The Refinishing Touch blog poll: How big is your footprint?

132 million tons: the amount of landfill waste the majority of you think Americans generate per year.
250 million tons: the actual amount of landfill waste produced by Americans, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The disparity between what we perceive as our impact on the environment, and what our impact actually is more than 100 million tons. That’s huge, and it’s one of the reasons we enjoy working with the higher education industry. Knowledge is the key to progress, because after all – without knowing the consequences of our actions, how can we improve?

Inspired by this, we utilized our weekly blog poll to learn a little bit more about your views on sustainability. First and foremost – how much value do you place on your own, personal carbon footprint? Only a single reader flagged the topic as extremely important to them, and on the other side of the spectrum, only a single reader stated that they ‘don’t care’.

An encouraging 71% have the topic on their radar stating that the personal impacts on the environment are ‘somewhat important’ to them. With such a large bulk of our reader’s expressing interest in day-to-day sustainability, we were curious to know how many have acted on it.

So, our next question implored: ‘Have you ever paid to offset your carbon footprint?’ The responses came back unanimous – the answer is no. While corporate initiatives are exceedingly impactful, personal efforts help largely in paving the way to a greener good.

As The Refinishing Touch crew analyzed these responses, we couldn’t help but wonder why. As providers of sustainable furniture asset management services to a variety of industries, we have seen first-hand the misconception of ‘green costs more’ play a deciding role in whether to launch green initiatives. Was this the same idea holding you back?

33% of those polled agreed with the popular misconception that eco-friendly, sustainable products, services and activities cost more money. This is far from the truth. At The Refinishing Touch, we spend our weeks refinishing, re-upholstering and re-manufacturing furniture with our eco-friendly, low-VOC lacquers, eliminating landfill waste. By doing so, the colleges, hotels and government edifices who work with us save up to 80% on costs.

Would you like to see a question of yours in our weekly poll? Tweet us @RefinishTouch and let us know. If you’d like to learn more about sustainable furniture asset management, please visit our website here.