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Over 300 cities are inscribed on the World Heritage List. While each site has its unique challenges and opportunities, in each of them a balance must be achieved in protecting heritage values and meeting demands of modern life, including the demand for energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This article uses Visby (Sweden) as a case study to examine how conservation laws implementing the World Heritage Convention in light of international commitments to mitigate climate change can influence the balance between cultural heritage preservation and energy measures in historic sites. International laws must be implemented by states. But these national laws must be applied locally, in each heritage site. It is therefore important to examine how regional and local decision makers, including individual property owners, navigate and understand their obligations stemming from international laws in order to understand the impact and challenges in meeting sustainability goals in heritage sites. We find that while Visby’s World Heritage status promotes a high level of cultural heritage protection, restrictive laws alone fall short in achieving sustainability. Supportive factors such as funding, planning tools, knowledge support and dissemination, and community engagement help bridge these gaps. We recommend further support for financial incentives, place-based technological solutions, and collaboration amongst experts and others to help officials and property owners make choices that are sustainable from both energy and heritage perspectives.

The purpose of this aricle is to present the results from a Swedish legal research project – the REKO project – and to analyse how its findings are relevant for EU member states facing the implementation of the amended Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.We have identified that a major obstacle to renovating towards a sustainable built environment involves unclear legal construction, including which buildings are protected or designated as culturally valuable, and when a legal pre-assessment is needed. We find that this obstacle is being compounded by an overall problem in the lack of relevant knowledge among property owners, energy experts, and decision-makers. We can conclude that the interpretation of the law regarding the protection of heritage values and the requirements for energy efficiency measures is quite clear. However, it is difficult for the property owners and the average person to understand how these different sustainability goals relate to each other. A clarification in the law may therefore be needed, not least in order to ensure legal certainty for property owners. Additionally, in light of the amended directive, clarification in the law may be necessary to specify that energy requirements must be adjusted if they risk harming the heritage value in a way that is prohibited. 

Cultural values are integrated in most of the national and international goals formulated to reach a sustainable future. According to the Swedish legislation the cultural environment is a public interest that must med weighed against other public as well as private interests in planning- and building processes. However, with the increasing attention to climate issues and the ambition to decrease the use of fossil energy sources, the preservation of the cultural environment may come into conflict with energy issues. The article describes how today’s legal complex has developed and elaborates on its deficits when put into practice. The results point towards improved law enforcement. We also suggest measures that need to be taken in order to adopt an holistic approach on energy efficiency issues and the assurance of adequate knowledge in the planning and building processes in order to reach a sustainable manage of the built environment.  

The housing and service sector account for nearly 40 percent of the total energy usage in the European Union (EU). Improving energy efficiency in the building stock is therefore of vital importance to ensure climate goals. However, increasing the energy efficiency of existing buildings can lead to conflicts with other sustainability goals, such as the preservation of cultural heritage values of the built environment. How this conflict is handled in practice will depend on the design of the legislation and ultimately, the legal system. Not only is legislation on the protection of cultural values necessary, the legal system as a whole must be coherent and without deficits, loop-holes and conflicts contradicting goal fulfilment. Moreover, the norms must be effectively applied and complied with. Results of an interdisciplinary research project assessing the effectiveness of the Swedish legal system in reaching energy goals while preserving heritage values, show that meeting sustainability goals are jeopardized by not applying the law in accordance with the intent of the legislator. This paper elaborates on the deficits identified and how they can be improved in order to handle sustainability conflicts.

Improved energy efficiency and increased use of renewables within the building stock is crucial to ensure the achievement of international and national climate goals, such as bringing about a carbon neutral society. The existing buildings needs to be retrofitted and heated by renewable energy sources. However, this may lead to conflicts with other sustainability goals, such as the preservation of cultural heritage values within the built environment. The design of the legal system can be assumed to have a decisive role in well-developed Rechtsstaats in how these conflicts are handled. One important criterion for the achievement of overall sustainability objectives is that the legal system as a whole is coherent and without deficits, loopholes, and conflicts contradicting goal fulfilment. Moreover, the norms must be effectively applied and complied with. This article presents and elaborates on deficits in the legal system and its application, in particular within the land use planning and building legislation and the heritage protection law, in handling the conflicts between reaching energy goals while preserving heritage values and achieving a sustainable development. The important deficits identified include the lack of legal requirements on the adoption of holistic approaches and the assurance of adequate knowledge in the planning and building processes. The analyses have been carried out through interdisciplinary cooperation within the research project Law, Sustainable Energy Use and Protection of Heritage (RECO), funded by the Swedish Energy Agency.

Med stigande energipriser och medvetenhet om energianvändningens påverkan på klimatet behöver institutioner som förvaltar kulturhistoriskt värdefulla byggnader och samlingar tänka strategiskt om inomhusklimat. Trots att frågan om inomhusklimat sedan slutet av 1800-talet har varit central för trivsel, hälsa och bevarande av kulturhistoriskt värdefulla hus och föremålssamlingar har dessa mål varit svåra att förena. Hur har beslut fattats om vilken teknik som ska användas? Hur har maktförhållandena sett ut mellan de aktörer som byggt, förvaltat och brukat byggnaderna? Och hur har besluten påverkat byggnaderna och samlingarna? Genom att förstå inomhusklimat och komfort som ett samspel mellan människor och materiella resurser bidrar boken med viktiga kunskaper om vår syn på och tillämpning av värme- och ventilationsteknik i kulturhistoriska miljöer. Boken bygger på omfattande undersökningar av bevarat arkivmaterial som behandlar kyrkor, museer, arkiv och bibliotek. Den är relevant för arkitekter, fastighetsförvaltare, ingenjörer, konservatorer, antikvarier, forskare och studenter som är intresserade av drift och vård av äldre byggnader. Mattias Legnér är docent i historia och professor i kulturvård vid Uppsala universitet. Han har publicerat ett antal vetenskapliga artiklar och konferensbidrag om både historiska och sentida försök att styra inomhusklimatet i kyrkor och museala byggnader. Mia Geijer är fil dr i arkitekturhistoria och bebyggelseantikvarie. Hon har ägnat sin forskning åt teman som rör det byggda kulturarvets bruk och förvaltning.