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 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

December 27th, 2011 by TRT Blog

The Refinishing Touch works with businesses across multiple industries to achieve the same goal—reuse and repurpose what they already own. In our most recent Lodging Hospitality online article, we discuss how seemingly different industries can come together and share successful solutions to meet industry standards, maximize customer service and maintain commitments to sustainability.

By naming some of the overlooked similarities between the education, hospitality, and government industries, such as time pressures and budget constraints, it makes it clear that cross industry transparency and communication is more important than ever. 

In the article, we stress that by refinishing and refurbishing furniture and paying close attention to proper asset management, industries can benefit both economically and environmentally.

To read the entire article or to share your thoughts on the topic visit LHonline.com. To learn more about The Refinishing Touch visit www.therefinishingtouch.com.

article, communication, Lodging Hospitality, Mario Insenga, similarities, Sustainability

December 13th, 2011 by TRT Blog

During this year’s 11^th annual Green Power Leadership Awards, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave out awards to 19 EPA Green Power Partners. The partners, located all across the country, were chosen based on their use of clean, renewable energy sources, energy security and reducing pollution.

The awards recognize everything from green buildings to green communities, across four different categories, including ‘Green Power Partner of the Year’, ‘Green Power Community of the Year’, ‘On-site Generation’ and ‘Green Power Purchase’. Among the winners were: the Empire State Building, Google, Portland Oregon, Santa Clara University, State Street Corporation and many others.  For the full list, please check here.

The EPA, through its work with the Green Power Partnership and other opportunities, helps 1,300 organizations to achieve their goals in reducing environmental stresses and reliance on conventional electricity use.

Through the goals of the EPA, its Green Power Partners, companies and individuals across the country, America can begin to understand the importance of long-term environmental sustainability commitments as well as turn it into a reality.  That’s something we can all support, and here at The Refinishing Touch we’d like to congratulate all the Power Partners, as well as the organizations across the globe that are working to reduce their environmental impact, and, of course, the EPA for hosting the awards.

electricity, energy security, EPA Green Power Partners, green, Green Power Leadership Awards, Green Power Partnership, renewable energy sources, Sustainability, US Environmental Protection Agency

November 24th, 2011 by TRT Blog

As another year is quickly coming to a close, it’s nice to be able to look at all of the things we have to be thankful for. At The Refinishing Touch, we are thankful to our customers for their continued support and the wonderful experiences we’ve had with them at job sites across the country. It’s been great to see the continued commitment to sustainability and environmental efficiency from the education, hospitality and government industries.

Thanksgiving is a time for individuals, families, and companies alike to reflect on everything good that has happened in the past year, and although the difficult economy continues to weigh heavily on so many people, it’s still important to momentarily step away from that to enjoy good food and good company.

So, from The Refinishing Touch family to yours, we would like to wish you and your loved ones a safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving.

environment, holiday, Sustainability, thanks, thanksgiving, The Refinishing Touch

November 11th, 2011 by TRT Blog

As a company that has been working with government since our founding in 1977, we hold all of the armed forces near-and-dear to our hearts. After having worked on army forts, naval bases, air force bases and marine stations, we have seen first-hand the sacrifices these men and women make for our country.

In honor of Veterans Day, we would like to thank everyone who has served and is currently serving our country. Your dedication and service is honored, remembered and appreciated every day back at home. As the holiday season rolls around, we wish everyone fighting overseas health, safety and happiness. We wish all of the veterans back at home, peace, joy and time spent with loved ones.

Thank you for all of your bravery and courage; one day is not enough to express our gratitude for all you’ve done for our country.

air force, armed forced, army, marine, navy, service men, service women, Veterans Day

October 25th, 2011 by TRT Blog

R&D is never a bad thing, especially when it has the potential to create new jobs for Americans. Recently, a federal-funded program distributed $156 million to 60 different projects focused on developing new green technology and energy efficient solutions.

The US Department of Energy branch, established in 2009, called the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), is providing the funding. Sound familiar? The agency was modeled after the Department of Defense program that funds new technology research, most of which eventually becomes widely used by the public.

In the announcement released Thursday September 29, ARPA-E director, Arun Majumdar, equated the green tech race to the Sputnik space race of the 50s, explaining that to compete in the global marketplace, America must create new jobs and sellable products instead of outsourcing from abroad.

