May 2018
Green Burial: An Environmentally Friendly Option to Return the Body to the Earth
Each year in the United States we bury 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid; 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete; 90,272 tons of steel; 2,700 tons of copper and bronze; and 30 million board feet of hardwoods. Traditional burial can take a heavy toll on the environment, and be very expensive and time-consuming. Green Burial offers an alternative to this wasteful use of natural resources and provides the opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint at the time of our passing. During this presentation you will learn about Green Burial: what is, how it differs from conventional burial practices, the history of Green Burial and the options available to Marylanders.
| Date | Time | Location | CM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, May 23 | 10:30 a.m. - 12 noon | County Administration Building
4th Floor Boardroom
14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772 |
1.5 |
Speaker(s) / Instructor(s) Biography
Jane Berkow, President, Green Burial Association of Maryland
Jane Berkow is the President of the Green Burial Association of Maryland which she helped to found in 2015. In 2014 she retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, where she worked for 20 years as an Organization Development Consultant; responsible for strategic planning, team building, meeting planning and facilitation and policy development.
Jane is a master gardener and environmentalist. As she grows older, Jane finds herself reflecting more and more on “the shape of her absence” after her death. Questions of how she will be remembered and what she can contribute to future generations come to mind. These questions are driven by an enduring value that inspired her entire life; to make a positive difference in the lives of others. In addition, when Jane learned about the enormous carbon footprint created by cremation, she thought that green burial, and conservation burial, in particular, made perfect sense. Green burial is an option that allows her -in a small way- to contribute to a healthy source of oxygen and a healthier planet for future generations and for her grandchildren in particular.