PLANET Green Industry Conference: Welcome

	Submit your ideas for the 2012 GIC! Tell us what's trending and what you'd like to learn more about. Your feedback will help to develop a valuable educational lineup for next year's conference.
	Take advantage of this year's latest online learning opportunity—the PLANET Live Learning Center. This online educational resource connects you to up to 50 hours of selected sessions from PLANET's Green Industry Conference as well as archived content from past conferences.

CEUs
GIC is approved for PLANET Landscape Industry Certified recertification at 1 CEU per hour of instruction attended. PGMS and HNA educational sessions also qualify toward PLANET recertification.

Thanks for making the 2011 GIC a spectacular event. If you were unable to attend this year, please check out our recap below and save the date for next year - October 24-26, 2012, Louisville, KY!

PLANET Promise Award
PLANET Promise Award recipient David Snodgrass,* (left) president of Dennis' Seven Dees Landscaping, Inc., receives his award from former ALCA president and current PLANET AEF board member and Ambassador Rick Doesburg.

Association Partner of the Year Award
Ten state and regional associations that partnered with PLANET on the 2010-2011 Susan Harwood Training Grant received the Association Partner of the Year award. They are (starting with 2nd from left to right) Don Banks for Michigan Green Industry Association, Barbara Scheibe for Wisconsin Landscape Contractors Association, Mike Bellantoni for New York State Turf and Landscape Association, Tim Korte for Ohio Landscape Association, John Gachina for California Landscape Contractors Association, Zach Johnson for the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado, and Bob Grover for the Oregon Landscape Contractors Association. Missing: Georgia Urban Agriculture Council, The New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association, and the North Carolina Nursery & Landscaping Association.

PLANET AEF Ambassador
Kevin Thompson (above left), Executive Director of the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Assn., receives the PLANET AEF Ambassador crystal from Foundation President Jim McCutcheon.* ONLA donated an additional $50,000 to the PLANET AEF, bringing its total contribution to $75,000 and making ONLA a Platinum Ambassador.

A record seven new Ambassadors, each pledged $25,000 to PLANET AEF. They are (starting 5th from left) Ed Castro, Ed Castro Landscape; John Gibson, Swingle Lawn, Tree & Landscape Care; Dean Murphy, Terracare Associates; Nannette Seven, Include Software; Bruce Moore Sr., Eastern Land Mgmt.; and Paul Fields, Lambert Landscape Co. New Ambassador Michael Bellantoni Jr., Michael Bellantoni, Inc., was not present at time of photo. Martha Hill (3rd from left), Hinds Community College, also made a generous personal donation of $2,500 to the Foundation. This unprecedented level of giving was in response to a heartfelt challenge from PLANET AEF board member and Ambassador Rick Doesburg (2nd from left) that was taken up by Jim McCutcheon (far left and PLANET AEF Vice President Tom Fotchman (far right).

In his keynote presentation, David Zerfoss, author of Stress Is a Choice and CEO of the consulting firm The Zerfoss Group, shared the "10 Rules to Simplify Your Life."

Lara Moffat accepts the Sustainable Company Awards on behalf of Lambert Landscape Co. Other recipients of this award were Greener By Design, Inc., and Precision Landscape Management.

CNA Business Insurance Risk Control Director James F Martin (left) and JOHN DEERE General Business Manager, Corporate Accounts Kent Taylor*, (2nd photo, left) received the Partner in Success Awards from PLANET President Gerald J. Grossi,* for their generous support of PLANET programs.

Judges Awards
Thomas Donnelly (center), president of ValleyCrest Landscape Development, accepts the company's Judges Award for its Miami Beach Soundscape Project.
Accepting Lambert Landscape Co.'s Judges Award for its Italiante Garden are (left to right) Project Manager Judd Griggs, Director of Marketing/Recruiting Lara Moffat, Jodi Joseph and company President Paul Fields.
Accepting the Judges Award for Greenleaf Services, Inc., for its Sutton Residence project are (left to right) company owner Edward Snyder, Melissa Mathews, Eric Sorrow and Cody Burdiss.

Grand Awards
Pictured here are some of the 2011 Environmental Improvement Awards Grand Award recipients in the categories of Residential, Commercial Design/Build/Contracting and Maintenance. A photo gallery can be viewed here.