Can I get a green burial in South Florida?

Q. “I’ve been investigating the ‘green burial’ movement and apparently the only option for me in Florida would be the Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery in Gainesville. This would be quite a schlep and expense for my family on short notice.

After reading your column on Jewish burial customs, I made a copy of it for my ‘last instructions’ file. Although I’m not Jewish, I’ve always thought their burial practices are the most sensible. I’ve looked into Jewish cemeteries, and the only local one I’ve found with a section for outsiders requires a pine coffin to be placed in a concrete vault with its bottom cut out to allow access to the earth below. I understand the need for the vault, so that the ground above won’t be collapsing. But it’s not quite as ‘green’ as the Gainesville site.

I’m not quite ready to go, but one never knows. If you come across any local options for me, I’d be glad to hear about them.” Tom, Boca Raton

A. Tom, we all reach an age when we start to think about these things. I guarantee you are ahead of most of us by making an instructions file for your family. This is difficult stuff to talk about, but at a certain point we have to tackle the issue of death to make it easier on our descendants.

I’m glad my column on Jewish burial practices got you thinking. In that column, a Catholic reader asked me why Jews are buried in a white shroud and placed in a plain pine box. Rabbi David Steinhardt of B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton detailed the Jewish value of equality and dignity in death and the concept of returning directly to the earth for burial.

Green burial has much in common with these Jewish practices. As in the Jewish tradition, there’s no embalming, as green enthusiasts say those chemicals leach into the earth. And there’s no fancy vault that won’t biodegrade.

The Green Burial Council, which certifies cemeteries for environmental friendliness, has four criteria for a natural burial: Minimal environmental impact, low carbon emissions, protection for workers and preservation of habitat.

Jews in South Florida seeking a green burial have the option of South Florida Jewish Cemetery near Lake Worth, which is called a “hybrid” cemetery by the green council. The cemetery’s director, Rabbi Jay Lyons, said the site consists of “green burial throughout” but got the hybrid designation because its graves have traditional granite monuments. The green council rejects upright headstones in favor of flat markers.

In any case, Lyons told me the cemetery is open only to Jews.

“As a Jewish cemetery, we only offer burial to people who identify as Jewish,” Lyons said. He said a centuries-old Jewish law deemed burial grounds as sacred spaces that should be available only to Jews.

The Green Burial Council also places Brooksville Cemetery north of Tampa in the hybrid category, and then offers its full endorsement to Prairie Creek, which Lyons also highly recommended.

“For what it’s worth, it’s a beautiful cemetery run by very honorable people,” he said.

Prairie Creek goes a step beyond green burial by using burial fees to protect the land and restore it to its original condition through a conservation easement. In keeping with the minimalist approach, staffers use an Amish burial cart to move the body to the gravesite (no gas-guzzling black hearses allowed). Gravesites get a simple brass memorial marker instead of a tombstone.

Though not certified by the Green Burial Council, I found two other Florida cemeteries that offer natural burials: Heartwood Preserve, near New Port Richey, and Glendale Memorial Natural Preserve in the Panhandle.

If you want to get as close as you can to a green burial in South Florida, there are several ways to minimize the environmental impact of your death. See if you can skip the

embalming and concrete vault and request a sustainably grown wood box with organic liner that will decompose. And don’t get cremated, as many say cremation adds tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year.

By the way, pet lovers are also attuned to this movement. For owners who don’t want to cremate their animals, there’s a Green Pet-Burial Society.

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL SUSAN STOCKER/ The King David Cemetery at Fairway Memorial Gardens in Deerfield Beach has been consecrated in accordance with Jewish law so that burials can take place.