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 instructors, students, and community partners the tools they need to make courageous things happen in the LA basin.
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, equity, 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 ’23 is now underway
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.
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
Magenta House goes to school
We are delighted to announce that Magenta House has become an official project of the Los Angeles Unified School District…
Strong Sustainability
Mark VanderSchaaf talks about the differences between “strong” and “weak” sustainability.
Blitz: Because our streets are their future
The Pando Days ’23 Blitz asks all participating college and university teams to reimagine LA bus stops.
