Digging Deeper into Green Burial in Colorado



As we celebrate Earth Day on April 22, we seek to honor and protect our planet. At Goes Funeral Care, this means providing families earth-friendly options such as Green Burial.

In Colorado, much of our culture centers around nature – enjoying the outdoors, conserving natural space, and soaking up the sunshine while spending time in the mountains. Our goal with Green Burial is to help people continue their connection to nature and leave a legacy of conservation for future generations.

By definition, Green Burial is burial of a person’s body without “the frills”. We do not add embalming chemicals to a person’s body, we bury in a biodegradable vessel – a wood casket or even a simple shroud, and we do not house the casket or shrouded body in a burial vault. We bury as nature intended.

What are the options for Green Burial in Colorado?

Although Colorado boasts a very nature-centered culture, there are surprisingly few options for people to truly rest in nature when they die. Green Burial is offered at many of the cemeteries, but typically in a specific section of an otherwise traditional cemetery. These are called hybrid cemeteries. Burial in the green section of a hybrid cemetery is a great option to return a person to the earth in a more natural way. However, some burial grounds take natural burial a step further.

True natural burial or conservation burial takes place in a space dedicated to preserving and even improving the natural environment. In Colorado, the recently opened Colorado Burial Preserve does just that. The preserve uses the land to honor people in death, as well as conserve the land for wildlife and natural plants to thrive. At Goes Funeral Care, we were honored to care for the first burial at the Colorado Burial Preserve. The burial honored a life spent fighting for land conservation and protecting the environment.

Our primary goal is always to care for people in our community, to honor each life in a way that aligns with their values. Often, those values include protecting the environment and preserving the wild landscapes in Colorado. We are so grateful to Emily Miller, the founder and owner of the burial preserve for providing an improved way for people to leave a legacy of conservation. Our hope is that others will follow her lead, dedicating more natural space to remembrance combined with land conservation. We are thankful and we are betting the planet is too.

Go Green with Goes

To learn more about how Goes can help facilitate Green Burial and other environmentally friendly options, please call us anytime at 970-482-2221. Visit https://www.goesfuneralcare.com/what-we-do/green-burial for additional information.