After the Riots / NEWS IN BRIEF : Consulting Firm to Hire 40 Workers for New Office

Certco Inc., a Tustin environmental consulting company, will open an office in the Crenshaw district 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, plans to open an office in the Santa Barbara Plaza shopping center on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who along with former football star Kermit Alexander and a local church bishop helped the company find a building, said Certco will bring high-paying, white-collar jobs to the area.

“We have an Orange County company coming to Los Angeles,” Ridley-Thomas said. “That doesn’t happen every day. . . . Certco is a perfect example of how a small corporation can set the right example for how business can expand and serve the community at the same time.”

Besides providing new jobs, company officials said, Certco will 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.

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.