In Oregon, Elizabeth Fournier has gained notoriety as the “Green Reaper” for advancing the concept of eco-conscious funerals and burials. Fournier’s company, Cornerstone Funeral Services, is the first green funeral home in Portland and she recently wrote The Green Burial Guidebook: Everything You Need to Plan an Affordable, Environmentally Friendly Burial to catalogue all the natural burial choices available in North America.
“My intended audience was people who’ve never heard of natural burial and want to know what the heck is going on, as well as people who keep hearing about it, and think it’s a trend,” she tells the Sierra Club.
While the green burial concept began with simple, biodegradable coffins and urns, it has since expanded into more outside-the-box solutions, including a mushroom burial suit whose spores help to detoxify and decompose the body, she adds.