I stayed at a 4-star hotel in Colorado known for luxury and was surprised to discover a focus on sustainability, too

Walking inside, I noticed tan marble covering the entrance's walls and ceilings, and large windows enticed visitors with a view of the hotel's lawn.

To my right was the reception desk and the spa. To my left was the hotel's bar and restaurant.

I was there to spend a night in the hotel's king suite — Insider received a media rate for the room. The hotel has 201 rooms, which start at $409 a night.  

Before checking into my mountain-view suite, Coburn took me on a tour of the property.

We headed straight toward Jill's Restaurant and Bistro, the property's on-site eatery. Here, Coburn pointed to a menu with a handful of vegetarian and vegan meals, including a vegetarian pesto Caesar salad, wild-mushroom orecchiette, and wood-stone pizza.

"There's a heavy focus on vegan influence," Coburn said of the menu. As Insider has previously reported, vegetarian and vegan meals typically have a lower carbon footprint than meat-focused entrées. 

Beyond the menu's staple vegetarian meals, Coburn shared that the hotel has a vegan buffet on the first Friday of every month. In the summer, the hotel hosts harvest meals on the property's lawn, where chefs incorporate ingredients from the hotel's garden.

The restaurant also composts its food waste. The hotel partners with Eco-Cycle, a Boulder organization that offers zero-waste services and facilities, Coburn said. The organization picks up the hotel's food waste and turns it into compost, which helps reduce harmful methane emissions.

After our tour, I sat on the hotel's terrace for dinner: mushroom orecchiette, fig pizza, and yakisoba noodles. Each dish was fresh, flavorful, and filling. 

After stopping at the restaurant, Coburn and I headed to the small garden tucked behind the hotel's spa. I was visiting at the end of the season, so all that was left to harvest were tomatoes and herbs such as basil, chives, lavender, and mint.

During the summer, Coburn said the garden is bursting with life. This year, the gardeners grew cucumbers, squash, zucchini, peaches, and jalapeños for the chefs to harvest.

Coburn said these fruits and vegetables are used for the vegan buffet and summertime-harvest meals. If one of these events isn't on the horizon, Coburn said chefs will use the vegetables to supplement dishes such as the yakisoba-noodle salad, a salad filled with cucumbers, carrots, ginger, and scallions.

In the corner of the garden were baby-blue, pastel-yellow, and orange bee boxes. The hotel expects to harvest 200 pounds of honey this year, Coburn said. The bees help pollinate crops and plants around Boulder, which, in turn, improves the region's biodiversity. 

Plus, some of the harvested honey ends up in the hotel's cocktails and dishes, Coburn said.

After the tour, I headed to the hotel spa for a body scrub that uses organic and sustainably sourced products, according to the hotel's website. Insider received a media rate for the $165 service.

The spa is home to saunas, steam showers, and 13 treatment rooms offering everything from facials to massages. As of October 2023, the services range between about $90 and $570.

In the spa, I slipped on a plush robe, and a masseuse walked me to my treatment room.

The room had a warm, pinkish glow. In the middle of the tiled room, a heated massage table was covered in layers of plush towels, sheets, and blankets. 

Faint music played in the background, and the provider walked me through what the next 50 minutes would look like.

My body was then exfoliated with a coarse sea-salt scrub. This was followed by a hot shower and a massage using a body oil by Natura Bissé, a family-owned skincare company that says it prioritizes ingredients that have a minimal environmental impact. 

I left the room smelling like mint and eucalyptus, and my skin was the softest it'd been in months. 

After the scrub, I had access to a sauna, a steam shower, a hot tub, and a pool, though I was advised to let the body oil soak into my skin first. 

A series of winding hallways led to my door on the third floor.

I stepped inside and discovered a spacious suite with a living-room area, a four-poster king-sized bed with plenty of pillows, and a luxurious bathroom.

The living room ushered in tons of natural light between four windows and a sliding-glass door. Photographs from nearby Colorado attractions covered the walls, and a large flat-screen TV sat opposite the couch.

An earthy color palette made the room feel warm and inviting, and later in the night, I was pleasantly surprised to discover there was turndown service, which included my bedding untucked, curtains closed, and slippers laid out on the floor. 

The best part of the room was easily the view. From the bed, I could watch the sunrise, and the living room had a balcony that got me even closer to the mountains. 

In my room, I spotted beers from a local brewery stocked in the minibar.

There was also a plush prairie dog waiting for me. Coburn said the St Julien Hotel & Spa partners with the Prairie Dog Coalition. It sells the stuffed animals, and the proceeds go to the coalition, which aims to restore the threatened and endangered species' habitats.

In my bathroom, I was surprised to find single-use products. Little plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash sat in the shower. Nearby, bars of soap were there for my hands, face, and body. 

Coburn explained that any partially used shampoos, conditioners, and body washes are donated to a local homeless center. The bars of soap, on the other hand, are sent to Clean the World, which recycles soap and donates it to nonprofits in need of bath and hygiene products. 

Experts have previously told me that efforts to be sustainable go beyond reusable water bottles and LED light bulbs.

Hotels and tourism operators can give back by working with local communities and businesses, and Coburn shared multiple ways that St Julien does just that.

Tucked in hallways and scattered across the restaurant is art from Colorado artists. In one hallway near a handful of meeting spaces, Cyndy Hinkelman-Smith's painting of aspen trees was displayed on the wall.

In the hotel's T-Zero Lounge, the on-site bar's popular espresso martinis are made with local ingredients.

When Coburn first started working at the St Julien a couple of years ago, he said the martinis were made with Starbucks espresso. Today, the hotel has swapped Starbucks for Ozo Coffee Company, a local roaster that says it sources ethically and sustainably grown coffee. 

"We try to have as many local partnerships and operations as possible," Coburn said. 

Coburn said that the St Julien still has work to do. One of the hardest things to miss from an environmental standpoint was plastic water bottles, which I saw scattered across the spa and in my hotel suite.

Coburn said that the hotel's goal is to swap plastic bottles for aluminum by the end of the year. Aluminum, unlike plastic, can be recycled indefinitely. The hotel also offers water-refill stations since using a refillable water bottle is the most sustainable option. 

When considering the future, Coburn said one way the hotel plans to keep a focus on sustainability is through its green team. Ranging from a dishwasher to general managers, the team is made up of St Julien staff, who meet once a month to discuss the hotel's sustainable goals and how to achieve them. The hotel's sustainability coordinator, Julia Martinez, leads the team. 

"We want to become more sustainable," Coburn said. "That's our goal."

As I wrapped up my overnight stay at the hotel, I felt rested, relaxed, and relieved that I had picked a hotel with practices that kept the environment and the local community in mind.