Tustin’s Certco to Open Crenshaw Office, Hire 40

Certco Inc., an environmental consulting company, said Friday that it will open an office in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles and hire 40 people as part of an effort to rebuild the riot-torn areas.

The company, which provides environmental-risk reports for small businesses and financial institutions, will open an office in the Santa Barbara Plaza shopping center on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Besides providing the new jobs, the company said, it will also contribute a portion of its earnings to nonprofit community groups in South Los Angeles. Certco also used a black-owned company, Alpha Systems, to create computer software programs for its environmental reports.

“We wanted to expand to Los Angeles, and we wanted to do it in a way which would be responsive to the needs of the community,” said Michael Henry, Certco’s owner.

Certco markets a property report that gives environmental risk information to financial institutions, insurance companies and consumers. With its software, the company searches federal, state and local environmental records for reports of waste spills or other hazards that exist on the properties.