Your loved one cared about the natural world. Maybe it was something they said outright — that they wanted to return to the earth as directly as possible, without chemicals or concrete, without anything that would slow what nature was always going to do. Or maybe you simply knew it about them, the way you know someone's deepest values: they hiked every weekend, or they gardened everything from seed, or they spent their whole career working on land conservation. The way they lived told you what they'd want at the end of it.
Or perhaps you're doing this for yourself. Planning ahead, thinking clearly, wanting your own end of life to reflect the same values you've tried to live by — including your relationship to the natural world.
Green burial — also called natural burial — is the oldest form of human burial. It requires no embalming, no concrete vault, no materials that don't decompose. It allows the body to return to the soil in the most direct, ecologically sound way possible. And the modern green burial movement, led by organizations like the Green Burial Council, has built a growing infrastructure of certified cemeteries, conservation grounds, and supportive state laws across the country to make it practically accessible to families everywhere.
This guide builds on our broader overview of eco-friendly burial options by providing a practical state-level directory and legal overview — so you can move from understanding what green burial is to knowing where and how to pursue it where you live.
What Makes a Burial "Green"?
The Core Principles
Green burial, in practice, means choosing methods that allow the body to decompose naturally and return to the soil without interfering materials or processes. The core elements:
- No embalming with formaldehyde-based chemicals (or only green-certified, biodegradable alternatives for brief preservation needs)
- No concrete burial vault or grave liner — these are required at many conventional cemeteries to prevent ground subsidence under lawn maintenance equipment, but they slow decomposition significantly
- Biodegradable caskets or shrouds — wicker, bamboo, pine, cardboard, cotton, or wool, all of which break down as part of the natural process
- Burial depth that supports decomposition — typically shallower than conventional burial (18–24 inches is common at natural burial grounds), which puts the body in contact with the microbial-rich layer of soil where natural breakdown occurs most efficiently
The goal is to allow the body to participate in natural cycles — returning carbon and nutrients to the soil, becoming part of the living landscape rather than preserved against it. For many families, this isn't just a practical choice; it's a profound statement about how the person understood their place in the world.
Understanding this option in the context of broader burial decisions is useful before you finalize plans. Our cremation vs. burial guide covers the full range of choices side by side, including ecological impact, cost, and emotional considerations.
Levels of Green Burial — The Green Burial Council's Three Tiers
The Green Burial Council (GBC) is the primary certification body for green burial in the United States. They certify cemeteries at three levels, each representing a progressively higher standard of ecological commitment:
- Hybrid cemeteries: Licensed cemeteries that allow green burial in a designated section alongside conventional burial. They may have some infrastructure (roads, lawn maintenance) that wouldn't be present in a dedicated natural burial ground, but they allow the core green burial practices (no vault, no chemical embalming, biodegradable casket or shroud).
- Natural burial grounds: Dedicated entirely to natural burial. No conventional graves, no concrete vaults, no chemical embalming required. The land is managed to support ecological health rather than the manicured lawn aesthetic of a conventional cemetery.
- Conservation burial grounds: The most ecologically rigorous certification. Burial is integrated with active land conservation — the burial ground is typically protected by a permanent conservation easement, and a portion of burial fees directly funds the preservation and management of the land as a nature preserve. This is green burial in its fullest expression: the act of burial itself becomes an act of environmental stewardship.
Federal vs. State Law — Who Regulates Green Burial?
Burial law in the United States is almost entirely governed at the state level. The federal government has very limited jurisdiction over burial practices — the FTC's Funeral Rule applies nationally, requiring funeral homes to provide itemized price lists and allowing consumers to purchase only the services they want, but it doesn't address burial method or location.
What this means in practice: whether you can bury on private property, whether embalming is required under any circumstances, whether a funeral director must be involved in every death — all of these are questions with different answers in different states. Some states are highly permissive, allowing home burial with minimal restriction and requiring no funeral director involvement for families who want to handle everything themselves. Others require licensed funeral director involvement for any death care. A few have recently enacted statutes specifically designed to facilitate or clarify green burial.
The range of regulatory environments is wide enough that your state's specific rules matter a great deal — which is why the state-by-state overview below is the heart of this guide.
A State-by-State Overview of Green Burial Access
States with the Most Robust Green Burial Infrastructure
Based on Green Burial Council data, certain states have developed both the most GBC-certified burial grounds and the most supportive regulatory environments for natural burial. If you're in one of these states, you have the most options and the most clarity.
