April 19th, 2013 by TRT Blog

This upcoming Monday, the world will celebrate Earth Day for the 43^rd time. The Refinishing Touch is dedicated to preserving the world’s resources year-round, but we welcome this day of environmental celebration and sustainable awareness with open arms.

The first annual Earth Day took place in 1970, and boasted participation from nearly 20 million people. Next week, it is projected that an astounding one billion people, across 180 different countries, will join together to commemorate the special day and make a difference to the environment we all share.

Our premier clientele, which include hotels, college dormitories, on-base army barracks and more, possess the ability to make impactful changes. Our world’s environment greatly depends on the act of not only individuals, but organizations at large. Whether you’re in a position of power at a global corporation, or simply trying to increase environmental awareness in your own home, here are a few reasons to go green on Earth Day and for years to come:

- The amount of wood and paper thrown away each year is enough to heat 50 million homes for two years. To cut down on such environmentally-hazardous routines, increase the amount of recycling bins in your edifice and repurpose existing assets whenever possible.

- Recycling a newspaper each day would save about 250 million trees each year, yet only 27 percent on Americans currently recycle the daily read.

- An individual goes through seven trees each year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees.

- Furniture asset management services, like The Refinishing Touch’s refinishing and re-upholstery, can reduce a large-scale renovation project’s greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent.

After 35 years of delivering cost-effective, sustainable furniture asset management services within the hospitality, higher education and government sectors, we’ve taken pride in the amount of reduced greenhouse gas emissions and preserved landfill space resulting from repurposing furniture assets. From our studies, The Refinishing Touch estimates it has saved approximately 2,250,000 pounds of wood from making its way into landfills nationwide since our inception in 1977.

If you would like to learn more about The Refinishing Touch’s fiscally-responsible and environmentally-friendly refinishing, re-upholstery and remanufacturing solutions, visit our website or request a free quote here.

Earth Day, environment, furniture asset management, refinishing, reupholstery, Sustainability, The Refinishing Touch

April 9th, 2013 by TRT Blog

Here at The Refinishing Touch, we have worked diligently over the past 35 years to showcase our commitment to reducing harmful landfill waste. Because of this, we are always pleased to see initiatives by others come to fruition and make an impact.

Recently, the Pathway to Zero Waste project captured our attention, with aspirations to reduce the amount of trash in local Massachusetts landfills by nearly a third by the end of the decade, and a full 80 percent by 2050. Pathway to Zero Waste is an initiative led by Massachusetts state environmental leaders that is projected to kick off later this spring – although anticipation has already hit nationwide.

The project’s overall goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions from trash disposal, and ease the amount of waste making its way into Massachusetts landfills. As part of the plan, businesses and residents are required to improve recycling habits, to ensure fewer toxic materials and other banned substances end up in the state’s waste stream. Commercial food waste from restaurants, hotels and other businesses in hospitality would also be forced to adapt to new waste methods and mandates.

While some claim the plan is controversial, we couldn’t help but support a project that strives towards the same cause as our company – environmental preservation. By refinishing, re-upholstering and remanufacturing existing furniture assets, The Refinishing Touch has prevented approximately 2,250,000 pounds of wood from making its way into the nation’s landfill, since our inception in 1977. Recently, we completed an armoire conversion renovation at the Best Western Fort Walton Beach Hotel, in Florida, that produced zero landfill waste – an aspiration more hotels should strive towards.

Not only does our restoration work in the hospitality, government and higher education housing industries reduce a business’s carbon footprint, it also helps property managers save on budget costs. By avoiding the pricy need to buy brand new furniture, our furniture asset management services lower renovation budgets by nearly 90 percent.

To learn more about Massachusetts’ Pathway to Zero Waste, read the full article here. For more information on The Refinishing Touch’s cost-efficient, sustainable furniture asset management services, please visit our website or request a free quote today.

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March 15th, 2013 by TRT Blog

84 ski resorts in the Western United States were evaluated and ranked last month by the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition for its annual environmental report card, and it’s great to see so many well-known ski areas topping the list and continuing an ongoing commitment to sustainability.

In addition to information submitted by resorts, ranks were determined based on information compiled from various web sites and public documents pertaining to 35 criteria points across four categories, and evaluated based on ski areas’ environmental practices, including environmental policies and regulations, addressing climate change, habitat protection, and watershed protection.

