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SOHO President's Monthly Message
September 2016
By Jaye MacAskill
 How can you spot a SOHO member? It's not that easy. We're a pretty diverse group of people, but a sure give-away is often a bumper sticker that reads: "The greenest building is the one that is already built." Whenever I see one on the road or in a parking lot, I know I'm in good company.
SOHO may not have originated that wise adage, but it is one of the fundamental truths that we live by. There are many reasons why historic preservation is important, including quality of life issues, economic advantages, and maintaining ties to the past. However, on a really basic, easily understood level, it just makes sense that it is far better for the environment to value what already exists and to not recklessly perpetrate an endless cycle of tear-downs. Yes, it is true that new buildings can be constructed in a green manner. But what does that matter if, in the process, landfills get filled up with the remains of perfectly good historic buildings and the planet becomes stressed and polluted by the excess manufacture and long-distance transportation of new building products, green or otherwise?
Despite what new buildings may have to offer, historic buildings still tend to be designed and constructed better than their newer counterparts, as well as being built with superior materials that can no longer be obtained, like old growth timber. It's just a fact that tearing down older buildings is wasteful-far more wasteful than say, throwing that plastic soda bottle into the trash instead of the recycling bin.
Historic preservation became a nation-wide movement during the 1960s, as did environmentalism. Surprisingly, the two concepts did not immediately overlap, although many early proponents were surely interested in both! The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) was founded in 1993 to address the ecological implications of the construction industry, but its early initiatives, including the LEED Green Building Rating System and certification program, focused little on sustainable preservation until quite recently. Unfortunately, in the meantime, many green building professionals and enthusiasts were mistakenly led to believe that old buildings were not environmentally-friendly. Finally in 2004, the Association for Preservation Technology International formed a Sustainable Preservation Committee to provide an arena for discussion and education on historic preservation. Since then, professional workshops on the connection between sustainable green building practices and historic preservation have become more common.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation includes sustainability among its key issues. The Trust's position statement on sustainability states:
"Historic preservation can-and should-be an important component of any effort to promote sustainable development. The conservation and improvement of our existing built resources-including re-use of historic and older buildings, greening the existing building stock, and reinvestment in older and historic communities-is crucial to combating climate change."
Dispelling the early myths of the green building movement is still a major challenge to SOHO and the historic preservation community in general, but the evidence supporting the strong links between sustainable preservation and sound environmental stewardship could not be clearer. In fact, the connection is so clear that it can be summed up easily on a bumper sticker.
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