Casa Escondida provides environmentally friendly lodging, and we do our part to enhance the “green” aspect of your stay at an eco-friendly New Mexico inn:
- You will find energy saving, florescent, coil-type light bulbs in almost every light fixture (both inside and outside) at our bed & breakfast.
- We recycle! Bins are provided for the collection of cans, bottles, plastic, and paper. We not only recycle what we generate, we also encourage our guests to utilize our recycling bins as well.
- All of our guestrooms have individual thermostats that allow us to lower the setting, so that we are able to conserve energy in unoccupied rooms.
- We have invested in front-loading washing machines for our laundry facility. These units conserve an amazing amount energy, water, and soap in comparison to traditional top-loading washing machines.
- You will find water-saving, low-flow shower heads in the showers to help conserve one of our most valuable resources, our water.
- We have made a conscious decision NOT to use individual soaps, shampoos, and lotions in our guest rooms. The excessive packaging that is required for individual soaps and shampoos, etc. generates an unbelievable amount of trash and it is wasteful in terms of the amount of energy and raw materials that are required for the production of the individual items. We also have found that individual packaging of soaps and shampoos, etc. generates the unnecessary waste of the actual product. As a means of conserving all of the above, we use wall-mounted dispensers in our showers and at our bathroom sinks. We refill these dispensers with quality hand soap, lotion, shampoo, and body wash.
- We are in an area of the country that is defined as a “high-desert” area. This means that plants, animals, and people must all survive on an average rainfall of only 14 inches per year! We re-direct and/or harvest what little rainwater we get in such a way that it is utilized to water our trees and flowerbeds.
- All of our landscaping has been done with xeric (low water use) types plants as well as plants that are native to New Mexico. We have also selected plants that are food sources for the local wildlife (berry-eating birds, butterflies, hummingbirds, etc).
- We have installed a variety of species-specific birdhouses throughout the entire property. This provides suitable nesting boxes for the cavity-dwelling birds that nest and reproduce in this part of New Mexico.
- We also provide a variety of seed feeders and hummingbird feeders (when in season) as well as water sources for our local or commuting feathered friends.
We hope that you appreciate these aspects of our green bed and breakfast near Taos, NM!
