Kendal Corporation (KCorp), which has been without a CEO for many months, has just hired Vassar Byrd for the position. I think that is excellent news for KCorp (but it will have no impact here at Kendal-Crosslands because we recently disaffiliated from KCorp).

The choice of Byrd was reported by Senior Housing News on December 5. Oddly, it took until today (December 7) for the news to appear on the KCorp website.

Even though we are not affected, I think it is useful to say a bit about what Byrd’s hiring may mean for KCorp.  Byrd comes to KCorp from Rose Villa, an Oregon LifePlan community (CCRC) which she has turned into a sustainability leader. At Rose Villa, she has emphasized sustainability, community, small-home living, and resident participation. That’s a combination that is very rare in other retirement communities.

I first became aware of Vassar Byrd when she was interviewed by Senior Housing News back in the summer of 2022. I was so impressed that a wrote a blog post about her and published a transcript of the entire interview. (Senior Housing News only published excerpts, but they did provide a link to the audio of the full interview, so I was able to do a complete transcription.) The blog post is here and it includes links to the Senior Housing News article and to my transcription.

To get a sense of Byrd’s management philosophy, watch her presentation for SSAFE (Senior Stewards Acting For the Environment) from October 2022. Her slides and narration give a good idea of what she’s been able to do at Rose Villa. It is interesting to hear her perspective on sustainability as well as decision-making and dealing with resident suggestions (some practical and useful, and some not).

Here are some representative quotes from her Senior Housing News interview:

  • “…we’ve done everything that’s super simple, like removing lawns wherever we can in favor of drought tolerant local, native plants.”
  • “One of the coolest programs we’ve had that was a joint effort between residents and staff was a food composting program that we implemented before the municipalities around us did…”
  • “…we built two neighborhoods of net zero homes.”
  • “[offering a net-zero home] was a little more expensive. And I just wasn’t sure that it would be a draw for people to pay more money. And so we took the leap, and what turned out to be the case is that the [net-zero] neighborhood was the first one to sell out in our Phase Two offerings. We had four different neighborhoods in Phase Two. So I asked those residents [who chose net zero] why did you do that? And they said, ‘Well, it’s the only chance we have to really live our values, because we can never afford to build an entire net zero energy home. But this is a way that we can actually make a difference and live the values that are important to us, and make a difference.’”
  • “[We built that net-zero community] with a really good partner who knows everything about net zero energy (that’s Green Hammer), that educated us about where materials are sourced and how they are finished and all of those kinds of information, all that kind of information changed how we did our standard construction as well.”
  • “We’re producing excess energy in our Oaks neighborhood already. So we can sell it back to the grid, or we can store it with our own batteries, backup supplies.”
  • “…you have some folks that think we are not doing enough and are upset by even having any gasoline-powered vehicles at all. (And I understand that. I’d love to have a “no-car” campus, and I think that’s coming in the future, but it’s not here right now.)”
  • “Part of it is not getting too far ahead. You want to go a little ahead of what the demand is so that you don’t go out of business.”
  • “I think the vast majority of people very much support [the sustainability efforts] and they are proud of it. It’s something they can talk to their kids and grandkids about.”
  • “We’re looking at how we can leverage resident manpower and how they can help do some of the things on campus—some folks want to do that. It is challenging, because people’s health status changes more rapidly than some people think. You have to always be thinking about resilience and back up planning on that.”
  • [It should not just be me evaluating choices, because] “my job would be a disaster. [The team needs to include] the person that can make the decision, write the check, but it [also] needs to be a good selection of folks who understand the campus needs.”
  • “A zero-energy home isn’t just buying a new appliance. It’s changing your lifestyle. You can’t live in that home and still plug in that Christmas tree and run the hair dryer and all the other stuff that you might do and expect it to be zero energy. You have to change how you use it. You’re not just buying your way out of it; you’re also changing the way you think about it.”
  • “I think that [net zero ties in with] small-house living because the more people understand they don’t need 2,000 square feet (which most of that is wasted space) really all you use is about 800 to 1000 square feet in your house. The rest is wasted.”
  • “The reality is that the future group of seniors coming down the pipe are not as wealthy as their parents were so they can’t afford the same kind of luxury and nor do they want that kind of luxury environment that some folks have asked for in that past. I think small home living is more affordable for folks to live in, and I think that it resonates tremendously with our focus on climate change and environmental responsibility because you’re using fewer materials. You’re able to use better materials because you’re not building a 5000 square foot house.”
  • On where to build next: “I keep thinking there are ways to reuse these existing spaces. There’s a lot of abandoned commercial space. There are a lot of abandoned nursing homes. There’s a lot of abandoned things that have served their purpose. Is there any way to repurpose that into a small home environment and save the money on building from scratch.”

In her SSAFE presentation, Byrd’s concluding slide provided this advice to managers of retirement communities:

  • Manage expectations
  • Over communicate
  • Enlist residents in research and development of new ideas
  • Don’t become hostage to special interests
  • Technology changes constantly – it’s a difficult balance
  • You can’t do it all – frank discussion of what is important to the community
  • It still has to make sense economically

Kendal Corporation is very fortunate to have recruited Vassar Byrd to be the CEO. Her ideas will undoubtedly help all the affiliates move into a more sustainable future.