The iconic Spirella Building in Letchworth is a Grade 2* Listed Building. The Spirella Corset Company of Great Britain built and expanded the building between 1912 and 1920. And during World War 2, production was expanded to include parachutes.

This building was refurbished in the 1990s, bringing it back from disrepair for use as commercial offices. There were limited building fabric upgrades, resulting in a building that isn’t efficient to heat. Additionally, the mechanical and electrical equipment is now dated.  Therefore, we have instructed expert architectural consultant Architype to carry out a holistic review of the building to develop an effective Net Zero Carbon pathway. Principally, to establish what fabric upgrades will maintain the heritage aspects of the building and reduce heat loss. Also, to address how mechanical and electrical equipment be sequentially replaced, and supplemented with renewable energy technologies.

Recently, seven Parkland Management Plans (PMPs) were produced for historic parklands within Enfield, north London. Several parks formed part of the former royal hunting ground of Enfield Chase. The parks included the setting of Grade I buildings such as C17 Forty Hall with the long lost Henry VIII palace of Elsyng within the park, the Grade I Nash designed C18 neo-classical villa at Grovelands Park with its surrounding Humphry Repton designed landscape and Trent Park, one of the grandest inter-war country houses in England.

The PMPs formed part of an application for a Countryside Stewardship Feasibility Study (PA2) and we looked to achieve the best outcome for the historic and natural environment across the borough. The application supported the Landscape Recovery scheme, for which Enfield is one of 22 pilot projects around the country.

Historic assets, sightlines and landscape design iterations were detailed to inform the masterplans. The PMPs further highlighted the importance of restoring and creating mosaic habitats that are vital for climate adaptation, flood risk, carbon sequestration and water quality improvements, as well as helping to reconnect people with their local and historic environment.

The project I am currently working on, which has been supported with funding from the Benefact Group, is helping us to build a better picture and understanding of how climate change will affect the historic buildings and landscapes that English Heritage cares for and the way in which the charity looks after these remarkable places. This will take into account five key areas of our work – the built assets in our care, the historic collections and items that we look after, the gardens and landscapes within our guardianship and how future climate change could impact upon the work of our staff and operations and the experience of visitors.

Gathering relevant data and completing a climate change risk assessment at individual sites will help us better understand how different climate hazards will change over time and how they could impact each site in our care in different ways. Grounding this knowledge by considering the current risk at different sites will help us to identify what may be vulnerable and where action may be needed to address this, through this second part of the project where we will be carrying out site-specific climate change risk assessments. These will be developed with local site stakeholders to understand the specific issues at each site and how climate change may impact upon these different factors, so that we can work to make any necessary adaptations, with the aim of making the site more climate resilient. This work at individual sites will continue, whilst we work to take learnings from this and to build a toolkit to help embed climate resilience within the organisation.

Both: The Carbon Literacy course for Heritage is an introduction from people working in all areas of Heritage into the causes, consequences and actions we can take as organisations in the climate emergency. The course looks at the role heritage can plan, the co-benefits of taking action and what a low carbon heritage organisation might look like. Each one day course ends with people making pledges setting out actions they can put into place in their own workplace to reduce their carbon emissions.

The course is a great foundational step to raise awareness and set organisations off to identify what they need to reduce emissions and help them identify their next steps. 

One of the most pressing challenges in our sector (…in our world, actually!) is climate change. Everyone has to play their part in mitigating the risks related to climate change. Heritage can play a key role in reducing our impact, nurturing sustainable solutions, and encouraging people to take action. A lot of organisations have already taken action, as highlighted in our report Heritage Responds and associated StoryMap. HEF has also supported other organisations on their path to net zero through a collection of useful resources.

What next then? HEF acknowledged that having the right skills in place is critical to deliver environmental sustainability and this is supported by an increasing amount of evidence, also in the heritage sector. For example:

• Historic England’s Report on Local Authority Historic Environment Staff Resources (2023) found that local authorities are aware of the need for climate change adaptation skills, especially among conservation staff.
• Skills gaps have been recently highlighted by the Grosvenor report ‘Heritage and Carbon – Addressing the Skills Gap’.
• The Heritage Pulse initiative explored the topic of skills and found out that green skills are deemed to gain increasing importance in the next 5-10 years.

This is why HEF decided to set up a Task Group related to Green Skills in Heritage and I am delighted to work with a range of colleagues who bring very different perspectives around the table.