April 27th, 2012 by TRT Blog

When some people hear the phrase ‘asset management’, they mistakenly immediately think of financial assets , whether it’s a university endowment, hotel annual revenue, or government treasury bonds, and not in its true broader sense of any non-disposable commodity.

Here at The Refinishing Touch, our goal is to change the way that individuals, organizations, and institutions think about furniture, because furniture is an asset; high-quality, solid-wood furniture is costly, and when treated correctly and provided regular upkeep, is a life-long investment and asset.

We consider our work as ‘furniture asset management’, whether it involves refinishing, remanufacturing, or reupholstery. Our goal is to ensure our customers get a lifetime of use out of their furniture investments, while being environmentally-friendly and increasing overall sustainability.

In our newest blog segment, ‘Asset Management: tips for success’, we will bring you a series of useful tips and industry insight, so your organization can enact its own furniture asset management plan.

Tip #1: Evaluating your assets

1. Understanding your furniture: If you’re a large organization, such as a sizeable hotel, run an inventory of all of the furniture you have, everything – from chairs to desks to dressers. Next, determine how long you’ve had it and the money you invested when it was first purchased.

2. Determining your goals: Is a big renovation in your plans? If not, don’t replace furniture unless it’s broken or no longer functional. If so, determine your goals for the renovation’s outcome and the budget allocated to achieve it. Understanding the assets you already own and your future goals for the property can help determine if furniture can be re-used-refinished to like new condition or updated with fabrics, furniture hardware, color change or armoire modification in order to achieve new design goals at a fraction of the cost.

3. Considering refinishing: Discuss your aesthetic and budget goals with a refinishing professional. Review refinishing options and ask for pictures from past projects. Compare these to furniture you had planned to buy new, chances are you won’t be able to tell the difference, and in most cases the existing furniture is of better quality than what is on the market today and will outlast a new furniture investment.

After you’ve evaluated your assets and determined how they fit into your organizations long term renovation and update plans, consider the cost savings and decreased environmental impact you will enjoy from choosing to refinish. By following the steps above and looking at your furniture as an asset, you will realize that refinishing provides the like-new appeal your organization desires for a fraction of the cost and environmental impact.

For more information about furniture asset management or to get a free project quote, visit our website at www.therefinishingtouch.com.

armoire modification, asset management, fabrics, furniture asset management, furniture assets, furniture hardware, refinishing, remanufacturing, reupholstery, Sustainability, Touch Textiles

April 25th, 2012 by TRT Blog

In last month’s Operational Update blog, we shared one of our recently completed projects, which took place at the DoubleTree Hilton in Anaheim, California.

During our time at the DoubleTree we refinished the hotel’s desks, dressers, nightstands and headboards, updating the furniture pieces with fresh color, hardware and upholstery.

As the DoubleTree Anaheim is a ‘full-hotel’ projects with us refinishing each of the DoubleTree’s 95 rooms, we thought we would bring you a few ‘before and after’ pictures so you can get a true sense for how refinishing and reupholstery can transform old furniture into modern, stylish, full functional pieces. By refinishing furniture instead of implementing the tradition ‘rip-and-replace’ processes, the DoubleTree Anaheim prevented countless pieces of furniture from unnecessarily entering into landfills and saved over 90 percent in carbon emissions as compared to buying new.

Are you curious as to how refinishing can help save the environment and improve your organization’s bottom line, as it did at the DoubleTree Anaheim? Visit our homepage at therefinishingtouch.comto learn more or to request a free quote.

Before & after visuals:

Before                                        After

Before                                                  After

Before                                                  After

Before                                                  After

Anaheim, California, DoubleTree Hilton, Orange County, refinish, rip and replace, Sustainability

April 20th, 2012 by TRT Blog

As Earth Day approaches, the entire team here at The Refinishing Touch is excited to follow the planning and ideas for so many great events planned across the country and the world this Sunday, April 22. From ‘A Billion Acts of Green’ to the rally on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the 42^nd Earth Day is set to make history.

One of the best outlets we’ve found for following these major Earth Day events is the Earth Day Network website. Not only does it feature stunning Earth Day images, but it provides informational overviews of numerous Earth Day events and how you can get involved. Here are some of our favorites:

Mobilize the Earth: The overall theme for Earth Day 2012. A bold statement, as described by the Earth Day Network as, “we are mobilizing the planet to simply say one thing: the Earth won’t wait.” The goal is to mobilize billions of people around the world and demand global governmental action to enact renewable energy initiatives, invest in energy efficient technologies, and reduce dependence on strained natural resources.

