For some people, a green burial is their culminating climate-sensitive act

Sitting in her office in Whitefish Bay, Debra Marcus Watton says the concept of a green burial is in keeping with Jewish practices, “because we believe in modesty and simplicity and a natural return to the earth,” Watton says.

Watton is president of Goodman-Bensman Funeral Home. It historically served Jewish families, but Watton says today it serves everyone.

“So in the Jewish faith, like the green burial, we use a biodegradable casket. We use traditional white linen shrouds. We try to avoid any cosmeticizing or anything artificial or unnatural in the burial of our loved ones,” Watton says.

Simplicity is just what retired teacher Katharyn Kominiarek wants when she dies, but settling on a green burial was a journey. Read more.

She knew what she didn’t want. “I knew that I didn’t want to be buried like my parents are, with the vault and the casket,” Read more >>