May 17th, 2011 by TRT Blog

Working with a variety of clients in different industries takes us to events around the country each year. Whether for hospitality, education or government, The Refinishing Touch seeks out the best opportunities for us to demonstrate the benefits of refinishing. We love any opportunity to get in front of our current and future clients!

This philosophy recently took us to San Diego for the GSA (General Services Administration) Training Conference and Expo. ‘Inspire, Innovate, Interact’ was the theme for this year’s show and with all three of those tenets being core fundamentals of our business, it made perfect sense for us to make the trip to San Diego to attend. The show started strong with the opening keynote coming from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Along with Lindsay from our fabulous marketing team, TRT’s president Mario Insenga was on hand during the show to take to the show floor and reconnect with our many friends in the government. The TRT team was thrilled to hear about this year’s training sessions, specifically designed to educated companies on how to sustainably work with the government.

Mario and Lindsay at the event

We were fortunate for the opportunities to connect with representatives from all sectors of the government – many stopping by with sincere interest in working with us. Mario and Lindsay had the opportunity to speak about the benefits of refinishing as opposed to replacement and the green methods we practice.

The GSA’s goal is to completely eliminate its environmental footprint, and through the continuous learning programs at the show (more than 200 hours worth!) and event initiatives such as printing its promotional materials and the program guide on recycled paper using soy based ink, the GSA is definitely making strides towards achieving its goal.

With new contacts at the federal, state and local level, as well as many within military, the show was certainly a success for The Refinishing Touch and we can’t wait to attend next year’s conference in San Antonio, TX!

Tune into our website here for more information on the other events you can find us at!

Events, Government, green, GSA

April 22nd, 2011 by TRT Blog

Earth Day 2011 has arrived! All month we’ve been highlighting ways that communities, businesses and people go above and beyond celebrating Earth Day. It’s great to think that Earth Day started in 1970 when members from all political backgrounds came together to make the world a greener place. Now, the Earth ‘season’ starts with the observation of Earth Hour just one month prior, and Earth Day has become a globally recognized (and supported) event.

Along with Earth Hour, other environmentally-driven events are popping up. Along with initiatives such as 2012’s ‘One Billion Acts of Green’ goal, an international tree planting drive led by director James Cameron and a push to increase online community members (now close to one million), Earth Day has become a worldwide movement. We’ve been stressing the importance of looking beyond Earth Day, and while there’s still work to be done, we can safely say that the green community is making tremendous strides toward this accomplishment.

Many green-efficient products are being made available at lower costs now than when they were first introduced – and without sacrificing quality! Items such as water efficient washers and dryers, energy efficient light bulbs and perhaps most importantly, electronic vehicles (EVs) are more prominent today than ever before. Really – check out all of the news!

With increased awareness, citizens have begun making smarter decisions with energy and are keeping ‘going green’ on their minds.

As with many of you, our work here at TRT continues beyond Earth Day. With the many projects and events that we’re taking part in, it is not only our hope to promote the message of saving green while going green, but also to educate others on the simple steps we can take to make the most of what we already have.  After all, it is often the smallest steps taken by many that have the most impact.

While The Refinishing Touch is only a small part of the bigger picture, we urge all of our readers to join us in thinking beyond Earth Day. We are proud of our work and our association with focused and determined groups and individuals who see the value in making a concerted effort to improve the world around us. It is our plan to continue bringing the knowledge and insight from those who we’ve crossed in our travels to this blog, and we’re excited to hear more from those of you involved in different green activities around the country.

Happy Earth Day, everyone.  Get out there and go green!

Earth Day, environment, green

March 11th, 2011 by TRT Blog

More and more schools are taking advantage of grants and extra funding to undergo green renewal and repair projects. It’s the pursuit of the ideal green school that everyone is after.  A school building or facility that creates a healthy environment that is conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money.

Schools that were not necessarily set up or built as green operations, or do not have the funding to build new are adapting their facilities through repair and revitalization programs which see areas such as roofing, boilers, windows and lights being given facelifts or even replaced for more energy efficient counterparts. A positive side effect of this work is that learning environments will be much improved for students and staff through the re-use, regeneration or replacement of existing fixtures and fittings – a theme very close to our hearts here at The Refinishing Touch.

