February 7th, 2012 by TRT Blog

With an increasing demand for eco-friendly practices, many industries have already begun their own initiatives in an effort to increase and standardize sustainability. With continued advancements, both socially and technologically, going green is a reality for many sectors. However, not all industries have had such luck. One industry in particular has come under fire for the little advancements that have been made in innovation and green practices: construction.

According to an article by Construction Digital, over the past few decades the construction industry has seen little movement towards green building. Although the demand for green building has increased and much of the appropriate technology is available, construction has not changed in the ways other industries have. Many have argued that the construction industry has not become more environmentally friendly due to the high costs of replacing machinery, an area which largely has seen little to zero new technology. 

Despite its past, the construction sector has a hopeful future. Sustainable technology continues to advance (as well as become less expensive) and will soon help to ease the transition into green building. However, one issue for green building that has remained unresolved is the translation from digital designs to physical materials. Exciting new technologies such as 3D printing is emerging as a technology that can speed up the building process and most likely require little man power. This technology is already being applied around the world—a 30 story skyscraper was recently completed in less than 360 hours in China using similar technology.

While as a refinishing and refurbishing company, we try to incorporate as many sustainable practices into our business as possible, we also understand those practices aren’t as plausible for other industries. We hope that the construction industry continues to look for sustainably alternatives to help it catch up with the demand for green building and structures as well as seek out new, emerging technologies to help it get there.

construction, eco-friendly, green, green building, sustainable

February 3rd, 2012 by TRT Blog

Attending industry conferences is one way The Refinishing Touch stays in tune with the needs of our clients across different industries. These conferences and events bring together everyone from business managers to service buyers, with the overall goal to create new ideas and partnerships. And as it turns out, January was a busy month for a couple key events

The first of which was the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, or better known as ALIS. This year the conference took place from January 23 to 25 in Los Angeles, California. This summit is the largest hotel investment conference in the world and attracts more than 2,000 people each year. Attended by countless industry experts, we were able to participate in numerous networking opportunities, panel discussions and seminars throughout the conference.  The conference is uniquely designed for the hospitality investment community, including hotel executives, investors and lenders, developers, and professional financial advisors. 

Another industry conference, the PHMA/MHLI Professional Development Seminar (PDS) which took place from January 29 to February 3^rin San Diego, California, provided insight into another important industry for us, the government. PDS always puts on a great PHMA event for all of those in the government sector, particularly military housing. PHMA is an educational event that provides general learning sessions and informational courses as well as ample time to network.

 Here at The Refinishing Touch, we always enjoy opportunities to attend conferences and events. While we pride ourselves on great services and customer communication, it’s also important to gain new and different perspectives from industry experts in order to stay up to date with industry trends and goals.

ALIS, Americas Lodging Investment Summit, hospitality, hotel investment, PHMA

January 31st, 2012 by TRT Blog

As the importance and need for sustainability grows, many businesses have begun taking action to reduce their carbon footprints and environmental impact. As traveling is a large part of most business ventures, the demand for eco-friendly travel options has continued to increase. Even though businesses are making more of an effort to pursue green travel plans and options, they often aren’t sure where to begin. Here is a list of ideas that can help businesses, and individuals, incorporate sustainability when traveling around the world:

Necessity: First make sure that a business trip is absolutely necessary. With the marvels of modern technology and great services such as Skype, GoToMeeting and Google+, it’s easy to utilize time and money with face-to-face meetings, even if you’re miles away, without ever leaving the office.

Public Transportation: Taking the subway, including to and from the airport, is a great way to reduce your company’s carbon footprint. Subways are fast and accessible and are conveniently located in most cities. Plus it saves money, as subway fare often costs far less than renting a car.

Hybrids/Eco-Friendly vehicles: If you happen to land in a location where public transportation is not readily available, many cities now flooded with hybrid taxis, and renting a hybrid car is also an easy way to save money on gas and reduce environmental impact.

Air Travel: As airplane travel produces 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, choosing an airline that is environmentally conscious can help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Germany’s Lufthansa and Air Canada have both made significant strides in obtaining a carbon-neutral status. If your choice of airline is limited, think about purchasing environmental credits to offset your plane travel emissions.

