ROOTBALL: And the Pando goes to… (Corrected*)

Rootball is the newsletter of Pando Populus.

Pando’s success is producing two things: A generation of capable young people who take on real issues with the courage, knowledge, and stick-to-itiveness needed to invent and develop real projects that make an actual difference. And their successful projects that are quietly changing the world.

Resnick Sustainability Institute on the Caltech campus, Pasadena, site of The 2025 Pando Sustainability Awards. Photo credit: Cyndi Bemel.

The 2025 Pando Sustainability Award Winners

The Pando Sustainability Awards returned for its fourth year to celebrate 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.

More than 200 attendees represented colleges and universities from across four counties. Photo Credit: Cyndi Bemel.

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.

And the winners are…

Rich Binell at The 2025 Pando Sustainability Awards. Photo Credit: Cyndi Bemel.

Ready, Aim, Fire! A conversation with Pando Big Shot Rich Binell

Rich Binell was given Pando’s Earth Guardian Award at The 2025 Pando Sustainability Awards at Caltech. The Award honors his dedication to Pando, his contributions to shaping who we are and the story we tell about ourselves, and his overall support.

Eugene Shirley sat down with Rich over Zoom to talk about Pando, where we’re going, and a bit of his own background.

Eugene Shirley: Are you ready to do this?

Rich Binell: Oh, nuts. The usual crazy.

You’re one of the best writers in the business who’s now giving his all to Pando! Thank you, thank you, Rich! How should we start?

Let me start by saying what I want to get across.

The essence of the story I want to tell is that Pando is ready – aim, fire – to explode. It's on the cusp of exploding.

I think that if we get a little bit better at talking about what the heck we’re doing – clearly, and repeatedly – a lot of people are gonna put their hands up and say, What about my town? Can’t you come here?

Is that the right story for us to tell?

Mary Elizabeth Moore, Cobb Institute Chair, at the Pando Awards. Photo credit: Cyndi Bemel.

Mary Elizabeth Moore on John Cobb

At the 2025 Pando Sustainability Awards, Mary Elizabeth Moore, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Cobb Institute, accepted a posthumous World Changer Award on behalf of our dear John B. Cobb, Jr., who passed away some 10 months ago. An annual John Cobb People’s Prize was established for Pando Days participants in his honor.

Mary Elizabeth delivered a moving tribute to John and his legacy…

New York Times bestselling author Dan Siegel received Pando’s 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Congratulations Dan Siegel, Immortal Earthkeeper!

Dr. Dan Siegel became the 2025 recipient of Pando’s Immortal Earthkeeper Award for Lifetime Achievement, with the award made at The 2025 Pando Sustainability Awards.

Dan is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, and New York Times best-selling author of “Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence,” “Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain,” and “Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human.”

Prior to receiving the award, we spoke with Dan about his work and his concept of MWe, a neologism he coined to emphasize the radical interconnectedness of “me” and “we” — suggesting a very Pando worldview.

The North branch of the Chicago River. Photo credit Richard Bartlaga.

Biometropolis

My last blog promised that we’d look this time at what California has been doing to advance biodiversity research and planning absent strong national biodiversity leadership in the United States. I’m going to delay the California topic for a bit, however, because the City of Los Angeles has been experiencing a delay in completing its biodiversity strategy and action plan. So, we have time to step back and look at a few more biodiversity topics until then in other cities.

I’ve settled on three: New York City, Chicago, and Houston. Starting with Chicago and Houston, what’s so impressive about their work? First and foremost, their strategies are both hyper-local and hyper-metropolitan. They are hyper-local in that they recognize that most biodiversity projects occur in specific, small-scale places, often via projects initiated and implemented by organizations with a strong, local focus.

*The link to the first article was mistakenly labeled "Register," and should have been "Continue reading."

Visit Pando Populus

You are receiving this email because you opted in on our website.