--- title: Greening This Old House description: Saving money and the planet by upgrading older homes canonical: https://time.com/archive/6596877/greening-this-old-house/ author: Bryan Walsh article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2009-04-23T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-25T06:28:46.338Z article:section: Science og:title: Greening This Old House og:description: Saving money and the planet by upgrading older homes og:url: https://time.com/archive/6596877/greening-this-old-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Greening This Old House twitter:description: Saving money and the planet by upgrading older homes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Science](/section/science/) # Greening This Old House > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=2a7014b9-8e81-4221-804f-5a87626553fb&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) by [Bryan Walsh](https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/) Apr 23, 2009 4:00 AM UTC by [Bryan Walsh](https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/) Apr 23, 2009 4:00 AM UTC Would Abraham Lincoln have gone green? Frank Milligan thinks so. Milligan is the director of President Lincoln’s Cottage, a Gothic Revival mansion on a breezy hill a few miles from the White House, where Lincoln and his family sought relief from the summer heat during the Civil War. The cottage and its surrounding buildings were made a national monument in 2000, and in preparation for its opening last year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation carried out a multimillion-dollar renovation. But preservationists didn’t just restore the buildings. They greened them, beginning with the Beaux Arts house next door that now serves as a visitors’ center. Renovators kept 98% of the house’s existing walls, roofs and floors and used recyclable material for the rest. Large windows were put in to reduce the need for artificial lighting, and low-flow plumbing was installed to cut water waste. The renovations earned the visitors’ center a gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council–and made the site a model for historic buildings in need of a face-lift. “Lincoln was always ahead of his time,” says Milligan. “And going green is the future.” When we think of green buildings, we tend to think of new ones–the kind of high-tech, solar-paneled masterpieces that make the covers of architecture magazines. But the U.S. has more than 100 million existing homes, and it would be incredibly wasteful (not to mention totally unrealistic) to tear them all down and replace them with greener versions. An enormous amount of energy and resources went into the construction of those dwellings. And it would take an average of 65 years for the reduced carbon emissions from a new energy-efficient home to make up for the resources lost by demolishing an old one. So in the broadest sense, the greenest home is the one that has already been built. But at the same time, nearly half of U.S. carbon emissions come from heating, cooling and powering our homes, offices and other buildings. “You can’t deal with climate change without dealing with existing buildings,” says Richard Moe, the president of the National Trust. With some exceptions, the oldest homes tend to be the least energy-efficient. Houses built before 1939 use about 50% more energy per square foot than those built after 2000\. The main culprit? Tiny cracks and gaps that expand over time and let in more outside air. Fortunately, there are a tremendous number of relatively simple changes that can green older homes, from historic ones like Lincoln’s Cottage to your own postwar abode. And efficiency upgrades can save more than just the earth; they can help shield property owners from rising power costs. Moreover, a nationwide effort to improve existing buildings could create hundreds of thousands of green jobs. (In addition to using less raw materials, renovations are often more labor-intensive per dollar spent than new construction is.) “There’s an enormous opportunity here,” says Lane Burt, an energy-policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Energy efficiency is a way to spend now to create jobs, while still saving down the line.” The stimulus package includes some $8 billion for weatherization programs for low-income households, but that will cover only a small slice of the country’s housing stock. To promote the greening of existing buildings, the National Trust last month launched the Preservation Green Lab, a think tank based in Seattle, and is working with members of Congress to pass energy-efficiency legislation that would increase rebates and subsidies to cover as much as half the cost of a green retrofit. Such incentives are vital. Although lower utility costs mean upgrades will pay for themselves over time, the up-front cost of better insulation or double-pane windows can be prohibitive, especially during a recession. In the meantime, you can make small changes to begin greening your home. You don’t need solar panels or rooftop wind turbines. You just need a good caulking gun. Start by thinking of your house as a submarine, and plug the leaks in your walls, doors and windows. Be sure to insulate the attic and the basement, since up to 20% of energy costs can come from heat loss in those spaces. A home energy audit is also a good idea; [energysavers.gov](http://energysavers.gov) details how to do one yourself as well as how to go about hiring a professional. So be like Lincoln and savor the summer breezes, but avoid winter drafts. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6596877/greening-this-old-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6596877/greening-this-old-house/"},"headline":"Greening This Old House","datePublished":"2009-04-23T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T06:28:46.338Z","description":"Saving money and the planet by upgrading older homes","url":"https://time.com/archive/6596877/greening-this-old-house/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bryan Walsh","url":"https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6596877/greening-this-old-house/","name":"Greening This Old House"}}]}] ```