Sustainability

• Eliminating single use items = less waste to landfill! Just say no to...
• Mini toiletries: We installed refillable/locking toiletry dispensers in each bathroom!
• Plastic water bottles: We provide a water carafe to use during your stay, and a filtered water cooler in the dining room where you can top off your reusable water bottles. We're lucky to have delicious tap water here too. 
• Disposable cutlery: we have a mishmash of vintage silverware
• Straws (we don't have 'em, but at home we like reusable options!)
• Disposable napkins: you'll love our adorable printed cloth napkins. 
• Disposable plastic cups: mix & match glassware in every room, and a washable plastic option for the hot tub. 
• Styrofoam ‘Hot Cups’: we found a compostable version so you can take your nice hot drinks to go, without the landfill guilt. 

We also work to reduce our demand for ENERGY and WATER. During our 2022 renovation, we:

- Installed water efficient showers and faucets in all bathrooms. 

- Installed water efficient toilets in most bathrooms (with the remaining ones scheduled for replacement soon)

- Replaced lighting and bulbs with high efficiency LED alternatives. 

- Installed window coverings to help moderate the house temperature during extreme heat/cold. 

- Added ceiling fans to help improve efficiencies of our  heating/cooling systems. 

- Redesigned the garden and landscaping to feature low water, native and companion plants in all garden beds and borders. 

- Rerouted downspouts to drain into gardens instead of onto pavement (win/win!)

- Installed drip irrigation with customized watering zones for full sun vs shaded areas

- Applied water conserving mulch to all planted areas (it also helps prevent weeds!)

Nearly 75% of the furnishings at Flora House have been salvaged, thrifted or restored, refinished, or repaired. We love the extra patina and character that age brings, so it's a Win/Win!

Many of our dishes and glassware were recovered from dusty boxes we found in the basement during renovation, or were thrifted from local vintage shops.  

Hot Tub water glasses: We selected reusable cups for guests to take to the garden. It's worth the minimal effort of washing and reusing these instead of using disposable plastic cups! 

Mixed Recycling bins can be found in every guest room plus the dining, lounge and garden. Please be sure to select these instead of the trash can for your glass, aluminum, paper and plastic items while you’re here! 

Happy Beetle is our solution for items that aren’t accepted by the regular Denver recycling service (we’re looking at you, plastic film & plastic bags!). For less than $200/year, our Happy Beetle membership allows us to re-route lots of items from landfill. For example: plastic film/bags, batteries, lightbulbs, chords & small electronics, paint and much more. Here’s a link for $5 off, if you’d like to give it a try. If Happy Beetle is not available where you live, there’s another similar service called Ridwell that may be!

Composting: It’s great for our garden, it’s great for our earth. And it results in a huge reduction to our garbage!  All of our fruit & veg peels and trimmings go straight into compost, along with coffee grinds, egg shells, even the contents of our bagless vacuum when it's full! If you have access to a commercial composting service you can even include prepared foods and dairy, just check local guidelines for your area. Composting is simple and can be done just about anywhere, without any fancy equipment needed. Curious about how to try at home? Just ask and we’re happy to share what we know. (Our kids love to “feed the worms”, and our gardens can’t get enough of the incredible ‘black gold’ that we create when it's finished. 

Give it a try and you just might find that between recycling (plastic/aluminum/cardboard plus plastic films) and composting (most fruit/vegetable and food scraps), your household may generate less than one bag per week of garbage destined for landfill!  Are you up for the challenge?  It can be a pretty fun game…

We’ve been careful to select products we’re happy to recommend to our guests, and use at home too!   

Copper Door: Locally roasted, female owned and sustainably powered at both locations (solar and wind!). This local roastery only prepares 

Zogics Organics toiletries: Not only are they plant based and Non-GMO, we find the aromas pleasantly soothing and mild.. We even switched over to these for use in our own home! 

• Refillable/Locking toiletry caddies container Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash can be found in each shower. We also provide refillable dispensers for Hand Soap and Body Lotion on each vanity.