Environmental Sustainability & Resilience

The effects of climate change have an increasingly dramatic impact on historic communities and resources. The performance of historic building structure and materials must not only be improved to reduce their contribution to climate change, they must also be adapted to respond to and mitigate climate change impacts that are no longer possible to avoid.

EHT Traceries provides guidance, best practices, and recommendations for the sensitive retrofitting and rehabilitation of historic buildings to improve their energy performance and reduce their contribution to climate change while also identifying and preserving their inherently sustainable design features, historic characteristics, and significance. This includes, among other things, advising on the appropriateness of renewable energy source installations such as solar arrays, and assisting with the historic preservation review and approvals processes for innovative approaches.

The firm also provides clients with guidance on how to incorporate historic preservation requirements and values into adaptation and mitigation planning processes. This is accomplished by developing an understanding of a community’s or resource’s history, significance, and vulnerability followed by identification of effective preservation-based mitigation solutions to reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and disasters.