CSUEB grad helps the Boys & Girls Club go green
CSUEB alumnus Jim Richards (By: lvbusinesspress.com)
- August 10, 2011 5:12am
CSUEB alumnus Jim Richards has been helping children and practicing conservation his entire adult life. As the vice president of operations for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas, Richards combined those two passions and was recognized by the Las Vegas Business Press as the "2011 Best Green Nonprofit." .
Richards reduced their overall need for water by switching to turf and desert landscaping; reduced the use of landscape by using auto watering; and modernized the club’s HVAC equipment, daylighting and daylighting controls and recycled materials. Their newest building is also LEED gold-certified.
“I have a lifetime interest in the environment, starting in the 1950s in my backpacker days, said Richards.”We moved the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas from the '70s' and '80s' management model to a model where caring for the environment is important to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas.”
After receiving a master's in public administration from Cal State East Bay, Richards spent about four decades working in an administrative capacity with the Boys & Girls Clubs. That included a position as executive director of the Boys & Girls Club in Alameda, Calif. But a call from former Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas Chairwoman Mary Kaye Cashman convinced him to move to Las Vegas in 2007.
Congrats, Jim!
KL