An Inside Perspective on Los Angeles' New Sustainable City Plan

This week, the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability gave Los Angeles County a C+ on its environmental report card. Just days later, Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled the city of Los Angeles's first-ever Sustainable City pLAn.

Mark Gold, Acting Director of UCLA's IoES and also a contributor to the pLAn, offers his perspective on its goals in light of the region's sustainability shortcomings today. His assessment is optimistic, calling elements of the pLAn "transformative." He comments on goals for greenhouse-gas emission reductions, shifts in mobility, zero waste, and social equity.

Gold sums up:

"There's something for everyone in the pLAn. It is a comprehensive blueprint for LA's sustainability and it is tailored to our city. Sustainability in LA is a lot different than sustainability in Copenhagen or Sydney, and the pLAn embraces those differences and the city's diversity. Also, the goals and metrics will prove to be excellent tools to assess the sustainability progress of individual city departments and the city as a whole. UCLA has embarked on the Grand Challenge of working with the region to get to 100 percent local water, 100 percent renewable energy, and enhanced ecosystem health by 2050. Mayor Garcetti's pLAn puts the region on the right track for us all to thrive in a denser, hotter LA."

The Sustainable City pLAn is excerpted by The Planning Report following Gold's analysis.