Eco-Villians
by Andrew Cushing, reprinted with permission from AIA New Hampshire’s Forum, Winter 2019
Captain Planet ruled the family TV tubes on Saturday mornings as a kid. This superhero and his multi-national band of Planeteers tackled issues like overpopulation, acid rain, deforestation, and surface mining – all travesties carried out by “Eco Villains.” Whereas Mister Rogers taught me to be kind and Zoom! taught me Pig Latin, Captain Planet taught me to care about Earth.
A photo of Andrew’s porch/workshop, where countless historic windows have been restored to their former glory.
Fast forward two decades and my Saturday mornings mostly include old house projects, sound tracked by NHPR and my neighbor’s affinity for shooting small mammals. 2019 has been my year of windows. Using skills learned in a work study job at graduate school, I pull out my wood windows and completely strip, re-glaze, and paint each sash. I then repeat for all my wood storms.
It’s bold to buck the trend during this replacement window zeitgeist, I know. But my windows are 125 years old. They were built of quality materials and were meant to be repaired. And various studies – and my personal experience – show that they perform just as well as replacement windows.
Captain Planet never delved deep into the role our built environment has on our global ecosystem, but we know that what we build, renovate, and destroy has enormous impacts on everything from our carbon footprint to our landfills. Our buildings contribute 39% of America’s CO2 emissions, devour 70% of the nation’s electricity, and their construction and demolition materials outnumber all municipal waste twofold.
A “before” photo of a historic window at Andrew’s house, pending full restoration.
Take old windows, for example. It is estimated that 30% of replacement windows will need re-replacing in ten years. When replacement windows average 60-100 year returns on investment, the typical homeowner isn’t even recouping their costs before having to buy a whole different unit. That spent vinyl unit then sits in the landfill. Meanwhile, it’s too late for the century-old-windows, made of old growth wood.
When maintained, our older buildings’ clapboards, wood windows, marble thresholds, hardwood floors, and bathroom sinks outlive us. This embodied energy makes older buildings inherently green, even if they receive a bulk oil discount from OPEC during winter months. The desire to make our buildings more energy efficient and comfortable is a noble and necessary pursuit, especially for our neediest neighbors. New construction should absolutely be held to high performance standards and much of our older building stock can perform better, often with cost-effective and sympathetic fixes. For the buildings in this latter category, we shouldn’t treat them like the Eco Villains commercials, clients, or codes think they are.
The window at Andrew’s house, restored and installed.
My decision to work on old houses and advocate for preservation practices stems from a belief that it’s a good thing to do for the planet. The greater number of wood windows we save, the more vinyl siding we avoid, the fewer impulses we have to destroy old and build new, and the more comfortable we can make all of our buildings, the better shape we leave this planet…and I suspect the more we will enjoy living on it, too.
Whole AIA New Hampshire issue here. It’s beautiful, educational and inspiring. Check out more of the N.H. Preservation Alliance’s tips for old houses here.
About the author, Andrew Cushing, and the Preservation Alliance: After nearly three years of tremendous service and impact (and close to 300 projects and 90,000 miles criss-crossing the state), our field service representative Andrew Cushing left the Preservation Alliance for another great historic preservation job in the Granite State. We are very grateful for his excellent work, and sad to see him leave our day-to-day team but happy that he is still in New Hampshire, serving as the director of the Bureau of Historic Sites for the State of N.H