Part of Piper Shores’ sustainability plan is to work closely with community organizations, as it does with Scarborough Land Trust and Camp Ketcha, when it comes to the nonprofit retirement community’s trail system. Contributed / Piper Shores

The sustainability goal of a lifecare retirement community in Scarborough will likely sound familiar: become carbon-neutral by 2040.

But Piper Shores’ approach to achieving that goal, which would make it the first carbon-neutral retirement community in Maine, began as a grassroots effort that has since evolved into an all-hands-on-deck approach.

“A number of years ago, there was a group that was devised to really focus on sustainability and, a few years ago, we evolved that group and it became known as the Sustainability Collaborative,” said Phil Jean, CEO of the nonprofit retirement community. “The beautiful thing about it is it includes residents, management, board members and other community folks as well.”

Andrea Killiard, marketing director at Piper Shores, said the original group is responsible for blazing the trail to get to where they are today.

“That was really the start of the impetus of the full sustainability movement here,” she said. “It’s interesting to see a grassroots group of residents appreciating the environment they live in and then being able to extend that formally into a collaborative.”

That group of residents advocated for the retirement community’s board to adopt sustainability initiatives, Killiard said, and the board listened.

Larry Litten, resident and co-facilitator of the Sustainability Collaborative at Piper Shores, said what they have been able to achieve to date is unique.

“It’s a distinctive group because I’m in touch with a lot of (continuing care retirement communities),” Litten said. “Sustainability has become pretty important to residents of CCRCs, and most CCRCs have a resident committee who work hard to get the attention of the administration with varying success: Sometimes the administration is very directly involved, other times it’s difficult to get their attention.”

Some residents from the original group have formed a committee under the collaborative, which meets monthly to educate and get feedback from residents of Piper Shores.

“That’s the way that we address sustainability for all residents,” Litten said. “Residents can participate and suggest things that are carried to the collaborative for its consideration.”

The collaborative, with the help of consultants, has come up with a comprehensive plan that goes beyond what many organizations and businesses focus on when addressing their carbon-neutral goals: sustainable energy.

“A lot of CCRCs have a pretty narrow focus on energy and emissions reductions. Here, we have a more comprehensive approach,” Litten said. “It’s not just energy. It’s also transportation and water and waste and education.”

Piper Shores has already secured agreements with solar fields in Maine, which now cover over 50% of the retirement community’s electricity consumption. In 2025, while the collaborative continues work on sustainable energy, it will also shift its focus to waste reduction.

“We’ve begun to talk about a variety of ways we can have waste reduction on the residents’ side and we’re beginning to talk to staff about how we can reduce waste across the board,” Litten said.

Another strategy in the plan is to lean into community partnerships.

“We have a fairly significant trail system at Piper Shores and we’ve developed and evolved that trail system over time,” Jean said. “Now, we do that in partnership with the Scarborough Land Trust and Camp Ketcha.”

They’ve also fostered relationships with colleges in New England.

“From the University of New Hampshire, we had a fellow who worked with us this summer on some projects,” Jean said. “We are currently working with a climate action class and a number of students are helping us develop some benchmarks and some data points around our carbon footprint.”

Piper Shores is also planning to hire a sustainability coordinator to help facilitate the plans and goals of the Sustainability Collaborative. That will likely involve finding grant funding for eco-friendly projects and initiatives that are often costly upfront.

“It takes time and focus to do that sort of thing,” Litten said.

With residents, staff, board members and community organizations all having a seat at the table, those at Piper Shores believe they’ve found a recipe for success.

“All of those folks come with a broad base of experience and we are able to have really good conversations, share perspectives, identify alternative options and strategies that maybe weren’t on the horizon,” Jean said. “We get to a place where we’re able to make some really solid decisions that people feel good about.”

The composition of the Sustainability Collaborative allows residents to get creative and offer a range of ideas, Litten said, irrespective of whether they are ultimately pursued or not.

“At the table are people who can think about implementation and cost and all of the aspects of what has to be taken into account if you’re really going to move in a particular direction,” he said.

For more information on Piper Shores’ sustainability initiatives, visit pipershores.org/about-us/sustainability.