In Washington and Massachusetts schools, work is already underway to upgrade to more sustainable and energy efficient methods. In California, planning is underway to spend over $100 million on upgrades and refurbishments for the Sacramento City Unified School District courtesy of the three-year green schools fellowship program of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Administrators are fast recognizing that the benefits of the work stretch much further than enhancing the green credentials of the school and the aesthetic surroundings.  Over time, greater energy-efficiency means running costs are lowered and money can be saved within the school budget and re-directed to other resources. In difficult economic times, these small to medium building and improvement projects are also providing a much needed boost to local construction industries.

Saving energy, resources and money is at the core of every one of our projects. It is reassuring to see schools adopt these initiatives not just for the long term financial benefit. Seeing our children learn in a more sustainable environment allows them to absorb these practices and apply them as more environmentally aware and enabled adults.

education, green, USGBC

March 8th, 2011 by TRT Blog

Many students assess a potential college based upon the content of the curriculum, the prestige or reputation of the school and the employability of graduates. The College Sustainability Report Card allows them to consider schools based on criteria that is quickly growing in importance.

This independent evaluation of campus endowment and sustainability activities (now in its fifth year), surveys and grades environmental sustainability efforts at 322 schools in the United States and Canada. In contrast to academic focus on sustainability in research and teaching, the report card examines colleges and universities, as institutions as a whole through nine main areas:

Administration

Climate Change & Energy

Food & Recycling

Green Building

Student Involvement

Transportation

Endowment Transparency

Investment Priorities

Shareholder Engagement

We’ve talked about how these schools have addressed sustainability through climate change and energy as well as administration practices. The rest of the report card sheds similarly bright light on sustainability matters equally important to prospective students and their families.

With the work we’ve done in universities around the country we were particularly interested in the findings associated with green building. Overall the grades weren’t as high as other categories but there was still plenty to be optimistic about. More than half the schools surveyed either had a LEED certified building on campus or are in the process of building one. While we’re hoping that number will grow in the coming years it was still promising to see that over three quarters of schools have adopted green building policies.

Much of the decision making process is handled at high levels within the university hierarchy. However student involvement is still crucial. To that end, nearly three-quarter of schools have received a grade of ‘B’ or higher for their student involvement practices. Over two in five schools had student representation on its board of trustees with close to the same amount providing green residences, described as: “A living space where students work to reduce their resource use and/or a dedicated green residence for eco-minded students is offered by 45 percent of the schools.”

This report is designed to identify colleges and universities that are leading by example on sustainability. The aim is to provide accessible information for schools to learn from each other’s experiences and establish more effective sustainability policies. An additional goal is to create a culture of green competitiveness between institutions in much the same way as the publication of academic results. This can only be good news. As schools strive to improve or maintain their report card grade, standards in sustainability will be raised across all participating colleges.

grading, green, Universities

February 18th, 2011 by TRT Blog

Recently, the Sustainable Endowments Institute released the College Sustainability Report Card for 2011. Its findings are a key barometer in assessing how universities in all levels across all fields are doing to maintain green practices.

The report evaluated 322 schools around the country and graded them based on administration, climate change and energy, green building, recycling and others. Overall, over half the schools finished with a grade of ‘B’ or better, with six percent earning a ’D’ grade, the lowest available. Obviously the eventual goal would be to have no school with lower than a ‘C’ grade, but for now reducing the amount of ‘D’s would be a good start.

Climate change and energy had 42% of the schools awarded with ‘A’ grades. However out of the five most important categories, it was the fourth lowest amount of the report’s highest grade. Fortunately in future years that number should increase as already two-thirds of schools have commitments in place to reduce carbon emissions, with 79% of schools identifying the sources and tonnage of carbon emission. This shows that while they may not have plans in place to reduce emissions just yet, schools are aware of the size of their carbon footprint and with awareness, action tends to follow.

