2. TreePeople is an environmental
nonprofit that unites the power of trees,
people and technology to grow a
sustainable future for Los Angeles.
Simply put, their work is about helping
nature heal our cities.
3. TreePeople’s mission is to inspire,
engage and support people to take
personal responsibility for the urban
environment, making it safe, healthy, fun
and sustainable and to share the process
as a model for the world.
4. Their early efforts in the 1970s focused on
educating and inspiring people to plant and
care for trees. Why? Because more trees
means cooler temperatures, cleaner air,
replenished groundwater supplies and a safer,
more beautiful city.
Expanding the tree canopy over L.A.
remains one of their central goals. But the
worsening impacts of global warming and the
looming threat of water shortages tell they
need to do more.
5. L.A.’s urgent environmental challenges led
TreePeople to ask an important question: In places
they can’t plant trees – e.g., where buildings and
parking lots cover the land – what else can they do to
green their city? Earth’s life-giving forests inspired a
solution!
They can protect their natural resources and cool
their city by using technology to re-create the
healthy functions of a forest in an urban setting.
What type of technology? Examples include:
permeable paving, French drains, swales, rain
barrels, cisterns and other relatively simple “forest-
mimicking” innovations.
6. Their task now is to assist
communities to put technology into action
alongside healthy, well-cared-for trees in
order to create a Functioning Community
Forest every neighborhood of L.A.
7. TreePeople inspires, engages and
supports people to take personal
responsibility for the urban environment,
making it safe, healthy, fun and sustainable
and to share the results as a model for the
world.
8. To achieve this, they...
Train and support communities to
plant and care for trees ;
Educate schoolchildren and adults
about environmental issues ;
Demonstrate sustainable solutions to
urban ecosystem problems ;
Work with government agencies on
critical water issues ;
Operate a beautiful public park …
9. TreePeople works to alleviate urban
environmental problems by bringing the
healing effects of the forest to their city.
Here's why their work matters:
Cities cover less than one percent of our
planet, but contribute 80 percent of
greenhouse gas emissions – a cause of global
warming.
Dark-colored pavement and rooftops in
sprawling cities like L.A. create “urban heat
islands” that worsen global warming.
10. Ninety percent of the school grounds in L.A. are
covered by asphalt.
L.A. has to import 85 percent of the water it uses – at
a huge cost to consumers and the ecosystems that
supply the water.
L.A. has the worst air quality of any major city in the
United States, posing a threat to the health of their
residents.
