The 2025 Pando Sustainability Award Winners
The Pando Sustainability Awards returned for its fourth year to celebrate the the real-world sustainability projects developed across the Southland by college/university teams in support of regional goals.
The Pando Awards were held on October 5 at the extraordinary new Resnick Sustainability Institute on the Caltech campus. Twenty-one projects developed by a dozen institutions enrolled in the Pando Days 2024/25 program were showcased to a large audience of civic, business, and community leaders along with assembled students, professors, and project advisors.
An astonishing project lineup was at the center of the event. Special guests Rita Kampalath, Chief Sustainability Officer for LA County; Andy Shrader, prominent climate resilience consultant, and Matthew Manos, challenge-based learning champion, focused attention on each of the projects and the contributions they are making to Southland sustainability.
Ed Bacon, Chair of Pando’s Board of Directors and long-time social justice standard-bearer across the California Southland and nationally, returned as moderator. Pasadena City Councilmember Jason Lyon offered the City’s official welcome. Neil Fromer, Executive Director of Programs at the Resnick Sustainability Institute, welcomed us to the facility and shared fascinating details about the place where we gathered.
Guest speakers included Mary Elizabeth Moore, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Cobb Institute and Boston University’s Dean Emerita of its School of Theology, offering a tribute to Pando’s founding chair John B. Cobb, Jr., who passed away some 10 months ago. John was posthumously honored at the event with Pando’s World Changer Award.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Emeritus Paul Koretz, Pando’s Vice Chair and founding inspiration for LA’s Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) Taskforce, welcomed CSO’s.
Pando’s Immortal Earthkeeper Award for Lifetime Achievement went to New York Times bestselling author Dr. Dan Siegel of the UCLA School of Medicine for his pioneering work on the place of community in the self. Siegel’s acceptance was pre-recorded and his participation announced in launching Pando’s upcoming salon and podcast series.
Pando’s own Rich Binell was honored with our Earth Guardian Award for the indispensable role he has played in communicating who we are and what we do, and for his strategic leadership.
Five projects from the Pando Days 2024/25 season received awards for Excellence in various categories. And, for the first time ever, attendees were given the opportunity to vote directly to award the John Cobb People’s Prize, a new annual award determined by popular vote.
And the winners are…
- Earth Hero Award for Excellence in Ecosystem Restoration and Community Engagement: USC, Test Plot: Rainbow Canyon Community Crossroads.
- Earth Hero Award for Excellence in Saving the World by Repurposing Rotten Food: CSUN, From Organic Waste to Ecosystem Restoration.
- Earth Hero Award for Excellence in Restoring Human Dignity: Citrus College, Shower of Grace.
- Earth Hero Award for Excellence in Reimagining the Narrative: CSULA, Pure Water, Shared Future: Equity-Centered Marketing for Reclaimed Water.
- Earth Hero Award for Excellence in The Pursuit of Beauty, Learning, and Interspecies Love: UCLA, Biophilia Treehouse: Phase 3.
- And the John Cobb People’s Prize, awarded to Cal Poly, Pomona for its project, Gathering Around the Lyle Center.
Pando’s World Loyalty Award was offered to all project team members as an honor for project dedication and participation.
Supervisorial Scrolls, individualized per project and beautifully-designed, were awarded to all 21 project teams by the LA County Board of Supervisors and the Orange County Supervisors.
Go here to see photos from the day. Go here to see the Awards program.
To get your own copy of The Pando Sustainability Awards 2025 book, download the PDF or request a hard copy at info@pandopopulus.com.
