Andy Lipkis

Title: 
Founder & Fmr. President/Project Executive
Organization: 
TreePeople/Accelerate Resilience LA
Biography: 

Andy Lipkis has spent his life crowdsourcing climate disaster relief for emergency and long-term issues. At age 18, he founded TreePeople, and served as its president from 1974 to 2019. Lipkis is a pioneer of Urban and Community Forestry and Urban Watershed Management, the principles of which have spread across the world. He has consulted for Los Angeles, Seattle, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London and other megacities, helping plan for climate resilience and adaptation. With climate change impacts already creating a chronic emergency for cities around the world, Andy's work has demonstrated promising new ways for individuals, communities and government agencies to collaboratively reshape urban tree canopy and water infrastructure to save lives and grow a more livable future.

After retiring from TreePeople in 2019, Andy launched Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA), a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors) to inspire and enable people and local governments to equitably accelerate climate resilience in Los Angeles.

Category: 
Speaker