The funding will primarily be going to educational institutions and national research labs, although some will be going to private companies such as General Electric.

The funding will benefit projects involving research into plant engineering and oil alternatives, rare-earth independence, advanced thermal storage, green electricity and solar electrical power. For example, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) is working on re-engineering plants so that they use energy more efficiently. University of Houston is developing high-performance, low-cost superconductors for wind generators. And the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT) is creating high-energy density thermal fuel.

To learn more about the projects and the institutions that are developing them, please visit http://arpa-e.energy.gov and click on its ‘news’ section. Without high-risk investments in cutting-edge research, there can be no high reward.

ARPA-e, energy, funding, Government

October 21st, 2011 by TRT Blog

It’s no secret that we take great pride in the work that we do. Through our visual blog post we were able to show the before and after images of the work we’ve done, which we hope gives a much better representation the dramatic changes that take place when we’re able to preserve a piece of furniture. It’s with the same dedication that we’re pleased to announce our newest initiative to better share the work we’re doing around the country, The Refinishing Touch’s Green Connect customer communication program.

Our new program aims to connect our clients across education, government and hospitality with peers across all industries and cross-industries. We’ll be utilizing aspects of social media such as onsite photos and videos of the projects, along with more traditional methods to highlight our clients’ experiences while working with The Refinishing Touch, such as case studies.

While the traditional press release serves a particular purpose, we knew there are more powerful ways to relay a message and display the cost savings and asset management of our services. It’ll be exciting to take advantage of this blog, our Twitter and other mediums to let our clients speak for themselves.

One of the more exciting aspects of this program will be our visual case study. Much like our visual blog post, our reformatted case studies will take a decidedly visual look at the work we do, since pictures more adequately express the renovations we do then words.. You could read about an armoire conversion, but would it be the same as actually seeing it? We don’t think so, which is why we’re thrilled to start this program.

Be sure to keep following our blog and checking our website for more information on the program. If you’d like to view the full press release announcing the program, click here.

clients, customer communications program, customers, green connect

October 14th, 2011 by TRT Blog

In early August, John M. McHugh, Secretary of the Army, announced the creation of the Energy Initiatives Office (EIO) Task Force, formed to help the Army with renewable energy and energy efficient projects. In a statement that accompanied the announcement he said, “Addressing our energy security needs is operationally necessary, fiscally prudent and vital to mission accomplishment.”

Seeing as the Department of Defense accounts for more than 90 percent of the total Federal Government energy consumption and is the single largest energy consumer in the U.S., we’d say Secretary McHugh is right.

Via EarthTechling

In light of rising fuel costs, the Army has agreed to meet a quarter of its energy needs with renewable energy sources by 2025, and achieve net-zero energy use by 2030.  To accomplish this, the Army will need to generate 2.1 megawatts of renewable energy a year, and is expecting to spend $7.1 billion over the next decade.

Assuming all goes as planned, the Army money being pumped into renewable energy has the potential to really kick-start the renewable energy / sustainability industry. The investment should encourage innovation, and create more jobs—which is good for both the country and the environment.

October 11th, 2011 by TRT Blog

As we all know, legislation moves at a snail’s pace. So it’s unsurprising that legislation regarding energy efficiency and green building, two topics that Republicans and Democrats don’t exactly see eye to eye on, moves even slower. Regardless (and luckily), the United States has continued to make bounds of progress to advance and implement green policy.

The U.S. Green Building Council recently announced its “30 wins”, a mid-year review of hundreds of state bills trying to make their way into law this year. Although the wins include some legislation that did not pass, USGBC knows that any type of approved legislation can help get green going.

Wide-spread support for green measures has been the driving force behind the passing of landmark state legislation recently. Connecticut, for example, just passed a bill that created the country’s first green bank, which will provide loans for green projects. But Connecticut isn’t the only state in the race. Florida, Montana, Texas, Oregon and New Mexico have also begun to pass legislation to create state energy codes and standards, as well as tax credits for green projects.

Although few of us have seats in Congress, we all have the ability to influence the political agenda. Visit your local or state government website to view the current legislation, and participate in anything from green energy political meetings to a local neighborhood clean-up initiative. Trust us, you and the environment will be happy you did.

buildings, LEED, politics, USGBC