The Greenest Building Is... One That Is Already Built

Abstract

The Greenest Building Is... One That Is Already Built Carl Elefante, FAIA (bio) In the five years since the Greenest Building article first appeared, a great deal has changed. While there has been significant progress integrating historic preservation into initiatives promoting green building and sustainable communities, unfortunately the most dramatic development has been unproductive and discouraging. The emerging culture change that I so hopefully pointed to in 2007 has devolved into the culture wars of 2012! First, the progress: In most quarters, the sustainability community is coming to recognize the importance of existing and historic buildings and to respect the expertise residing in the historic preservation field. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has contributed substantially to this "maturing" relationship. The Trust has engaged the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to raise awareness of existing and historic buildings and to modify green building rating systems to more appropriately reflect their value. While this process is arguably still in its infancy, its significance should not be underestimated. The Trust co-sponsored with the National Center for Preservation Training and Technology (NCPTT) the Pocantico Symposium where five principles were articulated to recast historic preservation objectives in sustainability terms. And perhaps most importantly, the Trust's Preservation Green Lab published its groundbreaking study (The Greenest Build…