Lodging: Before booking a hotel room, research hotels that are implementing green initiatives. There is a growing trend in the hospitality world to go green, so these hotels shouldn’t be hard to find. If a certified green hotel isn’t in the cards, be conscious of your actions during your stay—opt out of every day linen and towel washing, during a short stay choose to decline room cleaning and remember to turn the lights off when you leave your room.

Dining: While most of your meals might be eaten on the run, if you have time to sit down look for restaurants, in your hotel or otherwise, that have implemented sustainable methods. Many restaurants these days will advertise where they’ve gotten their food, so choose dishes that feature locally, seasonally grown and organic ingredients to help reduce your carbon footprint and fill your belly.

While it’s not always easy to travel green, it’s important to make the effort to fly, lodge and eat as sustainability as possible to help save the environment and make our world a better place. To learn more about how businessmen and women are traveling green, read an interesting Financial Post article here.

eco-friendly, green, hybrids, Sustainability, Travel

January 27th, 2012 by TRT Blog

When working with clients, there are several different ways
The Refinishing Touch helps transforms their properties and assets, across the education, hospitality and government industries. From armoire conversion to refurbishing, The Refinishing Touch transforms existing assets to like new condition while minimizing out-of-pocket costs.

One important aspect of The Refinishing Touch is upholstery. While it may seem like a small part of refinishing and refurbishing, reupholstery can make a big difference when updating existing furniture. Over time, fabrics often lose their luster or become outdated, but replacing furniture can be costly and time consuming. Reupholstery is a great, cost effective alternative to buying new while still updating and extending the life of your furniture.

Here at The Refinishing Touch, we help clients breathe new life into their furniture with reupholstering. We use our original, Touch Textiles, which offers a wide variety of patterns and colors, ensuring that clients across all sectors find exactly the fabric they’re looking for.

Touch Textiles offers a large selection of choices, and with the help of our in-house design team, clients are sure to achieve the look they want. The best way to understand how reupholstery can change the look of a piece and an entire room is to see for yourself. Take a look at how our Touch Textiles have helped clients achieve a new, updated look without the cost and hassle of buying new furniture.

Before & After:

Hilton Atlanta:

Pala Casino:

Windsor Court New Orleans:

Banquettes:

Boston Hyatt:

Headboards:

Boston Hyatt, fabrics, Hilton Atlanta, Pala Casino, reupholstery, Touch Textiles, upholstery, Windsor Court New Orleans

January 25th, 2012 by TRT Blog

As we announced on Tuesday, this week we released our findings to an ongoing survey that we had been conducting about Product Improvement Plans (PIPs) in the hospitality industry. All of the findings were very interesting and we have been receiving great feedback about the survey from members of the hospitality industry, as well as journalists that have been reporting the results.

One bit of coverage that we really enjoyed, came from Hotel News Now. Today Stephanie Wharton compiled the regular section, ‘5 things to know’, and included some of the key findings from our survey. She included findings such as, 57% of respondents admitted they had experienced leniency from corporate franchisors regarding PIP implementation and 61.5% of managers believe travelers are unsympathetic to lapses in hotel renovation.

To see the entire article, go the HotelNewsNow.com.

coverage, Hotel News Now, HotelNewsNow.com, PIPs, Product Improvement Plans, Stephanie Wharton, survey, survey results

January 24th, 2012 by TRT Blog

The hospitality sector has faced new and challenging pressures in this slow economic recovery period. In particular, Product Improvement Plans (PIPs) have proved to be great source of concern for hotels owners across the US. To try to understand exactly how hotel owners feel about these franchisor-enforced PIPs, The Refinishing Touch recently conducted a survey which asked the largest hotel chains in the US about the financial and operational pressure PIPs, customers, and the economy places on them.

PIPs are used by corporate hotel franchisors to ensure that all locations are maintained and up to date. While many chains suspended PIPs in 2009 and 2010 to alleviate hotel owners from some economic pressures, PIPs were again a common occurrence in 2011.

