Webinar Recording: The Ecological Benefits of Natural Burial

This month, we welcome Suzanne Kelly for her talk "The Ecological Benefits of Natural Burial." Suzanne shares the story of her work at Rhinebeck’s natural burial ground and talks about the growing normalization of natural burial in the United States. She offers advice about how one can advocate for a natural cemetery in their municipality, and examines how death and ceremonies connect people to each other and the natural cycles of our world.

PCA’s Vanessa Bertozzi moderates.

About our speaker: Suzanne Kelly, Ph.D. is a farmer, writer, and long-time green burial advocate whose 2015 book, Greening Death–Reclaiming Burial Practices and Restoring Our Tie to the Earth (2015) explores the burgeoning green burial movement in the U.S., its promise of honoring decay as a form of interconnectedness, and its potential to actively restore our relationship to the land. A recipient of the Green Burial Council’s 2015 Leadership Award, she’s been recognized for her “demonstrated foresight, innovation, and extraordinary commitment to the environment through sustainability and attainability in the area of human death care practices.” In 2009, she chaired the committee to form the Natural Burial Ground at the Town of Rhinebeck Cemetery, which opened in 2014. She continues to steward the burial ground as the cemetery’s part-time administrator, while also owning and operating Green Owl Farm, a sustainable, no-till, market garden just down the road from the burial ground.