Some people carry their principles to the grave. And for some baby boomers, that means planning for their funerals, or their parents' funerals, in an eco-friendly way.

Shedden Farley's mother, Linda, was passionate about a lot of causes, including the environment. When she died in 2009 at the age of 80, the family knew they wanted a natural burial that would have a minimal ecological impact, says Farley, a general contractor in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Many traditional cultures practice natural burials that don't interfere with the organic process of decomposition. In today's America, however, it is more common to place an embalmed body in a wood or metal casket, and inter it in a concrete vault. Cemeteries are often flat, with landscaped lawns and rows of headstones.


"Not only did we dig the grave, but we put her in the grave, and we filled the grave -- and it was an amazingly cathartic thing to do," says Sheddon Farley, one of Linda's five sons. "It was a way of being intimate with our mother right up until we would never see her again."

The experience spurred his father, Gene, to suggest that the family set aside 25 acres, which has become the Natural Path Sanctuary, a nature preserve and burial ground, near Madison, Wisconsin.


The environmental burial movement is mostly a recent phenomenon. Ramsey Creek preserve opened as the country's first "green" cemetery in Westminster, South Carolina, in 1998. It was seven years later that the Green Burial Council, an Ojai-based advocacy group, formed.

Today there are more than 40 certified green cemeteries in North America, according to Joe Sehee, the council's founder. "When baby boomers start to die, I think you'll see a lot more of it. They have a keen interest in environmentalism," says Sehee, 53, who lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Practices for green burials vary. Some families dig their own graves, while others have that done for them. Some cemeteries allow only shrouds, while others permit an unfinished coffin built of sustainable wood.

Cremation is accepted at some cemeteries but not all, because of the fossil fuel burned and the pollutants that may be released from dental fillings and artificial joints.








    About 50 others have made prearrangements, which involved a $2,500 donation to the nonprofit Linda & Gene Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability, and paying $1,000 for burial rights, says Kevin Corrado, who runs the sanctuary's burial program. The fee doesn't include funeral home costs, although in Wisconsin, a family member may act as funeral director.

    Still, it's a deal compared to conventional burials. The national median cost of a funeral was more than $7,000 in 2012, plus an additional $1,300 for a vault, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. That's in addition to the cost of burial rights, which are typically more than $4,000, according to eFuneral.



    At Natural Path, visitors walk along paths covered in wood chips. "You walk through there, and you may notice the two freshest (graves) that are maybe a couple of weeks old. Otherwise, you have no idea" it's a cemetery, says Farley.

    And when he dies?

    He wants a natural burial, he says, "if anybody loves me enough to go through that effort. It's a really powerful feeling, and that's the biggest plus," he adds. "Not the environment, not anything else -- it's the absolute personal touch."