We’re Pando.
We create hope through action.
We’re building a brighter and better future for the 10 million people who call LA home.
Los Angeles County has a plan to create a more sustainable and equitable future.
We’re the people behind the civic engagement programs that help implement the plan.
We give young people the knowledge, skills, and partnerships they need to make courageous things happen for their communities and the world.
Challenge-based
We provide the framework, resources, and networks needed to help formal and informal learners alike take some of our biggest challenges on — as identified in LA County’s sustainability plan.
Challenges like shelter, water, climate, transportation, food, trash, biodiversity, jobs, justice, and more.
Program focus
We create civic engagement programs for K-12, higher ed, and those outside the job market and formal learning.
And bring them together with public agencies and community partners to make things happen at the neighborhood level.
We foster trust, innovation, and can-do spirit.
Big ideas
We think action alone isn’t sufficient for creating a thriving Southland. Neither is knowledge.
We think it takes thinking.
Our special events and online posts encourage thinking about big ideas.
Pando
We are a non-profit education organization focused on civic engagement around the goals of LA County’s sustainability plan.
We are named after the one-tree aspen forest in south-central Utah, the largest organism on Earth – Pando. Made up of over 47,000 trunks and millions of leaves. Connected through one root system.
It’s the perfect symbol of our interconnected lives, challenges and solutions – and a darned good name.
Pando Days ’24: project applications now being accepted
Some of our successes
Pando Days
Series
Our flagship program in higher education unites instructors across the County to tackle the toughest of our sustainability issues.
Magenta House
Series
Our youth program empowers kids to create the water- and power-conscious future we all need and desire.
Camp Pando
Camp Pando is for young people reentering from juvenile detention, foster care, and dropping out of school and focuses them on creative projects that help meet Southland challenges.
Pando at Encino
Pando’s community partnership office at the Sisters of Social Service, Encino supports diverse collaborations and new program opportunities.
Blog Posts
Welcome to Camp Pando
Camp Pando is where young people who aren’t in school create sustainability projects—to make a difference in neighborhoods where they live—across Los Angeles.
Pando Days ’24 launches with thematic spotlights
Pando Days ’24 has officially started, with applications now open to all Southland higher ed instutions.
The Pando Sustainability Awards 2024: Recap and winners
The Pando Sustainability Awards marked the sustainability event of the year, honoring Panda Days, Magenta House, and Camp Pando participants, and more.
New study analyzes sustainability planning in metropolitan Los Angeles
Regional planner, Mark VanderSchaaf, releases the updated version of his e-book on sustainability planning in Los Angeles.