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Here's how Iowa City's Oaknoll retirement community residents are improving sustainability
With the help of a city grant, Oaknoll has diverted thousands of pounds of food waste from the landfill
Feb. 22, 2025 5:30 am, Updated: Feb. 24, 2025 1:29 pm
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IOWA CITY — Sara Rynes-Weller spent years teaching business courses at the University of Iowa, but she has always had sustainability on her mind.
It wasn’t until she moved into the Oaknoll Retirement Residence in Iowa City that she was able to bring that passion front and center.
After moving into Oaknoll with her husband in 2021, Rynes-Weller, 72 — an emeritus professor of management and entrepreneurship at UI’s Tippie School of Business — co-founded the community’s sustainability committee.
The committee includes 12 Oaknoll residents — all from the community’s independent living — plus one external supervisor. Oaknoll also offers other levels of care, including a nursing home, memory care and short-term care.
Since its inception in 2023, the committee has tackled sustainability projects ranging from strengthening Oaknoll’s existing recycling program, to using geothermal infrastructure in some of its properties.
Rynes-Weller said one of the committee’s biggest achievements so far is the implementation of a composting program.
Composting began at Oaknoll’s Main campus — one of two campuses — in October 2024. In just three months, 11,000 pounds of organic waste was diverted from the landfill.
Food and organic waste accounts for a significant amount of greenhouse gases in the U.S. Organic material produces methane, which has about 80 times more warming power than carbon dioxide.
“If we keep up the rate we are at, we could hit 70,000 pounds diverted this next year with the two campuses combined,” Rynes-Weller said. “We had no idea we could [divert] this much. We’re just pinching ourselves.”
Collaboration
While the sustainability committee has connected residents, staff and the facility’s administrators to implement programs at Oaknoll since 2023, the retirement community has been employing other sustainable practices for more than a decade.
Oaknoll’s administration, including CEO Steve Roe, has supported the sustainable steps recommended by the committee and helped implement them.
“Most of our residents are very environmentally conscious, and we must keep up with their expectations,” Roe said in an email to The Gazette.
Roe has been CEO since 2016, but he’s worked in the company for 26 years. When he started in 1999, a Recycling Committee was already in place.
Rynes-Weller said Oaknoll’s administration has helped the committee plan educational talks with residents about environmentally friendly alternatives, like hybrid and electric vehicles.
According to recent reports from the committee, about 40 percent of residents’ cars at Oaknoll’s East campus do not have internal combustion engines. And about 20 percent of the residents at the Main campus have either an electric vehicle or a hybrid car. That led to the decision by Oaknoll management to install EV charging stations.
Rynes-Weller said there was an eco-minded group at Oaknoll before the sustainability committee was established. It was called the Future Committee, but it fell apart during the pandemic.
“We had to do things that the Future group didn't have to do, like having a mission and deliverables that you're proposing,” said Rynes-Weller, who is the chair of the committee. We “have to report once a year to the resident council, so that made it more formal and gave it more credibility.”
To bolster its efforts, Oaknoll received $9,122 from Iowa City’s Climate Action Grant program for its composting efforts.
Bruce Titus, dining services director for Oaknoll, said the grant went toward purchasing compostable bags for organic matter and for additional compost bins around the facility. He said the cost of each compostable bag ranges between 85 cents to $1, which adds up quickly.
Even before the grant, residents were working to grow the program. The committee pooled $11,000 of their own money to establish the Oaknoll Foundation Sustainability Fund. This funds went toward kick-starting composting efforts and other eco-friendly initiatives around Oaknoll.
Sarah Gardner is the climate action coordinator for the City of Iowa City and has been in the role for about three years.
To date, Gardner said Oaknoll is the only retirement community in Iowa City that has reached out to climate action staff about a grant or consultation.
Robert Traer has been an Iowa City climate ambassador for about two years. In that role, he has served as an external supervisor on Oaknoll’s sustainability committee, giving talks to residents about Iowa City’s composting program, and helping them start their own.
Traer said that he is committed to helping organizations and communities make more sustainable choices because it has the potential to “benefit entire communities.”
When “you reduce your trash bin numbers and when you up your compost numbers, you get a little extra cost in there, but you also get something to brag a little bit about,” he said. “It is a good way to attract the kind of people, I think, who would make good retirees in these communities.”
Looking forward
Although the committee has made strides to increase sustainability at Oaknoll, Rynes-Weller said their work is far from over.
She said some of these future challenges include reducing excess lighting in Oaknoll’s East campus by implementing lights with motion sensors on them. Another is reducing the amount of pesticides and herbicides used in Oaknoll’s green areas. Rynes-Weller said another goal is to increase the number of vegetarian options in Oaknoll’s restaurants.
“I've been into [sustainability] for a long time, and I'm very concerned about our children and our future generations,” Rynes-Weller said. “So, there's a part of me that has this eco-grief, so I keep on trying.”
Aside from achieving their sustainable goals, Titus has been excited to see multiple generations — both staff at Oaknoll and residents — come together in support of a shared cause.
“We've got young staff that are really dedicated and want to do this. But we also have residents that are, you know, in their 80s and 90s that are saying, ‘Hey, we want to make a difference. Let's continue to do this.’ They are all embracing it.”
Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com
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