In the administration category, over 80% of universities have an ‘A’ or ‘B’ grade meaning they scored high marks for having sustainability actions in place at the administration or trustee level. Signing agreements or partnerships in place locally, nationally or internationally scores high points in this category as does green purchasing policies. Furthermore, 95% of schools have a campus advisory committee on sustainability. These committees, which are made up of staff, faculty and students advise administration on sustainable practices the school should be aware of.

There is much good that is being done on campuses around the country based on this report, however at the same time there is much work that still needs to be done. We’ll continue looking at the report card and the good and not so good news that came out of it in a later blog posts.

grading, green, Sustainability, university

December 14th, 2010 by TRT Blog

While not likely to happen anytime soon, the debate on whether or not to invest in the reduction and reversal of climate change should be a short one. The bottom line and the harsh reality, is that our environment needs to be improved, or else we may not have much of a planet to live on soon. Unfortunately, there remains too much discussion about ‘how we’re going to get there’ and the need to change our ways, and not action being taken to actually make an impact that future generations can benefit from.

Businesses are slowing things down and have significantly impeded government progress on regulating pollution. Their argument usually comes down to solutions being ‘antiethical to their economic interests’, as this GreenBiz article points out. And while businesses certainly have to the right to express their opposition to the rules that our government looks to put into place, at some point they (and we as a people) need to recognize that the millions of dollars they are feeding into propaganda and misinformation to keep the status quo is only going to hurt us in the long run.

GreenBiz continued to point out some of the steps that countries across the globe are taking to put themselves ahead in the envrionmental race. Germany, for example, has been and continues to be a dominant force in alternative energies while China and it’s growing economical and political clout is investing over $750 billion dollars over the next decade to clean energy technology. These countries are aware that the leader in these forms of technology can and most likely will lead the global economy in the 21^st century.

Our president has been quoted saying as much, and it’s obvious he would prefer America to be the nation that leads. However, with the steps some companies and organizations are taking in the name of profit, we may be our own worst enemy and find ourselves playing catch up to others who found a way to put profitability second to positive change.

climate change, green, GreenBiz, Sustainability

November 9th, 2010 by TRT Blog

Despite the claim made by a Think Progress poll stating that 50% of incoming Republican congressmen deny that manmade climate change exists, many are aware that we’ve been responsible for the unfortunate state that our planet finds itself in – and many are doing what they can to reduce the damage that has already been done. Those doing their part range from individuals to some of the largest brand names in the world.

Companies have the (misguided) built in excuse of not getting a return on investment for turning down initiatives designed to change the operating status quo- especially when it comes to the environment. However as the public becomes aware of the steps needed to right the wrongs of generations past and present, those that don’t invest in change are finding out that their brand power isn’t what it once was.

Fortunately, many well known brands have learned that adjusting their practices can be beneficial to both their bottom lines, and the environment. On the heels of major announcements coming from Burger King and Nestle, General Mills has vowed to use 100% sustainable canola oil for their products which include Cheerios. H&M and Wal-Mart have vowed to better the processes used to produce textiles in its Chinese factories beginning with reducing the amount of hazardous dyes that have been known to be disposed of in rivers – (a staggering 200 tons of water are polluted with every ton of fabric produced). Meanwhile, companies like Kohl’s and Janssen (owned by Johnson & Johnson) are turning to solar power in an effort to get to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Many of these companies cite the need to improve the environment as the sole reason for these steps, and while we don’t doubt it is a large factor in their decision making process, there’s no question that consumer preference has played a major role in the end result. Especially with the volume of concerns heard from green shoppers across the world.

Regardless of reasoning and whether consumers are leading or merely influencing big business to change, we’re thrilled to see steps large and small being taken in the right direction for a cause that effects us all as citizens of this beautiful planet of ours.

climate change, Earth, environment, green, Sustainability, textiles

October 1st, 2010 by TRT Blog

This week marked the end of Climate Week NY°C 20 where hundreds of government representatives, non-government organizations and business leaders gathered in the Big Apple for meetings, events, lectures, and activities all centered around climate change.

