Green and zen in Briar Rose Bed & Breakfast
COLORADO - If there’s one city in the United States that’s ahead of everyone else in terms of sustainability it’s Boulder, Colorado. Situated in the midst of mountains and forests and home to Colorado University, the city lives and breathes sustainability. Briar Rose Bed & Breakfast is on one of the main roads in Boulder, Arapahoe Avenue. From the outside Briar Rose seems like any ordinary (albeit beautiful) Boulder house, but inside it’s far from that.
At first glance, Briar Rose’s rooms appear nice enough, clean but not exactly green. There are clearly things that could be done better; the windows aren’t double-glazed, there’s no water saving toilet and only a few of the bulbs are energy saving. But as the Briar Rose website already says: becoming green is an evolving process…
There are organic towels and sheets (from Coyuchi), as well as organic tissues (7th Generation), shampoo (Shikai), Soap (Kiss my Face) and body lotion in big bottles - 12 oz. bottles which are refillable, instead of the normally used 1.5 oz. bottles. And, not unimportant, they serve unlimited organic tea and homemade cookies! Yay! Visitors to the hotel can even take part in free meditation classes led by Zen monks. Apparently being green and spiritually aware go hand in hand here.
A long and impressive list of less visible things that make the hotel earn its eco credentials is to be found here. But for more background, I decided to talk to the hotel’s owner - Gary Hardin:
When did you start this hotel and why?
The Briar Rose has been in business for 29 years. We bought it in 2004 with the intention of building a Zen center coupled with an appropriate business to support it. The Boulder Zen Center, which I’ve been running (along with others) for about 10 years, has been around for 31 years now, but did not have a home until 5 years ago when we bought the Rose. For four years we held our meditation practice in a small, unused bedroom upstairs.
How did you become more environmentally friendly?
Given that we bought the business as a Zen group, it felt a natural fit to try to make the inn as green as we could. I say this because a central principle to Zen is to be mindful. Living mindfully entails an awareness of one’s surroundings, and of our connectedness to all being. For me personally, as well as others in our group, it is a key component.
To what extent - in your opinion - is there a growing awareness and an increasing demand for eco-friendly hotels?
At first we were a little nervous about how offering organic food, using green cleaners, and the like would be perceived. We knew it would be well received in Boulder, where we are, but we weren’t sure how the wider population, which makes up our clientèle, would feel about it. We knew we were going to be green regardless, but we wondered if we would turn off more conservative folk. To our pleasure, it has been a major selling point of our property. Many people have told me they chose to stay with us because we serve organic food. It now seems to me there is far more demand for eco-friendly hotels than has been realized in the marketplace. Really, why wouldn’t people prefer to stay in a place that uses environmentally-friendly cleaners, which smell much better than conventional products, where they can sleep on organic cotton sheets, where the food is organic, where there are not little bars of soap you know will be thrown out, wasting most of it, after you leave, etc. Being green creates a more comfortable and wholesome environment, and guests respond very positively to that even when they don’t really realize that’s what is going on.
What for you is the most exciting about living in / around Boulder?
The draw to Boulder was, for me, the natural environment. I love hiking and running on trails, and it is so wonderful to have easy access to nature every day. It’s also wonderful that Boulder is a liberal and open-minded community. It feels great to live in one of the most environmentally conscious cities in the U.S., at least. It is so easy to bicycle around Boulder, with all of its dedicated bicycle paths and lanes, our entire staff commutes to work by bicycle most days. One of our biggest challenges is adequate bicycle parking!
To what extent does Boulder (or the greater area) function as a catalyst for a ‘green’ America?
I think Boulder sets a very strong example. You can see some of the ideas that are central to Boulder spreading to other cities, though not to the extent I would hope for. Other cities have become more aware of preserving open space, and have become more aware of bicycles as a means of transportation, for example.
What practical measures did you take to become environmental friendly?
Right away, we started serving organic food, using environmentally-friendly cleaners, recycling cans, bottles, plastic, batteries and paper, and composting our food waste. Soon, we replaced a roughly 50% efficient old furnace with a 95% efficient furnace. We replaced the electric range with gas. We have replaced electric baseboard heating and inefficient air-conditioning in various parts of the house with heat-pumps. We have added lots of insulation. We use environmentally-friendly paint. We all get to work by bicycle most of the time, and we do most of our grocery shopping by bicycle as well. We use organic cotton sheets. We stopped using little throw-away bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, and bars of soap with larger, refillable bottles in which we put environmentally-friendly products. We plant xeric species in the yard to conserve water, and installed drip hoses in many parts of the yard. We use compact-fluorescent light bulbs. We use a high-efficiency front-loading washer to wash towels and bedding, and use environmentally-friendly soaps. The toilet and facial tissue we use is recycled, and we use recycled paper for our computers. We provide filtered water in elegant refillable bottles in the rooms rather than mineral water in plastic bottles. Since we started doing this, we find far fewer plastic water bottles left by guests, so we are effectively encouraging the guests not to buy them. We send as little as possible to the landfill by donating usable items (e.g., furniture, dishes, linens) to community recycling programs or the homeless shelter.
The last question (the question of all questions): What would be your ideal Strawberry Earth?
For sure, there would be fewer humans, concern for the environment and for each other and all life would be primary, and mankind would strive for awareness rather than success.
