Sustainability/Reducing Carbon Footprint

You might have heard the slogans, “preservation is sustainability” or “the greenest building is the one already built.” The slogans get to the issue of maintaining the original, natural and durable features of your home, and embodied energy. Embodied energy is the energy already bound up in existing buildings. It takes energy to manufacture or extract building materials, energy to transport them to a construction site, still more energy to assemble them into a building. All of that energy is embodied in the finished structure. When you replace original or old house parts rather than repair them, the embodied energy is lost. More energy is used to manufacture the replacement parts and store parts in the landfill. Often the replacements use toxic chemicals and processes.

Regular repair and maintenance of your building and all of its operating systems will help maintain the character and the functionality of your old building. There are also ways to reduce your carbon footprint, be eco-friendly and save on energy costs when remodeling or replacing or upgrading operational systems such as heating and water heaters. These sites and brochures will give you more ideas on how to reduce your carbon footprint and avoid using products and materials that are made in a harmful way or that contain a lot of toxins.

Have you watched the movie Blue Vinyl? This documentary is quite eye opening to the toxins that are produced in making vinyl and other man-made materials.

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Contact Historic Resources

Anne Catlin
Community Development, Planning Division
541- 917-7560, E-mail