ShadeLA [is] a brand-new initiative just launched that's using the timeline of upcoming LA megaevents to foster an unprecedented collaboration across the environmental agencies, community groups, and nonprofits that are already cooling and greening LA County. The effort counts a long list of participating entities, including the city of Los Angeles, LA County's Chief Sustainability Office, Metro, and, yes, LA28 — which has yet to reveal its own sustainability strategy for 2028 but, in the meantime, has also endorsed this plan outright.
While filling LA's empty tree wells is important — there are about 250,000 vacant ones just in the city of LA — ShadeLA's Edith de Guzman would like Angelenos to start thinking more broadly about shady solutions. "We're tethering this to shade because the science is now here to unequivocally tell us that, in an outdoor context, this is the slam-dunk way to alleviate discomfort and prevent heat-related illness, and also, ultimately, death," she says. And that's why ShadeLA's aspirations are going far beyond tree-planting, ShadeLA's Monica Dean says. "Trees, as much as we love them for all of their co-benefits, can't grow everywhere. Sometimes there's physical constraints. So it's really not enough for us to just plant trees. We also have to add shade sails, and awnings on businesses, and umbrellas."