PRESS RELEASES

ENERGY EFFICIENT IMPROVEMENTS TO HISTORIC AND LISTED BUILDINGS WILL BE GOOD FOR THE BUILDINGS' OWNERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

A comprehensive new guide for anyone wanting to improve the environmental performance of historic and listed buildings has been published today by The Prince's Regeneration Trust, the leading heritage regeneration charity of HRH The Prince of Wales.

The Green Guide for Historic Buildings provides practical step-by-step advice on improving the environmental sustainability of historic and listed buildings. The guide gives expert opinion on sympathetic adaptations and, crucially, how effective they are likely to be in saving money and reducing carbon emissions.

"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," said Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive, The Prince's Regeneration Trust.

Ros continued:
"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."

The guide- which contains a foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales - summarises key legislation and policy and takes the reader through the major steps from planning to completion. There are practical 'hints and tips' from leading heritage regeneration specialists and a quick reference FAQ section on how to obtain statutory consents. Cost comparisons are given on the move to cleaner energy, together with schemes and initiatives that can save money when it comes to adapting a building. The guide also uses 13 exemplar case studies to show where environmental efficiency has been successfully achieved in the UK.

When making historic and listed buildings more energy efficient, the guide advocates reducing energy needs before considering how to generate renewable energy on site:

"It makes no sense to affect the character of the building by introducing solar or photovoltaic panels if the hot water tank, pipes, floor and roof are inadequately insulated, the windows and doors are ill-fitting or the occupants leave all the lights on. Expenditure on loft insulation is a reasonably cheap and quick way of introducing beneficial energy saving measures into a building, and managing the way people within the building consume energy is also a crucial, yet achievable, task," explained Ros.

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 magnificent built heritage landscape.

The Green Guide for Historic Buildings may be purchased online at www.tsoshop.co.uk

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