The Green Committee is one of our community’s many active resident groups that helps to shape RiverMead. It seeks to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste, and increase recycling by engaging and educating residents and staff about the benefits of going green.
This group typically meets monthly and works with the Leadership Team to lessen the community’s negative impact on our natural environment by reducing our carbon footprint.
Committee members work toward big-picture projects and implement day-to-day changes to make lasting impacts. One of the most recent accomplishments of the group was working with the Leadership Team to upgrade the campus shuttle to an electric vehicle.
They are also trialing a certified organic lawn care method with our Landscaping Committee to test if we can maintain a visually appealing lawn with less environmental impact. We already use a well for most of our irrigation water, reducing the water we get from the Town of Peterborough. This saves the town environmental and monetary costs of treating water to meet drinking water standards for it to be used for irrigation services.
The committee has created procedures to collect plastic bags and glass rather than having them end up in a landfill. The glass items are brought to a local recycling center to be ground into road fill. The Trex Corporation uses the collected plastic bags as raw material to produce an environmentally friendly building material for decking and outdoor furniture.
Some committee members have taken their efforts even further and joined the New England CCRC Sustainability Group. This group is a coalition of residents across four Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Northern New England dedicated to implementing sustainability practices in their communities.
We are proud to have this active group in our community and appreciate the input, insight, and experience they bring to the organization.
