Voice of the Green Industry

Are you ready to compete for your credential?

PLANET’s Student Career Days—The National Collegiate Landscape Competition event held in Auburn, Ala., March 7 – 10, 2013, is described as a “Landscape Olympics.” Last year, I wrote a blog “Go for the Certification Gold,” using the summer Olympics in London as my theme. “In this Olympic year, [...]

If you hold a credential, a degree or a certificate, you should be proud of your achievement and make sure you put it to good use throughout your career. Especially when marketing to customers, your expertise should be readily available, accessible and noticeable. As they say, “it’s a sad dog that doesn’t wag its own [...]

It’s been a busy year around the PLANET office! From planning our annual events that bring PLANET members together, to keeping you informed of the most up-to-date industry information, PLANET staff has been on its toes.
You’re well aware of the products, programs, and services PLANET brings to you. But, you might not know about [...]

The relevance of certification was underscored at PLANET’s 2010 Strategic Planning meeting where certification was a central topic of discussion and “Certification & Standards” was listed as a core objective in the resulting Strategic Plan. Following this July 2010 meeting, PLANET’s International Certification Council (ICC) Chair Michael Becker, Landscape Industry Certified Manager, noted the relevance [...]

I recently visited our certification partners to the north. Last summer as an auditor for the Landscape Industry Certified Technician-Exterior exam test site in Milton, Ontario, administered by Landscape Ontario and this February as a liaison for the International Certification Council (ICC) attending the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association’s (CNLA) Certification Committee meeting in Halifax, Nova [...]

From one Landscape Industry Certified professional to another, let’s make a New Year’s resolution to step up our promotions and make sure our customers, peers, friends, and family know that we’re certified and proud! After all, certification can make you and your company more attractive and more in demand. You’ll stand out, but not if [...]

Last year I wrote a blog “Back-story on Certification Rebranding” to herald the debut of PLANET certification’s new name. Hard to believe we’re in our second year of major rebranding from an alphabet soup of acronyms to a single, marketable banner Landscape Industry Certified.

This new brand name did not happen overnight. After many discussions [...]

As a fellow green industry professional, I urge you to do both. Personally, I can’t afford missing the best show in our industry and I took that important step years ago of getting my certification. Now, you can do both and save money. PLANET is offering the Landscape Industry Certification Manager and other select exams [...]

Europe, with its long tradition of craft guilds (masons, printers, textile workers, and tanners for example) that formed in the late Middle Ages, developed the practice of apprenticeships. An apprentice provided inexpensive labor to his master in exchange for formal training in a certain craft. Most started between the ages of 10 to 15 years [...]

Happy New Year !
I wanted to take the time to give you some background regarding the development of the new certification branding effort and the resulting Landscape Industry Certified brand.
 
Many things emerged in the last 5 years to reshape PLANET Certifications. The first was directly due to the merger [of ALCA and PLCAA]. The PLANET [...]