Pando creates high-impact initiatives for environmental and social impact. Our aim is a more ecologically balanced, economically secure, and socially just future — beginning with the area where we live.

We bring the creative world and entrepreneurs together with faith-based groups, higher ed, local government, and business to launch initiatives that are difficult for any of them to pull off alone.

Think old-fashioned barn-raisings, but with an eco and justice twist.

I’m with Pando

We’re inspired by Pando, the one-tree forest that interconnects and nurtures tens of thousands of trees through a common rootball.

Being Pando means I belong to you, you belong to me, we belong to each other.

Pando communities cultivate unity amidst great diversity. With creativity and can-do spirit harnessed for the common good. Grounded in big ideas. Radically committed.

We’re aiming for ecolibrium

Our vision is the world that designer John Bielenberg names as a state of “ecolibrium,” where the Earth and its people are in balance. It includes what Pope Francis describes as “integral ecology” and references philosopher John Cobb’s “ecological civilization.”

We network people and organizations together who support the vision. Launch galvanizing initiatives and events. And serve as a clearinghouse of resources.

Pando at Maryknoll

At the Maryknoll Sisters’ 7 ½ acre compound in Monrovia, we’re bringing women who have taken lifelong vows of poverty together with some of the country’s top designers, urban farmers together with social impact entrepreneurs, believers of all kinds together with those who don’t relate to any traditional faith to model, accelerate, and educate about incarnating a new way of living. Read more and get involved!

EVENTS. We’re constantly creating new initiatives and events, which you’re welcome to join or adapt for your community. Here’s what’s new:

MAGENTA HOUSE

Creating standout prototype examples of water and power conservation.

PILGRIMAGE TO PANDO

Contemplative journey to the home of the largest living organism on Earth.

CITY BLITZ

Executive-level peer education for best practices in creating sustainable cities.

CAMPANDO MARYKNOLL

Where justice and eco change-makers go to unplug and recharge.

DO YOU PANDO? Join our networks!

Pandotopia Network is focused on spreading the Pando model, with a base among women religious.

CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer) Strategic Taskforce brings CSOs and other sustainability professionals from education, business, faith communities, and government together from across Los Angeles County.

"To see the world with ecological relations at its core means never to see in the same way again.” — John B. Cobb, Jr.

Latest Posts

Public Radio Explores Hidden Connections

Paul Rogers recently sat down with Utah Public Radio’s “Undisciplined” host, Matthew LaPlante, and inorganic chemist, Lisa Berreato, to weigh in on some potential connections between the Pando forest and inorganic chemistry. An interesting conversation emerged.

Massive Organism Is Crashing on Our Watch

The first comprehensive assessment of the Pando aspen clone by researchers Paul Rogers and Darren McAvoy reveals critical threats to this unique single-tree forest.

Philosophy at Large in the Ecosphere

Every so often a culture undergoes a radical re-assessment of its primary operating assumptions. It happens rarely and slowly, because such re-imaginings are considered highly dangerous and disruptive. At their most disruptive they can alter reality, which, according to Bill Vitek, is precisely what ecospherism has done.

Defending the Boundary Waters

Joseph Goldstein explains why the fight for our planet is “all about the small steps forward…about getting back up despite setbacks, about consistently showing up, and about staying even when you’re discouraged,” like the defense he and his peers have mounted on behalf of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.