Business Buzz: August 28, 2024

August 28, 2024

Company news:

  • CPA + Advisory firm, DMJPS PLLC (DMJPS), proudly announces the launch of the “Be Greater Scholarship,” a prestigious initiative designed to celebrate the firm’s 75th anniversary with a significant investment in the future of the accounting profession. DMJPS will invest $75,000 over the next five years to support selected students from colleges and universities across North Carolina. Currently recruiting at over 15 campuses, the DMJPS Be Greater Scholarship will be available to DMJPS interns who successfully complete their busy season internships.
  • IFB Solutions, the largest employer of people who are blind or visually impaired in the country, has hired Alina Garcia Ravelo to oversee its Asheville operations as the nonprofit’s plant manager. The Asheville manufacturing facility, located on Sardis Road, is one of three manufacturing facilities operated by IFB Solutions, a nonprofit headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C. Ravelo will lead IFB’s Asheville manufacturing team and oversee all facility operations. Ravelo, who is legally blind due to a condition called cone dystrophy, was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. IFB’s Asheville plant employs more than 120 people, about half of whom are blind or visually impaired, to manufacture products such as uniforms, field equipment and office products for the U.S. government and military. The Asheville facility operates product lines that support Military Resale and the Impulse Merchandising Program for the Defense Commissary Agency. Employees who are blind assemble and package more than 400 different products, which are then shipped and sold at military installations and commissaries around the world. Asheville employees also manufacture poncho liners for the U.S. military — affectionately known as the woobie — and also sells military-grade woobies to the public through its online Pinnacle Mercantile store.

Recognition:

  • City of Asheville’s Broadway Public Safety Station has been awarded LEED Gold. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. The Broadway Public Safety Station achieved LEED Gold for implementing practical and measurable strategies and solutions in areas including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency (including onsite renewable energy), materials selection and indoor environmental quality. The pursuit of this certification supports City Council’s 2036 vision for a clean and healthy environment and a number of the City’s sustainability goals. To learn more about the sustainable features that contributed to the LEED Gold certification, take the virtual tour.