Making Historic Preservation Sustainable

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Historic preservation has the potential to serve as a constructive agent of change within the built environment and to contribute to goals of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. However, tensions between sustainability goals and preservation policy and practice are impeding opportunities to forge common ground and a shared agenda. I review the existing literature related to the preservation–-sustainability nexus and critically analyze how preservation policies and practices conflict with or support key sustainability goals of energy consumption reduction, alternative energy production, urban densification, economic development, inclusion, diversity and participation, and intergenerational equity. Key findings of this research include the need to resolve tensions between sustainability and historic preservation practice through research and data, evolving preservation policies, and aligning historic preservation with the goals of environmental, economic, and social sustainability.

Takeaway for practice: The future of the preservation field and its engagement with sustainability goals hinge on the ability to contribute to environmental, economic, and social aims, but to also demonstrate why social concerns may sometimes trump economic and environmental ones given the fundamentally social aims of historic preservation. Understanding where tensions lie and why conflicts arise is an important step toward enhancing research about preservation outcomes and their contributions to sustainability and evolving preservation policy to better respond to changing environmental, economic, and societal conditions.

Keywords:

• historic preservation
• sustainability