Remain believes in the power of connection between dreamers and doers. It encourages collaborations that link Nantucket organizations, ideas and programs that advance initiatives to positively impact the island’s future.
Remain works to bring creative thinking to environmental and community challenges, elevate local industry and encourage innovation and resilience. Remain Nantucket engages in charitable work to support the evolution of a healthy year-round community across the island. Remain Ventures invests in buildings and mission-related businesses that strengthen Nantucket’s year-round economy and spark innovation that brings long-term value to the island’s residents. Both Remain Nantucket and Remain Ventures are funded by Wendy Schmidt and her husband Eric to support the local economy, community and environmental vitality of the island of Nantucket.
Engaging with the Nantucket community since 2008
While launching their work with communities around the world, Wendy and Eric Schmidt turned their attention to Nantucket, believing that the island could serve as a microcosm for innovation and a model for how philanthropy can positively impact a small community. Over the years, Remain has supported numerous islanders—believing that together they can advance efforts to serve the community, the environment and bring economic vitality to its people.
Remain Nantucket is established with the purchase of 10 Washington Street. The former liquor store becomes Greenhound, Nantucket’s first transit hub, and Remain’s work on multi-model transportation launches. Remain invites the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Advisory Panel to conduct research and make recommendations for a more sustainable downtown. The outcome is a comprehensive report, illustrating the most pressing challenges for the community as well as pathways forward. The roadmap also outlines opportunities for future endeavors, including the reduction of waste through regenerative organic composting and recycling.
Remain turns its attention to sparking economic development in the downtown with the purchase and LEED-certified renovation of 54 Main Street, home of Mitchell’s Book Corner. Its value as a gathering place, cultural center and thriving retail establishment underscores Remain’s vision to support the vitality of Main Street. In addition to selling books to an eager community, Mitchell's offers education and engagement opportunities. Remain begins to focus on the fragility of island ecosystems. Speakers, like oceanographer Sylvia Earle, present to year-round and seasonal residents.
Renewable energy and environmental responsibility capture the attention of the Remain team. Local scientists present on harbor health, natural resource management and water-quality monitoring at the Living on the Edge Conference. Collaborative funding and a partnership with students and teachers at the Nantucket High School results in the construction of a 100-kilowatt wind turbine and access to renewable energy for Nantucket Public Schools. In the same year, Remain Ventures purchases 35 Center Street and opens Petticoat Row Bakery (now Born & Bread).
Remain Nantucket’s focus on green energy leads to the establishment of the Town’s first energy office and the introduction of hybrid buses to the fleet of regional transit buses, newly branded The Wave. Public ridership of the bus system is further strengthened by the development of a real-time bus app. Due to Nantucket’s unpredictable weather, Remain begins the construction of two bus shelters, complete with solar panels on the roofs and interior lighting systems.
In response to island businesses' requests to secure economic sustainability and increase activity in the shoulder seasons, Remain hosts community workshops and lecture series for downtown business owners, local partners and the public. Remain explores the establishment of a downtown business district and hires a consultant to identify long-term objectives for lasting economic stability. In addition, a facilitated study called “Learn Without Leaving” explores the notion of using downtown as an academic campus.
Remain Nantucket purchases the historic four-story building at 56 Centre Street. The vision is to provide educational space for people of all ages, with the added benefit of encouraging more visitors to the downtown throughout the year. Its renovation, complete with LEED certification, fortifies Remain’s commitment to preserving historic buildings while also endorsing sustainable building practices and green-energy systems. In addition, Remain pilots a program with UMass Boston to bring undergraduate students to Nantucket during the off-season.
Remain recognizes support for the arts as an important feature of a thriving and economically viable downtown. Through outreach with the Massachusetts Cultural Council and an advisory committee of local leaders in the arts, Remain helps the Town of Nantucket launch the Nantucket Cultural District (NCD). The NCD is a Commonwealth of Massachusetts designation recognizing Nantucket as a cultural hub, while also fostering partnerships between arts organizations and small businesses.
Remain launches a comprehensive multi-modal transit initiative intended to bring reliable data and project management skills to the increasing problem of parking, traffic and congestion in the downtown. By installing additional bike bollards and bike racks, piloting a free bus line for ferry-goers and supporting research of year-round transit options, Remain fosters multiple efforts to encourage biking, walking and bus ridership across the island.