California has one of the largest concentrations of GBC-certified natural burial grounds in the country, spanning its length — from Northern California conservation burial grounds to Southern California hybrid cemeteries associated with established memorial parks. California law allows families to transport the body themselves (with proper permits), does not require embalming under most circumstances, and does not require the use of a burial vault in a licensed cemetery unless the cemetery's own rules require it. The state's size and environmental culture have made it a center of the green burial movement.
North Carolina has emerged as a national leader in conservation burial, home to Ramsey Creek Preserve (in neighboring South Carolina, just over the border, but closely associated with NC's green burial community) and Prairie Creek Woods — one of the most-referenced conservation burial grounds in the country. NC's regulatory environment is supportive of natural burial, and the state has a number of both hybrid and dedicated natural burial grounds.
Oregon has some of the most progressive burial law in the nation. It permits home burial, does not require embalming except in specific circumstances (long-distance transport across state lines, for example), and was an early state to legalize natural organic reduction (sometimes called "human composting"). The state has multiple GBC-certified grounds and a strong green burial culture, particularly in the Portland area and the Willamette Valley.
Washington state shares Oregon's progressive approach — and was the first state to legalize natural organic reduction as a legal disposition option (in 2019). Washington has multiple certified natural burial grounds and a strong network of death doulas and funeral professionals trained in green burial facilitation.
Vermont is notable for being one of the states most permissive of home burial. Vermonters have the right to bury on their own property with minimal state requirements, and the state has a tradition of family-directed death care that aligns naturally with the green burial movement. It also has several GBC-certified grounds.
New York has a growing number of GBC-certified hybrid cemeteries and natural burial grounds, particularly in the Hudson Valley and the Finger Lakes region. New York City families have limited options within the metro area itself but can access certified grounds within a few hours' drive. State law allows green burial but does not explicitly require cemeteries to offer it, meaning the availability depends on individual cemetery policies.
Colorado has several certified grounds and a growing interest in green burial that reflects the state's broader outdoor and environmental culture. Colorado also permits home burial on private property with proper permitting.
Home Burial — Which States Allow It
Home burial — interment on private residential or rural property rather than in a licensed cemetery — is legal in a majority of U.S. states, though the conditions and requirements vary significantly.
States where home burial is clearly permitted with minimal restriction include:
- Texas: Generally permissive for home burial on private land, with requirements for a death certificate and filing with the local registrar. Some counties have more specific rules.
- Indiana: Allows home burial on private property; family members may transport the body without a funeral director.
- Virginia: Permits home burial on private land with appropriate permits and setback requirements from water sources and neighboring properties.
- Vermont: As noted above, one of the most permissive states for home burial and family-directed death care.
- Washington: Allows home burial with appropriate permits.
- Montana, Wyoming, Idaho: Rural western states with generally permissive attitudes toward home burial on private land.
- Maine, New Hampshire: New England states with traditions of home burial that predate formal cemetery infrastructure.
States where home burial is more restricted or effectively prohibited include California (which requires burial in a licensed cemetery), Illinois, and several Midwestern states that require funeral director involvement in the burial process. In some states, the answer depends heavily on county-level regulations rather than state law — making a direct call to the county health department essential before making any plans.
Requirements that nearly always apply to home burial, even in permissive states:
- A death certificate must be filed with the state vital records office
- A burial permit must be obtained from the local registrar (the funeral home typically handles this, but some states allow families to do it themselves)
- The burial site must be set back from water sources, wells, and property lines (distances vary by state — typically 50 to 150 feet from water)
- The burial location should be noted in the property deed or on a recorded plat to protect future property owners and family members who may want to locate the grave later
If you're planning ahead for your own burial, documenting your wishes for home burial in a letter of instruction is essential — and sharing it with the people who will need to act on it. A will may not be read until after burial decisions are made.
States Where Green Burial Is More Challenging
In some states, the regulatory environment creates meaningful hurdles for green burial — not prohibiting it, but making it more difficult to navigate without professional help.
Louisiana requires burial in a licensed cemetery, making home burial illegal and limiting green options to whatever is available within licensed facilities. The state also has embalming requirements that are broader than most. Green burial is possible at hybrid cemeteries, but the options are more limited.
New Jersey requires a licensed funeral director to be involved in virtually all death care and has cemetery regulations that make it difficult to establish new natural burial grounds. Several hybrid cemeteries offer green options, but the dedicated natural burial ground landscape is sparse.
