Property Highlight (Village at Gracy Farms)

Our fourth annual Sustainable September just wrapped up and was a big success. With fantastic participation from Greystar communities and corporate offices all across the country, we were able to draw attention to the importance of sustainable living and make an impact through our actions. Many communities went above and beyond to make a difference by bringing together their teams and residents and we’re excited to share one of those stories with you.

Village at Gracy Farms in Austin, Texas held not one, but four different events. The Assistant Community Manager, Debbie Smith, shared details on how they celebrated this year, “At Village at Gracy Farms, we held a “glow party” for residents and prospective residents to celebrate Sustainable September and encourage the use of natural lighting. Guests really enjoyed the calm setting and complimented our efforts.  Everyone was happy to talk about ways they save energy at home and share ideas with their neighbors. Guests were invited to take candles home to continue in the effort to reduce energy usage. This event was a lot of fun. It’s amazing how big of a difference it makes to keep the lights out. So tranquil!” said Smith.

“We also teamed up with Keep Austin Beautiful to extend our reach past the apartment community into one of our favorite nearby trails,” continued Smith. “One of our current residents is an area sponsor and was happy to help us organize the event. Keep Austin Beautiful provided all of the bags, bug spray, and removed the trash after current and future residents and community staff bagged it all up. We even separated out recyclable materials and brought them back to the community for proper disposal rather than trashing everything. Lots of people using the trail that day stopped to thank us. This was one of the most rewarding activities!”

For an entire week, we offered residents the chance to shred items they no longer needed to help them declutter and ensure that the shredded materials were properly recycled. Shred-it is an awesome service that we use at the management office all year long. Being able to extend it to residents was a great way to keep more items out of a land fill,” noted Smith.

Smith also shared details of their month-long contest for residents, “The final event we held at Village at Gracy Farms to celebrate Sustainable September is a contest between residents to see who can get their energy bill reduced the most. Once residents get their September bill from the city, the resident with the most drastically reduced bill will win a fantastic prize!”

Village at Gracy farms is just one of the many communities that got in the Sustainable September spirit this year. We encourage everyone to keep the spirit alive and live a more sustainable life every day of the year! What can you do to get involved and be more eco-conscious from here on out?