Funeral Cost / Green Burial

What is green burial?

Green, or natural, burial is an approach built around minimizing environmental impact, and it's been steadily growing as an option alongside conventional burial and cremation. Here's what the term actually means, and how it tends to affect cost.

What actually makes a burial "green"

A few things typically define it. There's no embalming with the chemical solutions used in conventional preparation, since those chemicals are specifically what a green approach avoids putting into the ground. The container is biodegradable — sometimes there's no casket at all, just a simple shroud, and sometimes it's a casket made from untreated wood, wicker, bamboo, or another natural material designed to break down, rather than metal or a heavily finished hardwood. There's typically no concrete burial vault or liner, which conventional cemeteries often require to keep the ground from settling but which a green burial specifically forgoes. And burial often takes place in a natural or conservation burial ground — land set aside and managed specifically for this purpose, rather than a conventionally landscaped cemetery lawn.

Why it tends to cost less

Green burial often — though not always — costs less than a conventional burial, and the reason is straightforward: it eliminates several line items rather than discounting them. No embalming means no embalming procedure or chemicals to pay for. A simple shroud or an untreated wood or wicker casket is typically less expensive than a traditional metal casket or a heavily finished hardwood one. No vault requirement removes another cost entirely. That said, "often less" isn't "always less" — a natural burial ground still sets its own plot and service pricing like any cemetery, and some higher-end natural-material caskets aren't inexpensive on their own.

Availability isn't the same everywhere

Not every cemetery accepts green burial, and where it is available, what counts as "green" or "natural" isn't applied uniformly. Some burial grounds are certified by independent conservation organizations with specific standards; others use the term without any outside certification at all. It's genuinely worth asking a specific provider what their green option actually includes — no embalming and no vault mean different things to different cemeteries, and it's better to know exactly what you're getting before you assume.

Where cremation fits in

Cremation is a separate path from green burial, not the same thing — it uses its own energy and isn't automatically the "greener" choice, though some people see it as a simpler, lower-impact option compared to a conventional embalmed burial with a vault. Some families combine the two ideas, choosing cremation and then a biodegradable urn for a natural burial of the cremated remains. There's no single right answer here — it comes down to what matters most to your family.