The Pando Sustainability Awards honors the work of LA’s young people who are working with the region’s most important people to take on its most important challenges: the ones described in regional sustainability plans. It is the Southland’s only intercollegiate event honoring practical visionaries who care. The 2026 Pando Awards will be the fifth of these yearly events.
The 2026 Pando Sustainability Awards are being held on October 18 from 2-5 PM at the Resnick Sustainability Institute on the Caltech campus. Sixteen Pando Days projects and five Magenta House finalists will be showcased and awards announced.
Additional honors will be announced for outstanding community leaders in sustainability with World Loyalty awards to be given to all Pando Days project participants.
2025 Honorees
The 2025 Pando Awards honored the following projects selected from the astonishing 2024/25 Pando Days season:
Practical Visionaries Who Care:
Every year, we honor those in Southern California who are making a difference for young people of all ages in sustainability. We honor them in the following categories: the Immortal Earthkeeper Award for Lifetime Achievement, Earth Visionary, Earth Champion, and Earth Guardian. World Loyalty Awards are given to all project participants.
Honorees are given fine art prints by Pando Artist-in-Residence Tucker Nichols.
Honorees:
Immortal Earthkeeper Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Dan Siegel, best-selling author and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the executive director of the Mindsight Institute.
Earth Guardian Award:
Rich Binell, Pando Senior Writer and Big Shot.
Earth Visionary Award:
John Buchanan, Andrew Tobias, Jill Apperson, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, California Institute of Technology, Athens Services, Alexandria Technology, Floe Financial Partners, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, The Happold Foundation, Plante Moran, Christine Johnson, Hope Hendricks-Bacon and Ed Bacon, Jay Farbstein and Bonnie Berman, Stephanie Landregan
Earth Champion Award:
Rita Kampalath, Los Angeles County Chief Sustainability Officer, Holly J. Mitchell, Los Angeles County Supervisor, District 2, Lindsey Horvath, Los Angeles County Supervisor, District 3, Katy Yaroslavksy, Los Angeles City Council Member, District 5
Pando Sustainability Awards Host Committee: Mick Dalrymple, Chief Sustainability Officer, University of Southern California; Karen Hofmann, President, ArtCenter College of Design; Rita Kampalath, Chief Sustainability Officer, County of Los Angeles; Paul Koretz, Los Angeles City Councilmember Emeritus, 5th District; Paul Krekorian, President, Los Angeles City Council and Member, 2nd District; Ann McElaney-Johnson, President, Mount Saint Mary’s University; Peter Laugharn, President, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation; James M. Limbaugh, President, West Los Angeles College; Heidrun Mumper-Drumm, Chair, Chief Sustainability Officers Taskforce; Ravi S. Rajan, President, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts); Kecia Washington, Director of Innovation, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
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Thank you!
The Pando Sustainability Awards is produced in collaboration with the CSO Taskforce for LA County with the 2026 event made possible in part by the support of our generous partners:
And by the generosity of the following individuals: John Buchanan, Andrew Tobias, Jill Aperson, Christine Johnson, Jay Farbstein and Bonnie Berman, Ed Bacon and Hope Hendricks-Bacon, Peter Florstedt and Nelson Bermuda, Margo and Ralph Kidushim, Paul and Gail Koretz, Rebecca Schmitt, Eugene Shirley and Ruey-Lung Hsiao, and Elizabeth Thompson. Many thanks to the Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech for the annual facilities support it provides for The Pando Sustainability Awards.