Gene Matthews – Director of Facilities Services at Case Western Reserve University
Friday February 25, 2011
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Crawford Hall – Room 9
Inamori Center
Case Western Reserve University
Virtually everyone says they’re in favor of recycling. Yet doing it is a lot of work. We have to do our part with our own trash, but containers have to be distributed, the materials collected, and someone has to want them. It’s a major task that requires a lot of cooperation and organizing and perhaps involves some frustrations.
The University participates in programs like “Recyclemania,” a competition among universities, to encourage faculty, students and staff to recycle. But how does that work? What happens to the recycled material? Why are some things recycled and others not, and what more could be done? Gene Mathews organizes and manages CWRU’s recycling efforts, as well as working on CWRU’s energy conservation activities. Join us for his perspectives on conservation in practice.
There will be no parking available in the visitors parking lot next to Crawford Hall on Friday February 25, 2011. On other Fridays a few spaces are available for visitors with mobility concerns. Parking options for visitors from beyond campus include the Severance Hall parking garage on East Boulevard, the small lot on Adelbert Road just uphill from Euclid Ave, and other lots on campus.
More About Our Guest….
Eugene Matthews, is Case Western Reserve University’s director of facility services. He won the 2006 Champion of Sustainability award from Entrepreneurs for Sustainability, a diverse network of over 2,700 leaders who are putting the principles of sustainability into action.
Matthews joined the university almost 15 years ago to head the facilities services division, and his team has worked on projects such as the university’s energy consumption patterns, the lighting retrofit project at Kelvin Smith Library, and has been involved in the construction of new buildings on campus.
At last October’s CWRU Climate Action Plan Forum, Matthews was quoted as saying, “The most important thing is to track utility consumption on campus,” he said. “It’s the little things, like turning off the lights when you leave a room or shutting off the water while brushing your teeth.”
“Take stock of how you use your energy,” Matthews said. “Pay attention to what you’re doing and don’t assume that energy reduction is somebody else’s responsibility. We all use energy every day in everything we do”.
“If everybody does a little bit, collectively we do a lot.”
Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
March 4: Shirley M. Moore, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing: Even After a Heart Attack – The Challenge of Encouraging Healthy Behavior
March 11: No Session, Spring Break
March 18: Special Inamori Center Event, Howard Ernst, Associate Professor of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy, Dirty Water: A Critical Look at Regulatory, Cooperative, and Market-based Solutions to the Nation’s Growing Water Pollution Problem.
March 25: Mark Votruba, Associate Professor of Economics: The Social Effects of Economic Dislocation
April 1: Jacqueline Lipton, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center for Law, Technology and the Arts: Privacy and Online Social Networks.
April 8: Special Inamori Center Event.
April 15: Mark Naymik, Reporter, Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio’s Budget Battle
April 22: Jon Groetzinger, Visiting Professor of Law and Director, China Legal Programs: Developing the Legal Profession in China.
The Friday Lunch discussions are held on the lower (ground) level of Crawford Hall. Visitors with mobility issues may find it easiest to take advantage of special arrangements we have made. On most Fridays, a few parking spaces in the V.I.P. lot in between Crawford Hall and Amasa Stone Chapel are held for participants in the lunch discussion. Overflow parking is also available in the Severance Hall parking garage on East Boulevard.
Visitors then can avoid walking up the hill to the first floor of Crawford by entering the building on the ground level, through the garage area under the building. The further door on the left in that garage will be left unlocked during the period before the Friday lunch. On occasion, parking will be unavailable because of other university events.
For more information about these and other Center for Policy Studies programs, please see http://policy.case.edu.