Speaking up for Preservation and Sustainability
November 10, 2008
According to the PreservationNation blog, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Friends of the National Center for Preservation Training and Technology are convening 30 leaders in the historic preservation and sustainability fields this week to discuss the three-way intersection of sustainable practices, historic preservation and public policy.
And PreservationNation and PNJ are asking you to leave a comment, finishing the sentence:
Sustainability and historic preservation go hand in hand because…
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Conservation and preservation are synonymous. Both are the way of keeping the best of the past for the benefit of the future.
Sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Historic preservation and sustainability go hand in hand because we can use preserved historic resources to meet current needs while using less resources that may be needed by future generations. If historic resources are demolished then that creates additional construction waste. If a new structure is build in place of a historic one that requires using additional materials and creates new construction waste. Historic structures generally use less energy for heating and cooling due to being made with materials that have more mass and operable mechanisms such as shutters and awnings.