However, here at The Refinishing Touch, we were surprised to find that a resort’s score was subject to a significant drop while undergoing expansions or renovations. As a company that specializes in sustainable furniture asset management solutions, we are well-versed in the workings of a successful environmentally-friendly development project. While everyone, from ski resorts to college campuses, must still pay careful attention to the land on which they choose to expand, they can begin to eradicate a move’s negative environmental impacts by implementing some of the countless sustainable options available today.

Through the utilization of The Refinishing Touch’s furniture refinishing services, our customers have been able to undergo major construction and renovation projects whilst simultaneously reducing their carbon emissions as much as 90%. Instead of buying new, organizations can refinish, refurbish, or reupholster existing furniture with non-toxic, low VOC lacquers – eliminating harmful landfill waste, carbon impact, and negative effects to surrounding air, trees, water and communities.

Although we were disappointed to see poor results from resorts such as the Arizona Snowbowl – that have reportedly begun making snow with 100% sewage effluent – the overall ski industry’s improvement in just a year’s time is encouraging. We hope these results will serve to inspire even more resorts in the years to come.

For more information on The Refinishing Touch and its services please visit the website at www.therefinishingtouch.com. For full ranking and results from the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition, please click here.

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December 28th, 2012 by TRT Blog

Recently, we’ve seen local, state and federal government bodies across the nation taking small steps to gradually become more sustainable, cost-effective facilities. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy goals that we’ve blogged about before is the Obama Administration’s push for federal government agencies to become completely paperless by the end of 2019.

As providers of environmentally-safe, cost-effective,  sustainable furniture asset management services, which have been implemented during renovations at various US courthouses, The White House, military bases, naval barracks and many other government edifices, we’ve seen the trend first-hand.

With this issue in mind, we took to our blog page to ask our readers, ‘What high-cost operation do you think the government could realistically and sustainably replace?’ Here’s what we found:

• The majority (40 percent) of readers agreed with the government’s long-term goal to go paperless, stating that printed paper documents can easily be replaced due to the rise in tablets, smartphones and other technology.
• Other options, such as eliminating the need to buy new furniture by up-cycling existing assets, replacing mercury bulbs with more efficient lighting, and reducing the use of personal transportation, were also popular choices among voters, with all three coming in at a close second place.

Here at The Refinishing Touch, we support any initiative that simultaneously preserves a business owner’s budget and the environment. Many local, state and federal governments are showing progress in both its short- and long-term environmental goals, and we are proud to be a part of its shift towards increased sustainability.

For more information on our renovation work completed in The White House and other government facilities, please click here. To contribute to our weekly polls, be sure to visit our blog page where a new question is posted every week.

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December 21st, 2012 by TRT Blog

Good green policies resonate in both the public and private sectors as making sense from both fiscal and ecological standpoints. As they should — we all have to share the planet and will ultimately benefit from sound environmental practices.

Green government purchasing programs have been found to positively impact not only taxpayers’ wallets, but also employee safety and environmental concerns. 

With this is mind, a September study from Harvard Business School shows government purchasing policies are going another step ahead: leading by example for the private sector, which is seeing accelerated green policies as a result. What works for municipal buildings certainly can work for companies and corporations. And many government-owned facilities double as not only a place where the people’s business gets done, but also as beacons of sound planning with conservation in mind.

There’s data to back this up. One of the study’s findings, detailed in the working paper by Timothy Simcoe and Michael W. Toffel, states, “Cities with green building policies targeting only municipal buildings had nearly twice as many private-sector green buildings by 2008 as did other cities of similar size, demographics, and environmental preferences.”

Here at The Refinishing Touch, we refinish and reupholster existing furniture assets at facilities like the White House and U.S Supreme Court in Washington, D.C; the U.S. Army’s Fort Benning in Benning, Ga; and Naval Air Station  in San Diego. Repurposing or refinishing of desks, cabinets and tables are done quickly, on-site, using sturdy, durable fabrics, with little disruption to clients in government or our other two sectors – hospitality and higher education.

We believe this trend of private sector following public sector when it comes to environmentally sound solutions – especially in building and renovating – is a value add for all concerned. If a public entity shows how green procurement is done, it sets a financial and environmental example for private companies to follow, strengthening efforts that ultimately benefit us all and put government in a true green leadership role.