For more on Mobilize the Earth, watch the video below:

A Billion Acts of Green: Already the world’s largest environmental service campaign, over 900 million actions have already been registered. A Billion Acts of Green is a great outlet that encourages individuals and communities to commit to sustainable, environmentally-friendly actions. Visit earthday.org/billion-acts-of-green to pledge your act and help the reach one billion commitments before the United Nations Earth Summit, Rio+20, this June.

Rally on the National Mall: D.C. will become the nation’s Earth Day center this weekend. Hundreds of thousands of people will join together to rally for environmental change. The rally is free and open to the public. It will feature musical performances, speeches, live news coverage, renewable energy demonstrations and more. Visit the webpage here, or RSVP to attend on Facebook.

While we should recognize the importance of preserving our environment every day, Earth Day is one day when everyone can come together with one voice and fight for our planet. To learn more about how you can get involved with the Earth Day events listed above, or to find an event in your city go here.

A Billion Acts of Green, Earth Day, Earth Day events, Earth Day Rally, Mobilize the Earth, The Refinishing Touch

April 17th, 2012 by TRT Blog

As we mentioned at the beginning of the month, this year marks the 42nd annual Earth Day celebration, and while millions around the world will celebrate in different ways—from committing to recycling to agreeing to compost for a year—millions have already participated in Earth Hour as a prelude. One hour where everyone agreed to stop using electricity and “switch off”.

Observed on March 31, hundreds of millions of people and organizations turned off their lights, recognizing the thought and care that should go into using our precious resources. As a sustainable refinishing company that works with universities, hotels and government agencies across the country, we were interested in learning which organizations participated in Earth Hour.

One of the most notable was Wyndham Worldwide—parent company to hotels such as Planet Hollywood and Ramada—which announced its participation in Earth Hour by saying it would participate and “demonstrate their commitment to environmentally sustainable action.”

As a hotel organization known for its leadership in sustainable practices and with our first-hand experience with Wyndham Worldwide’s commitment to sustainability, it comes as little surprise that its energy goals are so substantial. The hospitality company is on track to reduce overall emissions by 12 percent be 2016 and 20 percent by 2020.

We are very happy to see such a large hotel organization be so open and forthcoming about its goal for sustainability. This type of transparency will only encourage other hotel organizations, large and small, to commit to sustainable practices, so we can all work together to help preserve our environment.

For more information on Wyndham Worldwide’s sustainable practices and initiatives, visit Wyndham Green.

For a touching overview of this year’s Earth Hour, watch the video below:

Earth Day, Earth Hour, Earth Hour video, hospitality, Wyndham Green, Wyndham Worldwide

April 13th, 2012 by TRT Blog

2012 marks a very important year for The Refinishing Touch, our employees, our customers, and everyone who has been involved with fulfilling our mission and goal of working towards a more sustainable, environmentally friendly world. This year marks our 35th anniversary in the refinishing business community.

The Refinishing Touch was founded in 1977 and with the help of dedicated leadership and teamwork, we are now the leader in environmentally safe, on-site furniture refinishing, reupholstery and remanufacturing. We have worked with over 20,000 customers nationwide, across numerous industries including governmental agencies, universities and colleges, and hotels. And while the green, environmental movement has only recently come into fruition, we have been helping organizations and institutions transform their unused furniture into like new, stylish, functional pieces for 35 years—equating to over half a million hardware trees saved from destruction and tons of usable furniture prevented from ending up in our nations landfills.

Along our 35 year journey, we have had the pleasure to work with wonderful clients, be recognized for our work, including receiving the US GSA Evergreen Award for innovative, environmentally friendly practices, and create jobs across countless US states and cities. While not every company has had the longevity that we have, particularly in this difficult economic climate, we credit our 35 years of success to hard work, perseverance, and great service.

To all of the people and organizations who helped us reach our 35 year anniversary, we couldn’t have done it without you—and we toast to another 35 years of refinishing success!

1977, 35, anniversary, established, Mario Insenga, refinishing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, reupholstry, The Refinishing Touch

April 10th, 2012 by TRT Blog

As the first quarter of the new year comes to a close, we’re pleased to announce the new edition of our quarterly newsletter, InTouch.

If you’re a subscriber to our newsletters you will know that InTouch is our opportunity to share our progress and that of our customers and communities. We update our readers on the latest news of our current and ongoing projects; industry events; share viewpoints on the refinishing industry, and engage with our inspirational customers, business partners, associates and other members of the education, hospitality and government communities.

