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Contact: Ilene Manster
Phone: (703) 736-9666
E-mail: ilenemanster@landcarenetwork.org

For Immediate Release

PLANET MEMBER RECEIVES OSHA-SHARP DESIGNATION

HERNDON, Va., August 1, 2006 — The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) is pleased to announce that Willamette Landscape Services, Inc., a PLANET member company, is the first landscape company in the nation to achieve OSHA’s (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) SHARP (Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Program) designation.

The SHARP designation recognizes the accomplishments of America’s most safe and successful workplaces. To achieve the SHARP designation an employer must pass all of OSHA’s rigorous 58-point safety assessment requirements. In addition to passing the safety assessment requirements, a company must carry out required safety committee activities including written notices and programs, and employees must participate in safe work training and processes. After five years of committed development, Willamette Landscape Services joins just over 1,100 companies nationwide to be OSHA-SHARP certified.

PLANET membership and services have been very beneficial in helping Willamette obtain the OSHA-SHARP designation. Willamette’s Matt Triplett, CLP, CLT says “Our PLANET involvement has been instrumental in almost every aspect of our business. PLANET membership has provided a sense of place in the industry. We’ve learned and networked in ways that would be impossible without such a great organization.”

As the issue of safety has grown in the green industry, PLANET has responded by offering several programs that help promote safety awareness. With obtaining the OSHA-SHARP designation, Willamette Landscape Services, Inc. has been a trailblazer in an effort to promote safe green industry practices. The company began working towards having a safer work environment for green industry workers by participating in PLANET’s STARS Safe Company Program. As participants in the Safety Recognition Awards Program, they have consistently shown their commitment to safety and have been awarded numerous safety awards. Triplett adds, “Participation in the STARS program was the first step towards a safer work environment and annual recognition at the GIC Awards helped keep us from becoming myopic. PLANET’s incredible focus on safety, has reinforced our beliefs that workers in the field can and should work safely.”

For more information about the STARS program, please visit landcarenetwork.org, contact Ilene Manster at ilenemanster@landcarenetwork.org, or call the PLANET office at 
(800) 395-2522.

PLANET represents approximately 4,400 green industry service-provider companies and suppliers nationwide that specialize in lawn care, design/build/installation, interior plantscaping, and landscape management. These firms and their employees represent more than 100,000 green industry professionals.