One of the key aims of the event was to review how: ‘progressive policy and finance mechanisms can unlock a clean industrial revolution necessary to generate sustainable low carbon development, boost energy security, create jobs and end global poverty’.

While some opening ceremony events were by invitation only, there were a range of events open for general attendees. The Climate Group hosted the week with a range of activities and discussions about the importance of the week itself and the need for global awareness. Meanwhile on a topic very close to our hearts at The Refinishing Touch – trees – the Rainforest Alliance spent time explaining to younger audiences the importance of forests.  A range of other non-profit organizations held tutorials and activities throughout the week.

As well as the educational aspect, Climate Week was the base for a range of political meetings to discuss our environment’s future. The United Nations, worldwide organizations, non-profits, the Secretary General, and Mayor Bloomberg participated in high-level discussions at the event to raise awareness about the vital concern of climate change.

With the United Nations’ General Assembly meeting just two months away, many of this week’s events were a prelude – and set the table for the discussions that all 192 members of the United Nations and other world leaders will be taking part in. We hope the momentum continues for the UN meeting, and look forward to news on that agenda.

awareness, climate week, green, NYC

September 21st, 2010 by TRT Blog

Sierra magazine has named top 100 greenest schools in America. The ‘coolest school’,  which received 88.6 points out of a potential 100, is Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont.

Coming in at a close second was Dickinson College,  Pennsylvania, with 86.1 points, and rounding out the top three is Evergreen State College, Washington, with 85.9 points.

The ranking was conducted by questionnaire, with schools across the country asked to share details  of their green initiatives and sustainable efforts. Categories included efficiency; energy supply; food; academics; purchasing; transportation; waste management; administration; and financial investments.

Green Mountain College secured the top spot with the use of a creative power and heating source – cow power – with  biomass and biogas are as sustainable fuels on the campus. By next year, the school plans to be completely carbon-neutral. Other schools implemented practices such as incentives for alternative transportation, composting toilets, maintaining a high efficiency energy plant, even a sustainable-business curriculum.

Colleges and universities aren’t the only educational institutions going green. IC BUS, in Warrenville, Illinois, also held a competition to find out which school is ‘America’s Greenest School’. Students, teachers, classrooms, and entire schools, from kindergarten to twelfth grade, were eligible to enter the contest. Ten finalists were chosen, and then it was up to America to decide the winner with online voting. Nearly 1,600 students participated nationwide and it all came down to Ms. Roberts’ 3rd and 4th grade classes at South Shore Charter Public School in Norwell, MA. To view their entry, please visit the America’s Greenest School website.

Congratulations to all the winners, to the schools that contributed and each of the participants. Though of course with these types of initiatives, everyone wins – and so does the planet.

awareness, green, schools

September 17th, 2010 by TRT Blog

This week, the Hospitality Design Boutique Expo and Conference was held in Miami. Our president and founder Mario Insenga attended and was thrilled to experience not only the locale, but the rich environment and the creative energy that designers in the field brought to the show.

Attending the conference was important to see where design in the industry is headed. Creativity breeds profitability and staying in tune with other trendsetters in our industry only makes sense. And while it’s mostly business at shows such as this, with so many unique and creative minds centered in one place, it was inevitable that attendees would get even more than anticipated. Mario reported back feeling refreshed after experiencing the volume and rush of new ideas, but especially from speaking with peers within our industry — especially the up and coming talent in attendance that were spotlighted throughout the event.

All of this was in addition to a noticeable increased green awareness overall amongst attendees. Sustainability for the industry is more important now than ever. If there’s any message that we can speak to more, it’s that sustainability can help cut costs while the hospitality industry as a whole rebuilds. Good green business just makes good plain sense – and it does so while showing that we are doing our part for the environment. The event provided LEED certification training, and much of the talent that was at the show attended those sessions – all great stuff, no matter how you spin it.

We pride ourselves on keeping the aesthetic standard of a living environment as high as possible, and we have no doubt that with what Mario learned and saw at HD Boutique this year, we’ll be finding new and exciting ways to offer smart, sustainable and innovative solutions far into the future.

design, green, HD Boutique, hospitality, LEED, Sustainability