Going green, one last time

From cardboard caskets to the absence of harmful chemicals, some people choose to minimize the impact to the environment after they die.

When Joan Pillsbury’s grandfather died, the family held a viewing, had a funeral—the works.

“He was embalmed, and I remember thinking he did not look anything like that when he was alive,” she said. “The whole idea that you can preserve a loved one in perpetuity is not something I agree with.”

Then, in 2009, she heard an interview with Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters, a book that follows families who found green burials to be a more natural, economical, and even meaningful alternative to the funeral parlor. Read more >>