“Green” Ordinance for Los Angeles
City buildings will be renovated under new environmental standards
Yolanda Arenales
April 9, 2009

Yesterday The Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance to reduce carbon emissions produced from its buildings, making them energy efficient and environmentally friendly, while creating hundreds of local jobs.

“We are setting an example for all of the country,” declared councilman Herb Wesson through the approval of the measure, the first of the country in the public sector to establish an ambitious ecological renovation plan of buildings. The city possesses some 1,300 properties, and the new ordinance requires the renovation of all buildings more than 7,500 square feet or built before 1978, the year that more demanding construction requirements were implemented.

In California, buildings are responsible for more than 40% of energy consumption, and with the renovations that the ordinance establishes for Los Angeles owned buildings, it is estimated that a savings of six million dollars annually can be made in water and power bills.

In addition, the renovations will assume the creation of what Elsa Barboza, director of the campaign of the community organization SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education), designates “green jobs of quality” for many low-income families of the city.

SCOPE is one of the more than 25 organizations that in August of 2006 achieved the compromise of councilmen Wesson, Eric Garcetti, and mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to sign the Apollo Alliance challenge, which seeks to prepare workers for employment with objectives to better the environment.

“We need our plumbers and other construction professionals to receive training to be able to unite the “green” construction,” says Lupe Pèrez representative of the organization PIPE Trust Fund, signaling that the unemployment in the sector will exceed 20%.

Still it is unknown how many jobs will be created as a result of the new ordinance, but the number will be known after an evaluation about the type of work necessary and the hours of work is completed.

“But there are very good opportunities to attract stimulus funds established by the President [Obama],” said Graciela Geyer, activist of SCOPE, commenting that between the first challenges that this ordinance will plant is the solicitation of subsidies and federal help to ecological projects with impact on the local economy. The initial objective of the ordinance is to carry out 100 renovations annually, giving priority to those that have the most impact on local communities.

Mariaba Labuerte enrolled in a landscaping course with the hope of being contracted when the renovations begin. “I want to specialize in energy savings through plants that surround and top buildings,” says Laheurte.

The city owns some 1,300 properties, of which the new ordinance requires the renovation of those more than 7,500 square feet or constructed before 1978, the year that more stringent construction requirements were implemented.