The Centre for Natural Burial

By Marylynne Pitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Any sizable stretch of land in Allegheny County has probably been walked, eyeballed or Googlemapped by Pete McQuillin as a possible green burial ground. Now, the organization Mr. McQuillin founded, Green Burial Pittsburgh, is considering offers of the use
of two large tracts of land from different property owners.

One parcel is 26 acres, the other 14. Neither tract is part of or affiliated with a local cemetery. A green burial is one that does not involve embalming, elaborate caskets or burial vaults. The body is ften covered in a shroud and placed in a biodegradable pine box; the grave is marked by a simple stone, a tree or wildflowers. A green burial can be less expensive than the average modern funeral,  which typically costs about $10,000.

Green burial advocates and land conservationists can work together. By using both approaches, property owners who don’t want to see their land sold and used for development can guarantee that it is conserved. “The likely scenario is that the owner will keep possession of the land and get a conservation easement on the property that allows green burial. The property owner donates the easement to a land trust, which holds it forever,” said Mr. McQuillin.

Green Burial Pittsburgh has had advisory board meetings since last spring. It was incorporated with the state as a nonprofit six weeks ago. Green Burial Pittsburgh must finalize its bylaws before it asks the IRS to designate it as a 501(c)(13), the tax status given to cemetery associations, but it can still receive donations through the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Pennsylvania.

He estimates the cost of starting a green burial ground at $250,000. Under Pennsylvania law, any new cemetery must have a $25,000 endowment fund used to maintain the property forever.

That cost estimate includes surveying the land and doing an ecological survey, but not the price of acquiring land because, “We probably won’t end up owning the land,” he said. Mr. McQuillin, 64, of Spring Hill, retired four years ago from Menasha Corp., a Wisconsin-based company that makes environmentally friendly packaging. He’s devoted the past year to building Green Burial Pittsburgh, learning about cemeteries and finding suitable land.

He’s driven by personal experience. After his mother’s death in May 2006 in Whispering Pines, N.C., he dutifully scattered her ashes over a lake, but the experience left him dissatisfied and he wishes he had a grave to visit. “I think people have a need for a place to do their grieving,” he said. The ideal green burial ground must be relatively flat, accessible to a major road, have enough space for a 50-car parking lot and be located a good distance from subdivisions.

About a dozen green cemeteries exist in the United States, with Foxfield Preserve in Wilmot, Ohio, being the closest to Pittsburgh. Tom Roberts, chief operating officer of Homewood Cemetery and president of Allegheny Cemetery, is open to the idea of green burial but doubts that it offers a viable business model. A green burial’s minimalist approach — a plot of ground and a fee charged for opening a grave — generates little revenue.

Green cemeteries so far are not making any money, agreed Mr. McQuillin. If Homewood and Allegheny offered green burials throughout its grounds, Mr. Roberts said he would insist on a family purchasing a vault to avoid land sinkage, something green burial proponents maintain is an unnecessary expense. The best scenario for establishing a green burial ground, Mr. Roberts believes, is in partnership with a group such as the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy or the Allegheny Land Trust. Jeff Hodes, a consultant to Homewood Cemetery, has spent 30 years in the cemetery business. He doesn’t think price is the main concern in green burials.

“They are making a choice, and if they spend something and felt that it was good for the Earth, good for the environment and good for the future of the planet or just good for them, they felt they were contributing one last thing.” To find out more about Green Burial Pittsburgh, go to greenburialpittsburgh.org.

Marylynne Pitz can be reached at mpitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1648.