After another complete renovation of a historic building, Remain opens the doors of 22 Federal as a cafe and culinary education facility. The Corner Table’s outdoor patio, provisioned with a solar pergola and electronic charging stations, is an an additional enhancement for those looking for a place to visit with friends, work on laptops or just take in the Nantucket scenery. Its LEED Gold certification matches Remain property standards for environmental quality and efficiency.
The Community Foundation for Nantucket (CFN) Remain Fund is in full swing. Managed by CFN, the fund provides annual grants for the nonprofit sector in areas of environmental sustainability, professional development and downtown programs. Remain also kicks up its heels by sponsoring a series of music and dancing evenings called the Nantucket Supper Club hosted at the Nantucket Hotel. The series runs for three years, bringing a great deal of music and joy to the community.
Environmental concerns around optimizing waste management inspires the hiring of a town Recycling Coordinator in 2017 and the “Stop the Straw” campaign in collaboration with island nonprofits and the local newspaper, the Inquirer & Mirror. The efforts to reduce single-use plastics by focusing on plastic straws leads to local restaurants voluntarily switching to paper straws. Increased waste, traffic, the pressure on the island’s natural resources and the underlying curiosity to know how many people live on Nantucket sparks the commissioning of an Effective Population Study by the Nantucket Data Platform.
Remain sponsors a Seabin trash skimmer, a multi-year study to test for microplastics in the water, sand and shellfish; a free screening of “The Human Element,” examining mankind’s lasting imprint on the planet, and the Keeping History Above Water sea level rise conference. Nantucket Footprints highlights way to protect Nantucket’s natural environment. The More Nantucket campaign encourages alternative modes of transit through education and humor with the marketing campaign, Leave the Keys Please.
In the year COVID-19 changed the world, Remain responds with a grant to the Emergency Relief Fund at the Community Foundation for Nantucket. The fund delivers operational support to nonprofits and launches a collaborative program between restaurants and nonprofits to feed families experiencing food insecurity. Remain and the Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce develop an online resource for Nantucket businesses called Keep the Rock Solid. The Rock Solid Grants still endure as a way for Remain to support small business owners.
Continued focus on coastal resilience and regenerative agriculture catalyzes initiatives. The inaugural Envision Resilience Challenge kicks off with a multidisciplinary study of Nantucket. The design studio and community engagement initiative brings together five leading architecture and landscape architecture programs to envision an adaptive and resilient future for the island. Ongoing research in food equity, the optimization of food systems and entrepreneurial collaborations leads to the purchase of 14 Amelia Drive, home of Pip & Anchor. Its local, seasonal and fresh foods feed the community and demonstrate sustainable food practices.
Remain champions two salvage reuse studies by EBP in partnership with the Nantucket Preservation Trust. The studies look at ways to generate less waste and support affordable housing, while introducing a system of deliberate deconstruction. In addition, Remain helps Housing Nantucket build the first net-zero affordable housing development with a grant for the island’s first solar energy parking pergola. The long-held dream to build a commercial kitchen facility to support food entrepreneurs becomes a reality with the purchase of 5 Amelia Drive, the future home of The Hive.
Remain continues its focus on resilience, local food systems, circular building materials and housing. Collaborations include the Salvage and Building Material Reuse Workshop with the Nantucket Preservation Trust, the quarterly Climate Community Book Club with the Nantucket Conservation Foundation and a fundraiser for Sustainable Nantucket and Nourishing Nantucket with the Nantucket Film Festival. Envision Resilience launches the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Initiative and completes the third year of its programming.
For generations, Nantucket’s people have been resilient—from the Wampanoag people who first inhabited and maintained a balanced relationship with nature and a close tending of the land and water, to the whalers of the 18th and 19th centuries who ventured around the globe in the search for oil, to the entrepreneurs of today who make Nantucket one of the most sought after places to live and visit.
It takes an island.
Remain recognizes Nantucket as the traditional territory of the Wampanoag people and as an acknowledgement to its Indigenous peoples’ history, is guided by the ethos of reciprocity for the land, ocean and island’s resources.
Explore the Envision Resilience Indigenous Knowledge Systems Initiative, a program of Remain.
