Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Muse | Page 15

Eternally Green: Sustaining Mount Auburn & the World Around Us
Mount Auburn Founded
on Natural Burials
By Candace Currie, Director of Planning & Sustainability
Today’s “natural” or “g ree n” burial moveme nt
harkens back to Dr. Jacob Bigelow’s 1831 address entitled
“A Discourse on Burial of the Dead.” There are three basic
tenets of today’s natural burials: conservation of resources,
reduction of carbon emissions, and restoration or preservation
of habitat.
Conservation of Resources
In 1831, Mr. George Brimmer was the rightful landowner
of what was to become Mount Auburn Cemetery. According
to Bigelow, “[Brimmer’s] just appreciation of the beautiful
in nature had prompted him to preserve from destruction
the trees and other natural features of that attractive spot.”
Like Brimmer, today’s green burial movement is propelled
by individuals who want to protect beautiful land from
development, and by creating a cemetery, land will be
protected forever.
Reduction of Carbon Emissions
While it takes less physical space to bury cremated remains
than a casket, cremation does burn natural gas, a fossil fuel,
which does release carbon into the air. There’s also an-
other item with a carbon footprint that is typically used
in cemeteries including Mount Auburn: concrete grave or
liner boxes. These boxes are used to prevent the earth from
collapsing after burial. They are not required by law; but do
assure some safety and reduce landscape maintenance after
a burial occurs. It takes energy to manufacture and ship
these boxes, and those processes have an associated carbon
footprint. Natural burials do not allow concrete boxes.
There are available spaces at Mount Auburn where concrete
boxes are not required.
Restoration or Preservation of Habitat
Bigelow noted [burial] “should take place peacefully, silently,
separately, in the retired valley, or the sequestered wood,
where the soil continues its primitive exuberance.” Primitiv