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PLANET Year - in - Review & Forecast11-30-10 | News

PLANET Year - in - Review & Forecast

By Heather Finney, Director of Public Relations for PLANET

Participation was up for PLANET's Renewal & Remembrance with more than $350,000 in goods and services being donated to Arlington National Cemetery this past July.

2010 has been a tough year for many in the landscape and lawn care professions. With the economic slump and housing starts taking a huge dive across the country, it didn't take long for many firms to feel the pinch.

PLANET's approximately 3,500 member companies represent more than 100,000 individuals. Member support continues to grow with PLANET's signature events.

Even though times are tough, PLANET has seen increased participation in it's events.

In 2010, PLANETs second annual Day of Service was held on April 22, which is also Earth Day. This event encouraged a national movement of landscape and lawn care professionals to increase the level of recognition of the industry as a steward of the environment and improve green spaces across America. We had approximately 3,000 individuals participate in more than 200 projects in 38 states and Canada. Next year's event will be held again on Earth Day, April 22, 2011.

For 2011, PLANET stated: ''We expect major impact to the H-2B program and maybe less of a chance for any comprehensive immigration reform but more enforcement on companies with improperly document workers. We expect more coalitions to form with other groups to help speak with a stronger voice. While we always have challengers we expect to still be able to have ways to keep the industry profitable.''

Earlier this year, we launched our new remote TRAILBLAZERS ON-CALL program. This program allows our members to call or email, a question or issue, to the on-call hotline, and be matched up for an hour-long consultation with one of our 30+ Trailblazers On-Call.

More than 4,000 green industry professionals have earned their certifications from PLANET. As of January 2010, all active PLANET-certified individuals are now called Landscape Industry Certified. The new brand name speaks clearly to consumers, and is supported and used internationally, shows credibility and commitment to best practices, and leaves a lasting impression.

PLANET continues to provide its members with the tools and resources they need to help them in their businesses. The Landscape Management, Design/Build/Installation, and Lawn Care specialty groups have put together toolkits that provide these resources.

''Although recovery seems to be very slow, we do believe that 2011 will prove to be a more economically viable year than 2010 for the landscape industry.''

The Landscape Management Specialty Group recently added a member benefit called Business in a Box for the Landscape Management Contractor. The business toolbox was assembled to provide the small to mid-sized boutique contractor with the resources necessary to successfully compete in any market of any size and against any and all competitors. The tools, systems, and solutions within this toolbox have been designed to enable owners, even those with relatively limited experience in running a business, to succeed. Business in a Box contains everything necessary to sustain a lifetime business ?EUR??,,????'?????<

PLANET Universe, a new Web portal that launched in October 2010, will be the comprehensive portal for all resources and information pertaining to the green industry. The goal is to save members time and money, provide them constantly updated and educational information, and increase the level and image of professionalism for the green industry.

''I predicted at the first of the year that spring would be business as usual for the green industry. Good times do follow tough ones, so companies need to look for the positive, even in the toughest of times, and position themselves so they are ready to take advantage of the turnaround when it comes,'' says PLANET President, David Snodgrass, Landscape Industry Certified Manager. ''To weather the difficult time, owners had no choice but to learn how to market their companies better, retain good people, and diversify.''

2011 Forecast

Although recovery seems to be very slow, we do believe that 2011 will prove to be a more economically viable year than 2010 for the landscape industry. As real estate begins to recover and housing transactions begin to pick up, landscape and lawn care demand should increase as well.

The industry remains under threat from bans in some regions and weather, as always, remains a significant factor. Drought has severely injured the industry in the past so we're hoping for a return to normalcy where weather is concerned. We remain cautiously optimistic that the industry will see a better year in 2011.

We hope to see better times from a state legislative aspect in more business friendly legislatures and in the U.S. House. Unfortunately few regulators changed and we have the same administration in Washington DC. With new committee chairs in the U.S. House we hope to have more letters to agency heads to question over regulation of business. That said, we see continued attention to environmental issues like water, fertilizers, and pesticides especially from states with key water bodies.

We expect OSHA to continue to ramp up safety requirements with more proposed regulations. We expect major impact to the H-2B program and maybe less of a chance for any comprehensive immigration reform.