John Wasileski, owner of development firm Sea Coast Management, leads with his legacy in mind

For the past 30 years, John Wasileski has been all about giving people great places to live. He comes by his desire to serve people and create living spaces honestly: In 1975, he graduated from McGill University in Montreal with duel degrees in Sociology and Environmental Studies. After graduation, he came to Maine to help paint his sister's house, fell in love with the state and never left.

That year, he landed an internship working for the Southern Mid-Coast Regional Planning Commission in Bath, Maine—a position funded by the Environmental Careers Organization, itself a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to developing professionals for the environmental field. In 1976, he went to work for the York/Cumberland Housing Corporation, where he helped develop low-income housing for seniors at 12 different locations in southern Maine.

Two years later, Wasileski hung out his own shingle as a consultant specializing in government housing programs. In 1979, he formed a development partnership to build more than a dozen commercial and housing projects in southern Maine and New Hampshire.

In 1982, Wasileski got the chance to put his own stamp on a project. At that time, he was approached by a community group, the Portland Area Lutheran Services, for assistance in developing what would be his first senior community, OceanView at Falmouth.

With the development of the Ocean View at Falmouth community, Wasileski took his first pioneering step, using his vision to create the state's first Continuum of Care Retirement Community (CCRC), consisting of a mix of independent apartments, cottages and assisted living and memory impairment facilities. That was also the formal beginning of Sea Coast Management, which includes OceanView, as well as The Highlands, another CCRC built in 1989, and Highland Green, an upscale adult community that began development in 2000. The latter two developments are in Topsham, Maine.

Today, Sea Coast encompasses about 700 units, ranging in size from 900-square-foot apartments to 4,000-plus-square-foot, fully custom homes. Revenues stand at about $20 million annually, growth has been at 20% per year for the past five years, and the company employs more than 300 people.

Sea Coast owes much of its success to Wasileski's vision. The decision to create a full-blown high-end, active adult development is one example. "I've always tried to anticipate trends, and I saw that baby boomers were retiring and looking for active communities with better amenities," he notes, "and we had this wonderful piece of land across the street from The Highlands where I knew we could build beautiful, custom-designed homes."

Among the influences Wasileski points to is the book Mid-Course Correction, by Ray Anderson, founder of interior furnishing company Interface. The book charts Anderson's personal story about the way in which he attempted to have his billion-dollar business embrace the principles of sustainability.

"The book struck a chord with me," observes Wasileski. "Ray's story isn't that different from my own. Over the years, I may have lost sight of how important it is to embrace sustainability in a leadership role. I never did anything irresponsible, but when I read the book, I saw an opportunity for my business to lead by example by creating a more sustainable environment."

Highland Green stands as a living example of the way in which Wasileski brought his environmental vision to life. First, the resort community was developed using the principles from an EPA program called "SmartGrowth," which espouses using creative strategies to develop in ways that preserve natural lands and critical environmental areas, protect water and air quality and reuse already-developed land.

"Within that framework, we've made efforts to build where infrastructure, like sewers, roads and utilities are already in place, and we've tried to build near town centers and preserve open space," explains Wasileski. "In fact, more than half of our 650-acre parcel is open space." While many things serve to separate Sea Coast's communities from others of the same type, it's Wasileski's initial approach that really sets them apart. For example, at the planning stage for Highland Green, he worked with a local environmental group, called Topsham's Future, to get a community perspective, before the first bulldozer was ever fired up.

"Initially, we had an 18-hole golf course that ran along the Cathance River. We also had some homes planned for that stretch," he says. After reviewing the plans, he worked with Topsham's Future to scale back to a nine-hole course and devote the remainder of the property to the Cathance River Nature Preserve, a 230-acre permanent conservation parcel with seven miles of hiking trails, a 35-acre heath, which is a unique geological formation affording beautiful vistas and supporting various forms of wildlife, and even an Ecology Center for local school children.

While Highland Green proves that development and the environment can work together, it also works to the benefit of Sea Coast's properties. "When we reworked the housing density figures at Highland Green, it turns out that we actually had the opportunity for more housing than we first thought," says Wasileski. "And, from a marketing standpoint, the preserve is a lot more attractive to people than a championship golf course; while 25% of members play golf, 75% hike the trails."

Sea Coast's devotion to sustainability is evident throughout its business. For example, in answering the Governor's Carbon Challenge, Maine's voluntary program dedicated to cutting carbon emissions by the year 2010, the company now uses 5% biodiesel fuel across the organization. In fact, it even extends its environmental views to prospects and customers: A recent promotion for all three communities offered a free Toyota Prius or solar-powered water heating system for buyers. Wasileski even offered to retrofit existing customers' homes with the heating system at cost.

In addition to these steps, Sea Coast works to ensure that its philosophy is embedded in each home or facility it builds. They feature high-efficiency systems, such as boilers, and other features, such as high-performance windows. The company will soon roll out a complete Energy Star program, which means all its homes will be up to the highest energy-saving standards.

For Wasileski, it all comes back to Ray Anderson's book, Mid-Course Correction. "The work we're doing is about our legacy and what we're leaving behind for our kids," he says. "Through Ray's book, I regained an appreciation of being responsible and even leading the way where I could. And we've been able to create properties that work within the environment without taking away from what exists."

Based on the experience of communities around the nation that have used smart growth approaches to create and maintain great neighborhoods, the EPA offers the following 10 SmartGrowth basic principles:

• Mix land uses
• Take advantage of compact building design
• Create a range of housing opportunities and choices
• Create "walkable" neighborhoods
• Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place
• Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical environmental areas
• Strengthen and direct development toward existing communities
• Provide a variety of transportation choices
• Make development decisions predictable, fair and cost effective
• Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Sea Coast Management, a Topsham, Maine-based company that owns three developments, the OceanView at Falmouth, The Highlands and Highland Greene, answers its electricity challenges via a fixed-rate contract with Direct Energy.

"Our contact, Peter Ingraham, has been very proactive and monitors the market to ensure that we a 'locking in' at the best price for our company," says Jennifer Ryan, Sea Coast's Controller. This electricity price protection plan provides stable electricity pricing during the contract period. "This allows us protection over rising energy costs and provides accurate information for budgeting purposes. We pass these savings on to our residents, which helps us stay competitive in the marketplace."