Sofa beds. Visits to the dentist. Michael Scott on “The Office.” This is my list of “uncomfortable things.” Here’s another: Changing a long-held company process or implementing a new one. We all know change is difficult. This can be particularly true when it comes to becoming more efficient as an organization, says green industry consultant Jim Paluch, president of JP... read more
One year. Five companies. Hundreds of takeaways. With the 2014 Face to Face series drawn to a close, JP Horizons President Jim Paluch pulled together Smart Company participants for a teleconference Dec. 12 to boil down some of their top observations throughout the year. Smart Companies are the sponsors of the events. The notion for Face to Face is for... read more
In September, Schill Grounds Management agreed to go under the microscope. It welcomed about 80 of its landscape industry peers and suppliers to its North Ridgeville, Ohio, facility to host a Face to Face event. The Face to Face concept, led by JP Horizons, entails a landscape company opening its doors and giving department-by-department tours of its facility to share... read more
On Nov. 1, Come Alive Outside held its initial board meeting as a nonprofit organization, defining the strategic plan of the organization as it moves forward on its Come Alive Outside initiative. Started by JP Horizons President Jim Paluch in 2011, Come Alive Outside aims to inspire professional landscape companies to play a more active role in reconnecting communities with... read more
Mazelis Landscape Contracting Corp. gives back to those who gave and the community that’s helped it prosper. The firefighting brotherhood runs fast and deep through Stephen Mazelis’ veins. The owner of Mazelis Landscape Contracting Corp. is the son of a New York City fireman and himself a longtime volunteer. So when duty calls, Mazelis and his team at Mazelis Landscape,... read more
Some clients told them to design a landscape that incorporated trees made of cotton candy. Others customers insisted on having an area where they could dig up treasure. To deliver on these requests would be a challenge for any landscape designer. But for the teams of college students that received them as part of the Come Alive Outside (CAO) Design... read more
