Lyndhurst, a National Trust historic site, also in Tarrytown, NY which started a green housekeeping program last year.
One of the things I like to stress when I discuss our sites, and how to think about greening them, is that we do not need a big construction project in order to make our sites “greener”. Every little bit can help in so many ways. You can start by developing “Green Housekeeping” recommendations – practices that can be implemented at any site with or without a big capital improvements project. And this can be done with little if no hit to your bottom line. The green housekeeping program developed at Lyndhurst, our National Historic Landmark “castle” on the Hudson, is a perfect example of this approach. Here, a staff with no dedicated funding, declared among themselves that they needed to make a difference, started a “green team” and changed all their housekeeping products to Green Seal approved products. This is a great story that I love sharing and a future blog will highlight this program.
And if you are undertaking a capital project, there are many ways to develop an environmentally friendly construction project, up to and including certifying your project under a third party rating system such as LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design). The Visitor’s Education Center at President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, DC is our first LEED-certified building (and Gold at that!). Another future blog will discuss this project in detail . If you’d like to know more about LEED, our online version of the Green Issue of Preservation Magazine has a link to an article I recently wrote for the AIA newsletter. I will continue to write more about LEED, the changes to LEED and how to use it effectively as a tool to meet your needs.
Cover of the new and improved "Best Practices Manual" which will be completed and up on this website in April.
And finally, over the next month I will be completing and launching our revised “ Best Practices Manual for the Care of Structures and Landscapes at National Trust Historic Sites”. My predecessor, William Dupont, AIA developed the first version of this which has helped guide work and maintenance at our sites for the past 6 years. I have expanded it to include a variety of new sections including a special one on Sustainable Practices. We will be housing the final Manual on this website, for anyone to use, not just National Trust sites, and over the next month will launch it by posting teasers. In order to complete writing this manual, I am leaving later this week for a 9 day mini-retreat in an undisclosed location in the rolling mountains of western North Carolina! I hope you enjoy “True Green” and I always welcome comments, questions, thoughts and pontifications. Barbara_campagna@nthp.org