Michigan has been expanding its green burial options but still has relatively few GBC-certified facilities and a regulatory framework that has been slower to explicitly accommodate natural burial practices.
"More challenging" does not mean impossible. A funeral director with green burial experience, or a hybrid cemetery willing to facilitate natural burial within their existing license, can usually find a path in any state. The Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA) maintains state-by-state guides to burial rights and is an excellent resource for navigating specific state regulations: funerals.org.
Conservation Burial Grounds — A Closer Look
Conservation burial represents the most ecologically integrated form of green burial available — where the act of burial itself becomes part of an active land conservation effort. Conservation burial grounds are protected by permanent conservation easements, meaning the land cannot be developed regardless of who owns it in the future. A portion of burial fees directly funds the ongoing management and preservation of the land as a nature preserve.
The pioneering site in the United States is Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, South Carolina, established in 1996 by physician Billy Campbell. It was the first conservation burial ground in the country and remains a landmark of the movement. Graves are unmarked or marked with native stones; the land is managed as a functioning preserve open to family visitation. The experience of burying someone at Ramsey Creek, by all accounts, feels profoundly different from a conventional burial — and many families describe it as a gift rather than only a loss.
Prairie Creek Woods in Pittsboro, North Carolina, is one of the most-referenced conservation burial grounds in the Southeast — a dedicated natural burial ground protecting over 100 acres of piedmont woodland. It is GBC-certified at the conservation level and is widely considered one of the most thoughtfully managed conservation burial grounds in the country.
Additional conservation burial grounds are listed in the GBC's online directory at greenburialcouncil.org — the most current and comprehensive resource for finding certified sites near you. The Conservation Burial Alliance (conservationburialalliance.org) also provides data on how many acres have been permanently protected through burial at conservation grounds nationwide.
Aquamation / Alkaline Hydrolysis by State
For families whose loved one preferred cremation but still wanted a low-environmental-impact option, aquamation (also called alkaline hydrolysis, water cremation, or bio-cremation) is worth understanding. The process uses water, heat, and an alkaline solution to break down the body over several hours — the same chemical process as natural decomposition in soil, accelerated. The result is a fine powder similar to flame cremation remains, suitable for a ash scattering ceremony or interment.
Aquamation uses approximately 90% less energy than flame cremation and produces no direct carbon emissions or mercury (from dental fillings). As of 2026, it is legal in approximately 25 states, including California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, and several others — with additional states continuing to consider or pass enabling legislation.
States where aquamation is not yet legal include several in the South and Midwest. Availability also depends on whether a funeral home in your area offers the service — even in states where it is legal, it is not universally available. Your funeral home or a quick search of the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) directory can confirm current availability.
What to Look for in a Green Burial Cemetery
GBC Certification — What It Means and Why It Matters
GBC certification means the cemetery has applied for and met the Green Burial Council's standards for their certification tier — and that those standards are reviewed and renewed. It provides a baseline of transparency and accountability that "natural" or "green" marketing language alone doesn't guarantee.
Some cemeteries that genuinely offer green burial options are not GBC-certified — either because the process is time-consuming, because they're small operations without administrative capacity, or because they've simply not pursued it. Non-certification doesn't make a cemetery suspect. But the absence of certification means you'll need to ask more specific questions and verify claims more carefully.
Questions to Ask Any Green Burial Cemetery
Whether or not a cemetery is GBC-certified, these questions will quickly tell you whether they can genuinely accommodate your needs:
- Do you use burial vaults or concrete grave liners — and is their use optional or required?
- What casket and shroud materials do you allow? Is there a minimum container requirement?
- Is embalming required, or can we proceed without it?
- What is the conservation status of this land — is it permanently protected, or could it be developed?
- Can family members be present and participate in the burial? Can they help lower the body and shovel the earth?
- How are graves marked — stone, native marker, GPS coordinates, or unmarked?
- Can family members visit independently after the burial?
- What is your process for ensuring graves are accurately located for future visits?
A cemetery that gives confident, specific answers to all of these questions is a cemetery that has thought carefully about the green burial experience. Hesitancy or vagueness on the vault question, in particular, is worth probing — vaults are the most common hidden requirement that makes an ostensibly "green" burial less so.
What to Expect at a Natural Burial
A green burial service typically looks and feels different from a conventional funeral — more intimate, quieter, closer to the earth. The body, in a shroud or natural casket, is brought to the grave site without the machinery of a conventional interment. There are no carpeted green strips, no chrome lowering device, no artificial turf obscuring the actual soil.
