In much of my energy and environmental consulting work with congregations, I am constantly being asked, “How can we make our very old church building energy efficient?”
It is a great question, because sometimes a large and historic facility can be very overwhelming when you start to think about projects, costs, and the motivation needed to accomplish such a large project.
However, just like the wise sage once said… “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step.”
Retrofitting a historic structure is not rocket science. You just need a little more patience and creativity to accomplish your goals. For example, you can still insulate your building, it is just a little harder to insulate a building already built, than to add insulation as you do new construction.
To prove this point, I wanted to pass along the success story of Virginia Theological Seminary. A friend recently shared this article with me and it shows how you can combine 19th century architecture with modern trends in green building and energy retrofitting.
The article was published by Builderonline.com and it is title, “An Episcopal Seminary brings LEED into the 19th Century”
Blog Notes: Special thanks to Ed Walsh for sharing the article with me.
