Cemeteries Go Green
By Kristin Edelhauser, Entrepreneur Daily
Halloween is just around the corner, which makes this entrepreneurial story that much more timely. In the past, we’ve featured entrepreneurs making a living off of funerals and burials. ABC’s Nightline recently featured another entrepreneur making a living off of death.
His name is Tyler Cassity, and he’s a cemetery mogul. He’s known for creating video diaries for the dead and even movies shown on mausoleums. His latest venture is a “green” cemetery in San Francisco. It’s called Forever Fernwood, and after purchasing it in 2004, Cassity re-opened for business last month. A section of the cemetery is being set aside strictly for green burials, which replace caskets with biodegradable shrouds and rocks or shrubs in place of a tombstone.
But don’t expect to see dozens of green cemeteries in your town just yet. So far, Cassity’s ideas aren’t being welcomed by the rest of the industry. According to Nightline, there are more than 6,000 cemeteries in the U.S., and only five of them are green.