The HighlandsWhen Sara White and her husband, Bob, moved to The Highlands retirement community, in Topsham, in 2015, they were eager to connect with their neighbors and establish a new sense of home. While both have New England roots, the couple built their life together in California. After taking a year to settle down — and sort through the more than 400 boxes of belongings they moved across the country — White joined the Go Green Committee, a resident-driven initiative whose efforts she admired. “I was a very active member of the California garden clubs, and did a lot of environmental projects with them,” she says. “It was just a matter of time before I got involved here.”
The Highlands, opened in 1990, is a 55+ community offering independent living, assisted living, and memory care services to its more than 425 residents. The Go Green Committee held its first meeting in 2012, spurred by a growing interest in environmental issues among residents. The original committee’s dozen members worked with management to identify and implement projects to increase environmental awareness and sustainability. These included building sheds for composting and returnables, establishing a tool bank, educating residents about recycling, planting pollinator gardens, and helping to maintain The Highlands’ trails. “I sort of think of the different projects as spokes in a wheel,” White says.
The committee chose many of its projects with guidance from a Maine Department of Environmental Protection workbook that encourages businesses to implement initiatives across every aspect of operations to reduce their environmental impact. The initiatives achieve points through a self-guided process, and businesses with 100 points earn an Environmental Leader certification. In 2018, The Highlands became the first retirement community to achieve the certification with 100 points, a number they have since surpassed.
Chelsie Mitchell, who started working at The Highlands in 2011 and became executive director in 2018, is especially proud of the behind-the-scenes efforts that contributed to the certification, which are less visual but sometimes more impactful. These include recycling kitchen oils, using eco-friendly cleaning and laundry care products, and switching to energy-efficient lighting. ReVision Energy installed solar panels on Cadigan Lodge, The Highlands’ assisted living community, that now heat the building’s water supply and offset 35,000 lbs. of CO2 per year.
“We also do a lot of little things,” Mitchell says. “We put signs up by the light switches to encourage people to turn the lights off, we find ways to reduce our paper use, we provide group van services to off-campus events to save on auto emissions, and we include green tips on our resident intranet site.” All community members receive reusable bags and compost pails when they move in.
When the original Go Green Committee disbanded during the pandemic, community members established a new group called Go Green Projects, which White now chairs, to help maintain all of the work done to make the community environmentally sustainable. Go Green Projects also offers educational programs for residents on subjects like zero- sort recycling, the water district, legislative issues that affect Maine’s environment, and climate change. “As time goes on, there’s more and more that comes up, like light pollution for example,” White says. “There’s just so many things to keep our attention.”
As the next generation of baby boomers retires, Mitchell is noticing a greater interest among new and potential residents in the community’s many green initiatives and commitment to maintaining a healthy and sustainable living environment. “Our goal is to help support residents in any way they can take action,” Mitchell says. “We’re always looking towards the future.”