In the most recent edition of InTouch, you can read stories about our ongoing work at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola; our insight into universities around the nation embracing sustainability; tips on how to make furniture asset management work for your organization; and a look into a one-of-a-kind remanufacturing project at Seattle’s Hotel FIVE. Also, we extend a special invite to all of our readers and customers to our upcoming Hotel Interactive webinar, ‘How to avoid letting PIPs bust your bottom line’, on May 1st .

We hope that you enjoy this edition of InTouch! And remember, you can sign up for our quarterly newsletter by filling out the subscription form at the bottom of our homepage.

As always, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to say InTouch!

asset management, furniture asset management, Hotel FIVE, Hotel Interactive, intouch, NAS Pensacola, Naval Air Station, PIPs, quarterly newsletter, webinar

April 6th, 2012 by TRT Blog

This past week on March 29, the fourth annual University of Washington Environmental Innovation Challenge was held at the competitions namesake. The Environmental Innovation Challenge is a friendly competition that calls on student teams from across the entire Northwest to explore an environmental problem, design and develop a solution, produce a working prototype, and present a business model and market opportunity to a panel of judges. This year’s judging panel was comprised of local clean-tech experts, entrepreneurs and investors.

In order to tackle the emerging and growing green economy, student teams pitched a wide range of innovative, ground-breaking ideas that have the potential to help entire communities and possibly the world.

The winning idea came from a University of Washington team named Green Innovative Safety Technologies. Their vision would eliminate the need for heavy, concrete highway jersey barriers. Instead, through their model, discarded ground-up tires from landfills (according to the team one tire, per person, per year is discarded in the US) would be cased into lane separation devices. According to the team, it would cost less per mile and emit less carbon emissions than concrete. The team took home $10,000 for their idea.

Other teams presented prototypes and business plans for sustainable, temporary housing after natural disasters, urban greenhouses, a non-stick cookware alternative to Teflon, and more.

As a company that works closely with universities on projects that increase overall campus sustainability, it’s great to see one university’s efforts to get students involved in green initiatives as well. In our eyes, all of the student teams who competed at the Environmental Innovation Challenge are winners.

For more information on the event or to learn how to sign up for next year’s competition, go here. And to learn more about how your university can decrease its environmental impact and carbon footprint, visit our website at www.therefinishingtouch.com.

clean tech, environmental, Environmental Innovation Challenge, green economy, Sustainability, University of Washington, UW

April 5th, 2012 by TRT Blog

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been working diligently on the newest issue of our quarterly newsletter, InTouch. Missed out on previous issues? Don’t forget to sign up to receive our newsletter today! In the upcoming newsletter, you’ll read stories on industry climates—including government, hospitality, and higher education—insight into how to make furniture asset management work for your organization, updates on our most recent government project at NAS Pensacola, information on our upcoming hospitality webinar on navigating Product Improvement Plans, and more.

To sign up, go to the bottom of our homepage at www.therefinishingtouch.com and enter your contact details to receive our newsletter next week. It’s a great way to stay InTouch!

intouch, newsletter, quarterly

April 3rd, 2012 by TRT Blog

As April marks the start of ‘Earth Day’ month, we thought it was only fitting to take a look back and see how this day, celebrated by millions around the world, got its start.

Earth Day was enacted on April 22nd, 1970, an idea that was born after former US Wisconsin Senator, Gaylord Nelson, observed the environmental damages caused by the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. The first Earth Day commenced with 20 million Americans rallying for political environmental awareness and action. As a result, not long after the first Earth Day, Washington created the Environmental Protection Agency, and passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

Today, Earth Day has grown from a national trend to an international movement, spearheaded by the Earth Day Network (EDN), active in 190 countries worldwide. Earth Day also serves as a communal beacon, promoting proper environmental education within schools and other organizations via one of its main partnerships, the US Green Building Council.

Its most recent initiative, “A Billion Acts of Green”, encourages communities and individuals to commit to environmental services, and over 40 million actions have already been pledged. Those who wish to commit can do anything as simple as unplugging electronics when not in use, carpooling, using public transit, or organizing a beach clean-up within their local neighborhood.

Earth Day and the EDN teach us that if each person does something small and simple to help our planet that it will all add up to one significant change for the better. Let’s make this year’s Earth Day just as spectacular as the ones before by simply pledging to do our best, and to make sure that our best makes a positive impact for future generations.

Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Earth Day, Earth Day 2012, Earth Day Network, Endangered Species Act, environment, environmental protection agency, EPA, Gaylord Nelson