Yesterday in Indianapolis I attended a symposium sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA Region 5) entitled “Green Historic Preservation Symposium: What Works, What Doesn’t, What Should Change” What I learned was that the “green-sustainability” constituency from the professional environmental sector knows little about historic preservation and the historic preservation community knows little about the environmental sector – a generality to be sure, but the two groups are finding how working together would be very advantageous. Hopefully the Department of Energy (DOE) people will be brought into the mix too.
A few things I learned yesterday:
1) As of April 22, 2010 any renovation or painting to a house built before 1978 will require that hired contractors must be certified to deal with lead-based paint. http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm
2) I had seen Energy Star ratings on appliances in the store but didn’t fully understand the scope of the Energy Star program, visit http://www.energystar.gov/
3) There are Energy Efficiency Block Grants through DOE which perhaps have been focused towards industry- but could be used for larger commercial buildings (theaters come to mind) http://www.eecbg.energy.gov/grantalloc.html
4) A database to be researching before starting any building improvement or rehabilitation project shows a multitude of programs being offered in Ohio http://www.dsireusa.org/
5) I think a lot of us talk about embodied energy- but remember we have access to a calculator—share this tool with the uninitiated. http://thegreenestbuilding.org
Keep spreading the word- the greenest building is the one already built!