The Refinishing Touch found that although many hotel owners found leniency from corporate owners, the majority were still concerned over cost commitment for the plans. The survey also found that many hotel owners feel that guests and hotel patrons are unforgiving of lapses in renovation and most owners feel that brand competition has greatly increased since the recession. 

To read the full release and learn more about the survey findings, please visit our website at http://www.therefinishingtouch.com/news.php.

hospitality, Hotels, PIPs, Product Improvement Plans

January 20th, 2012 by TRT Blog

Going green is no longer a novel idea on college campuses nationwide, it has become a necessity. One school, the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has plans to build eco-friendly housing for its students. In the works for the past three years, the college will replace popular housing in need of repair with eco-friendly dorms complete with cutting edge technology

Cost has persuaded the school to replace these facilities rather than renovate, as the project is expected to reduce energy consumption by 75%. While many fear losing the old structures because they a part of the college’s history, the new plans will certainly make history of their own.

The students in these seven cottages will enjoy state-of-the-art faculties; the school is calling them an eco-village. Each cottage will house nine students, each helping to reduce the schools’ carbon footprint. The cottages will include energy efficient amenities like washers and dryers, water conserving bathroom features, and each building will be repositioned to use solar power. In addition the entire eco-village will feature a solar plaza which will power the entire complex and a rain garden around the perimeter.

To read the college’s entire plan, read the article here.

carbon footprint, eco-friendly, energy consumption, energy efficient, renovate

January 17th, 2012 by TRT Blog

Since 2006, the American Colleges and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) has collected over 674 signatories for the cause. ACUPCC has aimed to combat global climate change through a network of high education institutions that have committed to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions as well as increase research and education to promote the importance of sustainability.

The ACUPCC states that signatories will set a target date and interim goals to become climate neutral, integrate sustainability into the educational experience, and more. The most recent university to announce its sustainability target date is University of Wisconsin, Green Bay (UWGB).

The school has recently set a plan of action to become climate-neutral by 2050. The university has categorized its campus emissions into three categories: direct emissions from university owned and controlled sources, emissions from products that deliver on-campus energy, and emissions related to university operations.

UWGB’s climate plan was released campus-wide for an entire institutional collaboration. To learn more about UWGB’s sustainability plans read the entire article here. To learn more about the American Colleges and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment visit the website.

ACUPCC, climate change, education, greenhouse gas, Sustainability, University of Wisconsin

January 12th, 2012 by TRT Blog

InTouch is back! The third installment of our quarterly newsletter was released today and we’re excited to continue to bring you company updates, ongoing projects, upcoming events, commentary on world news and thoughts on the economy, straight from The Refinishing Touch.

This quarter’s newsletter is filled with stories about our work at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, news and comments on the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference that convened at the end of last year, thoughts on how companies and organizations should examine key performance indicators (KPIs), resolutions for 2012, and more.

We hope you enjoy this edition of InTouch. To subscribe to our quarterly newsletter, fill out a subscription form at the bottom of our homepage.

As always, thanks for reading!

intouch, KPIs, Mario Insenga, newsletter, quarterly newsletter, resolutions, The Refinishing Touch, Windsor Court Hotel

January 10th, 2012 by TRT Blog

As we face down 2012, it is nice to reflect on the year passed and think about important trends our target industries might experience. In our newest press release, we do just that. During 2011, The Refinishing Touch completed approximately 150 refinishing and refurbishing projects at organizations around the country. This included projects with leading hotel brand names, alongside a wide number of education facilities and government institutions.

The Refinishing Touch is also proud of the achievements 2011 held including, renewing our GSA Contract certification, introducing our new customer communications program, speaking at the ACUHO-I/APPA Housing Facilities Conference, launching our quarterly newsletter, and completing the PIP survey.

When looking at 2012, we expect a number of trends and challenges across hospitality, government and education industries, notably the economy. One of those trends includes: 

• Asset owners will become more creative and cautious before ruining or replacing furniture assets—will look to do more with less

In 2012 businesses, companies and institutions will face the challenge of how to work differently, creatively maximize budget reach and enhance their bottom line.

To read the entire release, please visit our website at http://www.therefinishingtouch.com/news.php.

achievements, education, Government, hospitality, refinishing, refurbishing