Family members are often invited — and at many natural burial grounds, explicitly encouraged — to participate actively. They may help carry the casket or stretcher. They may be present at the lowering, and many natural burial grounds allow family members to shovel earth themselves. This physical participation, for families who choose it, is often profoundly meaningful: it is one of the most direct expressions of love and presence possible. It strips away the management and professionalization of death and returns the act to the people who cared most.
If you're planning the service elements around a graveside burial, our guide to planning a graveside service covers the ceremony structure, readings, and practical logistics of a burial site service.
How to Talk to a Funeral Director About Green Burial
Not every funeral director has experience with green burial — and some may, perhaps unintentionally, discourage it by citing "requirements" that aren't actually legally mandated. The most common example: many families are told that embalming is required, when in fact it is legally required only in narrow circumstances (interstate transport in some states, certain disease-related deaths). Refrigeration is a legal alternative for most situations where preservation for a few days is needed.
Know your rights under the FTC Funeral Rule: you have the right to an itemized price list, and you have the right to decline any service you don't want. If you don't want a vault, you can say so — though the cemetery itself (not just the funeral home) may have requirements about this, so you'll need to verify at both levels.
If the funeral home you've contacted is resistant or unfamiliar, look for alternatives. The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) has a growing number of green-burial-trained members, and organizations like the Funeral Consumers Alliance can refer you to consumer-friendly providers in your area. Death doulas — end-of-life guides who work alongside families and funeral directors — can also be powerful advocates for green burial within the system.
Planning Ahead for a Green Burial
If you're doing this research for yourself rather than for an immediate loss, you have a significant advantage: time. Use it.
Document your green burial wishes in a standalone letter of instruction — not just in your will, which may not be read until well after burial decisions have been made. Keep this letter with your important documents, and make sure at least two trusted family members know it exists and where to find it. Specificity matters: name the cemetery you want, the type of burial (shroud, specific casket), whether you want family participation in the burial, what should and shouldn't be done with your body.
Pre-purchasing a plot at a natural burial ground is possible at most certified facilities. It reserves your place, locks in current pricing, and — most importantly — removes a significant decision burden from the family you'll leave behind. Pre-planning your own funeral walks through the full process of advance planning, including what to document, what to pre-purchase, and how to communicate your wishes effectively.
Honoring a Green Burial — The Tribute Within the Process
Green burial is not just a logistical choice. For families who choose it, it is often the most complete expression of tribute possible — honoring the person's values, their relationship to the natural world, and their understanding of what their body was: part of a larger cycle, not something to be preserved against it.
The grave site of a green burial becomes something a conventional cemetery cannot be: a living place. The grave is often marked with a native stone or a GPS coordinate rather than an engraved marker, and over time, it returns to the landscape of the surrounding land. At a conservation burial ground, native wildflowers bloom above the grave in spring. Deer move through. Birds nest. The land breathes.
Families who bury in conservation grounds often describe returning not to visit a grave in the traditional sense, but to walk through a landscape that holds someone they love — to walk the trails that run through the preserve, to sit in the meadow that grows above the burial site, to be in a living place that carries the person's name and embodies their values. Planting a memorial tree is another expression of this impulse — the grave is not only where something ended, but where something continues to grow.
If the idea of creating a living memorial connects with how you think about honoring this person, our guide to creating a memorial garden offers additional ideas for how a living landscape can hold someone's memory in the years and decades after they're gone.
Green burial, at its best, transforms grief into something ecological and enduring. The earth receives the person, and the person, in some small measure, becomes the earth. That is not the end of a story. It is a continuation — in a different form, in a different medium, but no less real.
Sources
Sources
Green Burial Council. "Cemetery Directory and Certification Standards." Green Burial Council, 2024. https://www.greenburialcouncil.org
National Funeral Directors Association. "2023 Consumer Awareness and Preferences Study." NFDA, 2023. https://www.nfda.org/news/statistics
Funeral Consumers Alliance. "Your Burial Rights: A State-by-State Overview." FCA, 2024. https://www.funerals.org
Conservation Burial Alliance. "Conservation Burial Grounds: Protecting Land Through Burial." Conservation Burial Alliance, 2024. https://www.conservationburialalliance.org
Doughty, Caitlin. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory." Order of the Good Death, 2014. https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com
Cremation Association of North America. "Alkaline Hydrolysis Legislation by State." CANA, 2024. https://www.cremationassociation.org