Andy Lipkis began planting trees to rehabilitate smog- and fire-damaged forests when he was 15 years old. He founded TreePeople, one of the largest environmental nonprofits in California, and has served as president since 1973. Since its founding, TreePeople staff and volunteers have gone on to plant more than two million trees in the Los Angeles area.

For the past 15 years Andy's work has focused on an entirely new vision of how cities can operate -- with the potential of liberating millions of dollars for sustainable green collar jobs and revitalizing urban neighborhoods. His work developed an economic model that shows how and where to find the funds (from existing, uncoordinated infrastructure projects) to build and maintain multi-purpose green infrastructure, and the sustainable jobs that come with it.

Andy co-founded the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, which offers at-risk young adults and school-aged youth opportunities to succeed through job training, education and work skills training that emphasize environmental and community service projects. After L.A.'s civil unrest of 1992, Andy co-created the Urban Greening Initiative which brought Los Angeles $2.5 million in jobs programs and urban forestry projects. Andy was a signer of the first Environmental Justice Compact in Los Angeles, and most recently was a founder of the Green LA Coalition, Los Angeles' first Environmental Justice/Traditional Environmental Organization alliance that has given great voice to communities of color.