On Monday, April 21, members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) Sustainable Preservation Coalition received an update from National Trust staff on several of the initiatives on the coalition, including cooperative efforts with the US Green Building Council (USGBC) to encourage greater understanding of the benefits of preservation and rehabilitation of the existing building stock – in particular historic buildings - as a green building practice, and to develop methods and metrics to reflect these values in LEED rating systems.

Barbara Campagna (NTHP) reported that the current version of LEED 2.2 is currently in the process of revision, and changes are being drafted that will incorporate better metrics for historic and existing buildings. The revised version LEED 3.0 is scheduled to be released for public comment May 1, 2008, and will be presented for adoption at GreenBuild this November in Boston. Stay tuned; the HRC will attempt to distribute the LEED 3.0 for member comments as soon as it becomes available. Please click here to view  Barabara Campagna’s blog.

Also during the meeting, National Trust Sustainable Preservation Initiative staff members Emily Wadhams and Rhonda Sincavage, as well as research associate Patrice Frey, presented the draft research agenda developed by the Coalition.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is committed to developing the research needed to make clear the environmental benefits of preservation. This research plan outlines the Trust’s proposed research activities to support building reuse, community reinvestment, and greening the existing building stock. The research agenda focuses on the following key areas:

• Building Re-use: Lifecycle Cost Analysis and Building Archetypes Analysis
• Greening Building Stock: Case Studies and Historic Windows Assessment
• Reinvesting in Older and Historic Communities: U Penn Study and Economic Assessments of Teardowns and Building Abandonment

Outcomes from the National Trust Sustainability Initiative and Coalition efforts are extremely positive and show a willingness by all parties to make substantial, rapid progress towards shared goals. USGBC has acknowledged there are important aspects currently missing from the LEED rating systems, including historic preservation, smart growth, and cultural values. And USGBC is working with Coalition member assistance to develop and incorporate preservation criteria and metrics into the next version of LEED.

The Coalition’s immediate goal is to strengthen the integration of historic preservation into the USGBC LEED green building rating systems. However, the purpose of the Coalition is to promote historic preservation as an inherently sustainable building practice, and Coalition members are working toward several joint goals, including research, education and outreach. The evolution of the preservation movement has grown to encompass all tenets of sustainability: environment, equity, and economics. Historic preservation is the most sustainable building practice.