About Pazala

Our story

Christina Manansala and Jack West met in 1997 when architect Sim Van der Ryn of Ecological Design hired Christina to engineer renewable energy systems and passive solar buildings which prompted Christina to hire Jack to design the photovoltaics.  They discovered that they had a shared goal that both developed in college: to engineer environmentally beneficial, humane solutions to the destructive problems of fossil fuels.

Together they went on to start a solar engineering company focused on sustainable building projects such as national park visitor centers, town halls, community centers, museums, and universities, while also teaching workshops on photovoltaic system design.  Along the way Jack invented innovative solar mounting hardware for their projects and in 2009 they founded Zep Solar, Inc. along with Daniel Flanigan and Mike Miskovsky to standardize and optimize the solar installation industry with their products.  Their goal was to greatly reduce the cost and material impact of residential solar in order to accelerate the adoption of clean energy.  

Married by then, they started from scratch in their garage with modest seed funding from friends and family but their passion for solarizing America ignited Zep's dedicated, fun, and unbelievably energetic team to capture a lion's share of the US solar hardware market.  In 2013 Zep Solar was acquired by SolarCity, then the largest solar contractor in the US.  From the proceeds Christina and Jack founded Pazala, a 501(c)(3) private foundation, to expand renewable energy techology and education as well as to support other environmental work, music and the arts, and humanitarian causes.

While Jack went on to found another company, Ojjo, Inc. to innovate and optimize utility-scale solar foundations, Christina ran Pazala and worked to identify opportunities for cultivating environmental and social change and develop Pazala's portfolio of projects.  It wasn't long before Pazala was immersed in and inspired by the multitude of local groups creatively, tirelessly, and generously tackling some of the world's hardest problems.  

Ten years later Pazala has created and/or supported projects ranging from the Girl Project, an empowerment program for at-risk youth, to Indigenized Energy, a non-profit providing solar energy and education to promote tribal energy sovereignty, to The Woodwork Collective, a musician's collective, to university fellowships in renewable energy and sustainable communities.  We invite you to explore our collaborations in Education & Humanity,  Art & Music, and Environment & Community.

Grant applications & donations

All Pazala funding and granting is internal and is currently fully subscribed.  Pazala does not accept applications for grants or donations but encourages you to donate directly to the projects on their websites.