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. It’s the most ambitious regional plan in the country.
We’re the education non-profit developing civic engagement opportunities to implement the plan.
We give instructors, students, and stakeholders the tools they need to make courageous things happen in the LA basin.
Project-based learning
We provide the curricular framework and resources instructors need to launch full courses, studios, or labs in the fall term of every year that take our problems on.
Problems like shelter, water, climate, transportation, food, trash, biodiversity, jobs, equity, community, poverty, and more.
Social entrepreneurship
We help students and instructors bring their most ingenious ideas for regional sustainability to life and see them implemented in the real world.
We foster project innovation to meet community challenges. Make things happen at the street level. Develop can-do spirit.
Thinking
We think action alone isn’t sufficient for building a sustainable Southland. Neither is knowledge.
We think it takes thinking. So we offer resources to foster it.
Pando
We are named after the one-tree aspen forest in 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, sustainability challenges and solutions – and a darned good name.
Happening: Pando Days ’22 Finale
Some of our successes
Pando Days ’22
2022 Season
Pando Days ’22 brings 15 colleges and universities together to create a more sustainable region.
Magenta House Expo
2022 Season
A middle school student showcase for their most innovative water and power sustainability solutions.
CSO Strategic Taskforce
LA’s CSO Taskforce focuses Chief Sustainability Officers from government, business, and civil society on broad regional issues.
Pando at Encino
Pando’s community partnership office at the Sisters of Social Service, Encino supports diverse collaborations and new program opportunities.
Blog Posts
Cobb and Bacon on King
We asked Pando Chair John B. Cobb, Jr. and Vice Chair Ed Bacon to comment on the relationship between Pando and King, and intersections between motivating ideas.
Pando Days ’22 Premiere Recap
Showcasing 11 projects from 10 Southland universities tackling LA County sustainability.
Ready for this? COP27
A smattering of assessments we’ve been reading about the issues presented at COP27.