The Prince's Regeneration Trust has published a new guide for anyone wanting to improve the environmental performance of historic and listed buildings.
The Green Guide for Historic Buildings provides practical step-by-step advice on improving the environmental sustainability of buildings, expert opinion on sympathetic adaptations and how effective they will be in saving money and reducing carbon emissions.
HRH The Prince of Wales has provided a foreword for the guide, which summarises key legislation and policy and takes the reader through the major steps from planning to completion.
The guide also includes 13 best practice case studies to show where environmental efficiency has been successfully achieved in the UK.
Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive, The Prince's Regeneration Trust, said: "We must all make an effort in tackling climate change and that goes for historic buildings too. Listed buildings in particular do present challenges, but energy saving measures can be made and The Green Guide explains how these can be achieved.”
"It's important that listing is not seen as a barrier to improving environmental performance, or support for the listing system will diminish. To shy away from enabling energy efficiency improvements to historic buildings and to fail to demonstrate their potential is to miss a vital opportunity."
When making historic and listed buildings more energy efficient, the guide advocates reducing energy needs before considering how to generate renewable energy on site.
Ros said it is nonsensical to affect the character of a historic building by introducing solar or photovoltaic panels if the hot water tank, pipes, floor and roof are inadequately insulated, or the windows and doors are ill-fitting.
Although the guide focuses on listed buildings it has direct relevance and application to many areas of conservation, and in particular, other types of historic building which make up our built heritage landscape.
The Green Guide for Historic Buildings may be purchased online at www.tsoshop.co.uk
