A new spirit of action, conservation and creativity is coursing through The Kenney, West Seattle's only continuing care retirement home on Fauntleroy. The theme is conservation and the color is green.

"The Kenney is going green," said Amy Lee Derenthal, director of development. With a smile, she explains with pride the difference in the change. "We have come to expect conservation from companies like REI and Starbucks, but we are the first retirement community I know of to go green."

It's been fun, she said, to watch the ways in which this initiative enlivens the lifestyle of the residents. Conversations ensue regarding shredding or recycling. The Styrofoam cups in the reception area now are out the door to be replaced by a healthier, more environmentally healthy alternative. The kitchen's doors now open to a three foot-tall green container into which the staff can separate and recycle and compost food waste, and there's nary a trash liner in sight now. The paper towels are now made of recycled paper.

All this amounts to a lot of change for the retirement community, which took the initiative and joined the Seattle Climate Partnership. The Partnership aims to help employers reduce harmful pollution on Earth. To become part of the Partnership, The Kenney signed a four-page agreement calling for the care community to assess its carbon footprint, reduce its greenhouse emissions and collaborate with other participating businesses with the goal of insuring success.

"When you look at going green, it pays off in the end for everyone," said Daniel Casey, director of facilities. Casey explained the benefits for joining up with a larger group of similar mind. "It gives us resources; if we have questions, they can give us answers."

The Kenney is in the vanguard of retirement communities for making this effort, said Charlie Cunniff, director of the Partnership. "Retirement homes are a big sector in our society, and The Kenney is brilliant to position itself as the green alternative for retirement homes." He talks of the financial savings to large residences such as the spacious retirement home on Fauntleroy near Lincoln Park.

The story of how the The Kenney stepped up to change its carbon footprint is a good one. Derenthal recalls the way in which The Kenney staff came together to make the change.

At a strategic initiatives meeting, where the group discussed its goals for the 180-resident retirement community for several hours, they seemed as a group surprised, refreshed and invigorated to see they all wanted to go green, she said.

"It was like, whoa! The whole room actually thinks this way!" Derenthal said. "Going green and going environmentally conscious were the top goals."

Within the stable walls of the Kenney, the change is fundamentally no real surprise.

"Our residents grew up in the depression era and many of them have been recycling all their lives," Derenthal said.

Some residents had been recycling in their home settings before joining the group setting at the Kenney, and so the change to recycling has been welcomed with open arms.

"I composted for years and years before I came here," said Peggy Ferber, who has lived at The Kenney since 2006. She talked about the difficulty of recycling and composting in an apartment setting. "A lot of people don't have my experience, and their food was ended up in the garbage disposal. Whoosh, there it goes."

The Kenney is making the recycling effort easy. "We have residents of many different ages as well as staff from many different places, so we rely on visual images.

Derenthal's enthusiasm for the effort radiates.

The members of the new "Green Team," which evolved out of the November 2007 strategic plan, cite the following examples of the ways in which the retirement community is changing:

- Food scraps are no longer thrown out but collected in the kitchen and composted off-site with Cedar Grove Composting. Also underway: a plan to provide composting containers in the trash-recycling rooms used by independent residents.

- Ordinary light bulbs are in the process of being replaced by energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs.

- Computers are being routinely switched off at night, print cartridges are being recycled and refilled instead of thrown out, and the organization's seven computer servers have been consolidated to just four. In addition, a high-volume, two-sided, solid-ink printer has been in use over the past year.

All of these changes result in financial savings, as well as a new attitude of change at The Kenney.

The Kenney would like to see more gentle changes. Derenthal discusses the retirement community's plans to redevelop its entire community with a new nursing facility and new, home style memory unit for Alzheimer's care. The Kenney also imagines the positive impact of a new bistro/deli dining area, fitness/wellness facilities, larger apartments and more retail outlets such as beauty, banking and pharmacy amenities.

"We are working on developing uses for solar energy, as well as a way to reuse the water," Derenthal said.

All in all, the attitude within The Kenney is one of collaboration, action and movement. There seems to be that feeling of new growth and renewed respect for the environment which brightens the reception area. Derenthal is happy for the retirement community. "It's good to see this project here," she said. "These older people are our friends; it's not like they just fell from the sky. They are just like you and I and it's good to see this project here."

To learn more about The Kenney going green, please call Amy Lee Derenthal, director of development for The Kenney at 206-933-2739 or e-mail The Kenney at gogreen@thekenney.org or visit http://www.thekenney.org.

Lesley Holdcroft is a West Seattle freelance writer who may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com.