Pando Days '23 - Pando Populus

Pando Days ’23 gives Southland colleges and universities the framework and resources they need to help implement LA County’s sustainability plan. Read more about the Pando Days program series, now in its fourth season.

Pando Days brings educators together from across the arts, humanities, sciences, and trades to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the County — water, energy, food, housing, green space, biodiversity, jobs, equity, and more. And asks them to inspire each other. And their students. And Angelenos. And the world. With ingenious new solutions and plans.

To date, 25 colleges and universities have enrolled in the Pando Days program, with over 400 students producing 36 real-world projects implementing visionary change. Pando Days schools and projects come from all 5 Supervisorial Districts in the County, and beyond. See our impact.

How it works

The Pando Days season begins every year in the spring with outreach to fifty-some colleges, universities, and professional schools throughout the Southland.

Instructors from across departments and disciplines apply for the opportunity to enroll their fall-term courses, studios, or labs in the Pando Days program.

We provide a full curricular framework and a broad range of resources, including a Pando Fellowship opportunity for course instructors and honoraria. The program is offered to participating institutions free of charge.

See Overview deck below for a full description of the program, timeline, and events. College and university instructors, see Instructor’s deck for additional information on curricular resources. Pando Days Subscribing Members, see Sponsor’s deck for information on how you can get involved advising and mentoring school teams.

How It Works: Overview

How It Works: Instructors

How It Works: Sponsors

This season’s lineup includes the following schools and projects:

ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN, Graduate Transportation Systems and Design

Project: Investigate the future of mobility in the LA metro area, around 2045, through the lens of sustainability applications.

ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN, Humanities and Sciences/Industrial Design

Project: Address safe and equitable water supply by designing resilient systems capable of responding to emergencies and/or provide efficient systems of water supply and use that also restore natural systems for the needs of and benefits to low-income, communities of color and Native and disadvantaged communities prioritized.

CAL ARTS, Experience Design and Production

Project: Bring together a cross disciplinary group of student artists, designers, and cultural practitioners from across the Institute to bring creative translation to this moment in our climate-related tipping points.

CAL STATE UNIVERSITY, FULLERTON, Cal State Fullerton Startup Incubator

Project: A digital solution for Food Banks, Food Pantries, and Pantry-goers that allows for intuitive inventory updates, barcode-generation, and tracking data for partnered food providers (such as Food Banks).

CAL STATE UNIVERSITY, LOS ANGELES, College of Business and Economics: Marketing

Project: Data analysis and marketing strategy focused on eco-therapeutic programs for the blind and visually impaired, in collaboration with the Hearts for Sight Foundation (HFS).

CAL STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH, Immersive Design Research Lab / Social Design Seminar

Projects: Up to three separate projects are anticipated, developed through a design process. Projects will focus on the needs of an urban ocean city with a large immigrant population.

CAL STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE, Sustainability Department

Project: Co-creation of a new and local eco-center in Northridge for community building, power building, and dissemination of sustainability knowledge.

CITRUS COLLEGE, Architecture/Drafting

Project: A community-based energy project that will prototype solar energy innovations producing free self-sustaining power for each home where it is installed.

LOS ANGELES PIERCE COLLEGE, Art and Architecture

Project: Linking the College campus to the Los Angeles River for the purpose of supporting biodiversity, focusing initially on flying animals.

LOS ANGELES TRADE TECH COLLEGE, Architecture

Project: A network of green corridors from neglected freeway-adjacent spaces and elsewhere, developed in reality and virtually for healing the Earth and learning.

MOUNT ST. MARY’S UNIVERSITY LOS ANGELES, Biology

Project: Turn the new garden that was created during the Pando Days ’22 season into an educational resource and living laboratory for reducing the campus’s water footprint and inspiring community members.

UCLA, School of Arts and Architecture, Design Media Arts, in association with CounterForce Lab

Project: Phase II of Biophilia Treehouse, linking birds and people at the tree level by installing a series of public sculptures that support wildlife corridors across Los Angeles County.

USC, Architecture / Landscape Architecture + Urbanism

Project: Design and installation of a “Test Plot” on Catalina Island in the USC Wrigley Institute of Environmental Studies’ “Green Gulch”, to develop a restoration approach that can help guide a larger vision for improving the Green Gulch area.

USC, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, Office of Religious and Spiritual Life

Project: Initiate a series of Countywide walking pilgrimages that highlight issues of climate change specific to Los Angeles and model interfaith spiritual practices to regulate stress from the climate crisis, with a prototype pilgrimage designed to raise awareness of the history and current challenges of water scarcity in Los Angeles.

Go here to see Pando Days projects produced over previous seasons.

Pando Days ’23 calendar of events

The Pando Days calendar launches in the spring with the opening of a six-week enrollment period, concentrates program effort over the fall term, and celebrates impact over the following spring.

Pando Days Launch
April 16, 2023, Caltech

Pando Days Blitz
Sep 23, 2023, Zoom

Pando Days Seminars
Ongoing

Pando Days Premieres
Dec 4-8, Zoom

Pando Days Advisory Council

Rita Kampalath and Gary Gero, Key Advisors

Advisory Council: CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer) Strategic Taskforce members Heidrun Mumper-Drumm (chair) — Professor & Director of Sustainability Initiatives, ArtCenter College of Design; Robyn Eason — Strategic Sustainability Advisor; Dan Joldzic — CEO, Alexandria Technology; Nurit Katz — CSO, UCLA; Dean Kubani — City of Santa Monica (ret.); Maribeth Larkin — Community Organizer, Sisters of Social Service; Pablo La Roche — Director, Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, Cal Poly Pomona; Emmanual “Cris” Liban — CSO, LA Metro; Marcela Oliva — Professor Architecture & Environmental Design, LA Trade Tech College; John Onderdonk — Assistant Vice President for Facilities Operations and Services, Caltech; Cassie Rauser — Grand Challenge at UCLA; Andy Shrader — Environmental Affairs, consulting; Sandy Skees — EVP, Porter Novelli Global Lead, Purpose & Impact, Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Services; Mark Spears — Director, Sustainable Business Practices, Walt Disney Consumer Products (ret).

Pando Awards Host Committee (in formation): Paul Krekorian, President, Los Angeles City Council; Peter Laugharn, President, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.