The Number

Metric tons of pollution per job in Valley It turns out the San Fernando Valley economy is more environmentally friendly – and less socio-economically strong – than other regions of Los Angeles County. A new report from the Economic Roundtable, a public policy non-profit in downtown Los Angeles, starts with the thesis that future L.A. jobs will need to meet two requirements. First, they must pay fairly high wages because of the rising cost of living. And second, they will need to cause little air pollution to meet the federal target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020, and a state goal of cutting them 83 percent by 2050. According to the report, the average job in the Valley in 2011 paid $51,266, or slightly less than the county average of $53,434. However, the average Valley job caused emissions of only 10.2 metric tons a year, less than a third of the county average of 35 metric tons. As a result, the Valley has “a profile of somewhat less social sustainability and somewhat greater environmental sustainability in its industrial base,” the report states. Many local jobs are in low-emission sectors, including motion pictures, construction and accounting, which are over-represented in the Valley. In general, the highest emission jobs are in air transportation, oil refining and utilities, which are under-represented in the Valley. (The report lumped in data from the far smaller Santa Clarita Valley into the San Fernando analysis.) The report’s purpose is to assess trade-offs for securing both the social and environmental future. While it makes no specific policy recommendations for either industrial development or air regulation, it notes that differences between socio-economic and environmental conditions identify “sustainability weaknesses” that need to be improved to increase industry sustainability and long-term prospects for viability. – Joel Russell