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December 14th, 2012 by TRT Blog

The global community may disagree on issues ranging from economics to religion to politics — as evident in articles on virtually any international news site.

But when it comes to global warming and resulting heat waves, floods and drought? It’s a common concern — and it’s why nearly 200 nations just came together in Qatar in a U.N.-led effort to find solutions to slow the process, which is wreaking havoc in our world.

Despite attention to greenhouse gas emissions, the burning of fossil fuels and combustion of carbon-based fuels is a real threat. One study, according to Reuters, predicts a 2.6-percent rise in greenhouse gas emissions this year — and that’s despite a slowdown in the economy and production.

Earlier this month, the countries agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that limits the greenhouse gas output of some countries. However, the pact only covers about 15 percent of emissions worldwide.

The U.N. may be the only entity that can work to prevent global warming on a broader, international scale. But these exact environmental issues have long been behind what The Refinishing Touch factors into its mission: cost-efficient and visually-appealing alternatives to furniture. Our innovative process reduces impact on Mother Nature and our clients’ bottom line by using budget-friendly existing assets.

Clients such as hoteliers, colleges and universities, businesses and government agencies who opt for sustainable methods — transforming existing furniture into new, functional, attractive pieces — are part of the solution, not part of the problem. And reduce their costs, to boot.

The Refinishing Touch is proud to serve these smart, environmentally conscious clients. Our innovative approach to furniture refinishing, reupholstering and remanufacturing makes a difference: cutting carbon emissions by up to 90 percent and slashing project costs by an average of 80 percent, when compared with buying new furniture.

We are doing what we can here at home, and will continue to proudly serve clients looking outside the box to greener pastures.

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November 16th, 2012 by TRT Blog

“Sustainable practices navigate successfully through time and space, while others crack up and vanish.” – Bruce Sterling

Last week travel operators, hospitality organizations and professionals celebrated Responsible Tourism Day, an event introduced five years ago by the World Travel Market (WTM) Responsible Tourism Day and supported by UNWTO. Its vision includes several key elements: bring the travel and hospitality industries together to educate travelers on responsible behavior; explore how travel destinations can be more sustainable; and best practices to encourage the debate and drive change of key environmental-related issues.

One of the most interesting aspects of this event and movement is it provides different individuals and groups the opportunity to drive a range of positive messages, helping take the tourism and hospitality industry forward.  To show the breadth of these messages, each driven by an individual interpretation of ‘responsible’, here are a few items that caught our eye:

- An interesting post from Harold Goodwin, professor of Responsible Tourism Management at Leeds Metropolitan University and founding member of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism, created at the first World Responsible Tourism Day.  Professor Goodwin discusses how the responsible tourism movement has developed to cover all forms of tourism – including individuals with disabilities or limited financial means – and has worked to “escape the tiny ecotourism niche”.

- In a news story titled ‘Responsible Tourism Day: Ban plastic bags for a healthier environment’, Pakistan’s The Express Tribune, associated with the International Herald Tribune, wrote about high school students in the region who went around to local shops asking them to stop using plastic bags. The students also joined local government officials in a walk, holding placards which said: “Say No to Plastic Bags”.  According to The Tribune, 500 million plastic bags are used each year, and it takes between 60 to 100 million barrels of oil to make those bags. It’s estimated that it takes 10,000 years for a plastic bag to decompose.

- In a passionate blog post on The Travel Word, Ethan Gelber encourages individuals to get involved and take action, highlighting how sustainable, responsible practices are common across so many industries. Gelber notes that while there are still challenges, unsustainable practices are frequently being replaced in the travel industry.

As a team that has been encouraging, challenging and enabling sustainable practices across the hospitality, government and education sectors for the last 35 years, we couldn’t agree more with the sentiments of these articles and the mission behind Responsible Tourism Day. We hope that individuals and organizations alike will continue to embrace responsible, environmentally-friendly actions, and that sustainable education remains at the forefront of change.

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October 23rd, 2012 by TRT Blog

Here at The Refinishing Touch, every project we complete is important, but not all are of the same breadth and scope. While some projects take months to complete and encompass entire hotels, others focus on revitalizing everyday furniture pieces that, without refinishing and remanufacturing, would otherwise end up in landfills.

