Sustainable Preservation Technical Committee

MISSION STATEMENT
The APT Technical Committee on Sustainable Preservation (TC-SP) recognizes the imperative for leadership through preservation to address the causes and effects of the climate crisis. Through research, collaboration, outreach, and education, the TC-SP facilitates technical information exchange about the physical, social, and cultural aspects of environmental sustainability and promotes best practices for climate action through the responsible stewardship of our built heritage and cultural landscapes.

OVERVIEW
The TC-SP was formed in 2004 to provide an arena for discussion, review, and information sharing. It aims to educate APT members on the relationship between historic preservation and environmental sustainability.

The TC-SP not only affords APT members a forum for discussing sustainability issues, but also serves as a network for other preservation and green building stakeholders. The committee's areas of interest include sustainability-rating systems, life-cycle management, embodied carbon, envelope performance, durability and resilience of materials and assemblies, material salvage and deconstruction, contaminated-sites mitigation, water and energy conservation, and the role of historic properties in sustainable cultures and communities.

The TC-SP has set its focus on overcoming common misconceptions that heritage buildings are not or cannot be energy efficient; educating practitioners in appropriate heritage evaluations; and guiding the decision-making process for sustainable preservation.

The TC-SP is developing an On-line Sustainable Conservation Assistance Resource (OSCAR), which can be accessed at www.OSCAR-apti.org. OSCAR is an interactive technical resource that establishes a clear process to make the decisions necessary for the sustainable understanding and treatment of historic buildings. The tool addresses the associated challenges of different families of buildings, climate conditions, and governing policies and codes to manage change while protecting heritage value.

Focus groups within the TC-SP address myriad issues related to sustainable preservation through case studies, development of educational materials and learning modules, writing articles, reports and peer review for the APT Bulletin, assessing current policies, guidelines and rating systems as well as serving on various adjunct green building committees to represent the preservation community.

Membership is open to all APT members who have an interest in environmental sustainability and its relationship to the protection of historic buildings and their cultural significance.

The committee meets at the annual APT conference and communicates regularly via conference calls. For more information contact the committee chairs.

Co-Chairs:
Lori Ferriss
Cory Rouillard                 
Evanne St. Charles 

Introduction to the TC-SP (PDF)

TC-SP Focus Groups (PDF)

OSCAR (website link)

OSCAR Content Tutorial 

Bibliography of Resources for Sustainable Preservation (website link)

Climate Change and Cultural Heritage Conservation: A Literature Review (PDF)

Glossary of Carbon Accounting and Historic Preservation (PDF)

2017 Plenary: Historic Buildings and the Race to Net-Zero Carbon (website link)

2017 Plenary Transcript (PDF)

TC-SP Supports The Global Goals! (PDF)

ZNCC (website link)

ZNCC Banner (PDF)