Sandro Lallas BS, Environmental Science, UCLA

Motivated by his passion for understanding and preserving nature, Sandro studied environmental science with a concentration in environmental engineering as an undergraduate. He was actively involved with numerous on-campus environmental organizations such as sustainable action research, where he led a team to improve sustainability initiatives at Ronald Reagan Medical Center. His capstone project involved creating a handbook for The Huntington Botanical Gardens and Museum of Natural History to reference when doing soil work. Upon graduation, Sandro worked at Triage Consulting Group as a Senior Associate Consultant to analyze and recover underpayments from incorrectly processed hospital claims and provide revenue cycle feedback to clients. Through this experience he gained exposure to the healthcare industry, and fostered his leadership, communication, and client service skills. While this opportunity expanded his knowledge of the professional world, Sandro's passion remained in the environmental field. His desire to solve environmental problems and newfound interest in business and entrepreneurship led him to enroll at the Bren School at UCSB to further his education and pursue an eco-entrepreneurship thesis project. From the beginning, he was inspired by the idea of turning a waste material into a product, or more broadly, a negative into a positive. The project evolved into targeting the removal of Arundo Donax, an invasive reed plant, and introducing a line of sustainable products to promote its removal from local ecosystems, hence Reedone.