One such project was at the Sofitel Philadelphia – a four-star hotel in the middle of the historic city. The Refinishing Touch teams were brought in to refinish and re-upholster 42 of the hotel’s restaurant chairs and 34 of the restaurant tables, some of the most used furniture assets in the entire establishment. By refinishing and reupholstering existing furniture instead of buying new, the Sofitel Philadelphia saved approximately 80 percent on their originally projected budget and around 90 percent in carbon emissions.

The Sofitel Philadelphia is a luxury hotel in the downtown, French Quarter of Philadelphia, and is managed by the French hotel group, Accor. Accor has influence in over 90 countries and owns or operates over 4,400 hotels around the world. Sofitel is Accor’s top luxury brand and its Philadelphia site is described as a mix of French and American style, and regarded for its upscale accommodations, dining and overall environment. The Sofitel Philadelphia’s location is convenient for travelers, whether visiting for business or leisure, for its close proximity to the city’s primary convention center and most visited historical sites. To learn more about the Sofitel Philadelphia or to book a trip, visit their website here.

To learn more about The Refinishing Touch’s furniture asset management services, including refinishing, re-upholstery, remanufacturing, and armoire modification, visit our homepage or sign up for our insightful quarterly newsletter, InTouch. For a free quote or to inquire about starting a project at your organization, send us an email: sales@therefinishingtouch.com.

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October 5th, 2012 by TRT Blog

Earlier this week, Americans were glued to their television sets watching President Obama and his competitor, presidential candidate Mitt Romney, square off in the first series of this season’s presidential debate. Here at The Refinishing Touch, we kept our eyes peeled and ears open for any discussion of the environment and sustainability, two factors we keep at the forefront of our award-winning business.

The Refinishing Touch works closely with the government sector, implementing our furniture asset management services, such as refinishing, reupholstering and remanufacturing, at various local and state governments, as well as numerous federal agencies. Our team has completed on-site, environmentally-safe, sustainable projects at The White House, the General Services Administration, the US Superior Court and Army, Air Force, Marine and Navy barracks, among many others.

We also enjoy hearing the people’s opinions when it comes to government and environmental preservation, a topic we ask about frequently in our weekly blog polls. In August, we asked our readers what they thought the government sector is more driven by – environmental causes or cost reduction.

The results came pouring in, and the answers were synonymous. A surprising 100 percent of respondents agreed that the government administration and its efforts held a stronger focus on cost and budget management rather than sustainability. A sentiment The Refinishing Touch is working hard to shift to represent a more balanced outlook.

While this was only a reflection of our readers’ thoughts, it looks as if we will have to stay tuned to the remaining presidential debates and discussions to hear more about environmentally-conscious goals. To share your own thoughts with The Refinishing Touch team, be sure to participate in our blog polls every week.

For more results from some of our past survey questions, sign up for our free quarterly newsletter, InTouch – which is bound to be chalk full of the latest sustainability news in the government, hospitality and higher education sectors. To do so, please visit our homepage, and enter your contact details in the bottom right-hand corner.

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September 28th, 2012 by TRT Blog

As providers of on-site sustainable furniture asset management services, The Refinishing Touch is committed to reducing the carbon footprint of renovation projects around the world.

With this goal in mind, we had to share with our readers a new report from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research that analyzes how hotels can uniformly calculate the environmental impact of their carbon footprints. Surprisingly, the report reveals that less than 5 percent of hotels’ carbon footprints are generated from coolant and vehicle fuels.

The report is released in the midst of industry efforts to become more transparent to guests in regard to the carbon footprint of hospitality organizations. Many hotel managers are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that consumers are interested in sustainable hospitality options, a trend that has manifested in towel and bed linen reuse programs.

Hotels are also choosing to utilize furniture asset management services to renovate existing furniture through refinishing, reupholstering and remanufacturing, as opposed to purchasing brand new. The environmental benefits to choosing this alternative method include:

- Refinishing furniture saves an estimated 124.08 tons of carbon dioxide per property, when compared to buying new

- The carbon footprint caused by furniture asset management is .009% of the total of furniture manufacturing’s carbon emissions – a significant drop

- It takes 1,000 times more carbon dioxide to make a new piece of furniture versus refinishing it

If you’re interested in learning more about furniture asset management and ways to lower your business’s carbon footprint, visit The Refinishing Touch’s website at www.therefinishingtouch.com. While there, check out our carbon footprint calculator on the homepage to estimate your own environmental impact.

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