Alaska Natural Burial

Alaska Natural Burial (ANB) is working to establish Anchorage’s first natural burial cemetery, providing natural interment services that minimize environmental impacts and serve a higher conservation purpose. A natural burial cemetery in Anchorage will more closely resemble a wild, wooded space than a conventional graveyard. This project is excited for the potential of an urban cemetery to play an unexpected and important role in providing the community with outdoor recreational space while doubling as wildlife habitat.

Natural burial (also known as green burial) describes a way of carrying out cemetery activities without harming the local ecosystem. Broadly, this means that only bodies and other readily biodegradable objects are placed in the ground.

It will be ANB’s mission to provide natural interment services that minimize environmental impact and serve a higher conservation purpose. To that end, ANB will seek to meet or exceed the standards set forth by the Green Burial Council to become a certified Conservation Burial Ground. In doing so, ANB will provide Anchorage with much needed cemetery infrastructure while engaging in sustainable land stewardship.

​The Conservation Burial Alliance and Green Burial Council (linked above) have great information and links to existing conservation cemeteries elsewhere in the US.

Alaska Natural Burial envisions being the subject matter experts for natural burial in Alaska, contributing to the legacy of the Pacific Northwest as leaders in the modern deathcare movement, and in ecologically-oriented business practices. In addition to conducting cemetery-related activities, ANB will be a hub for information and workshops related to end-of-life planning, as well as a evening and weekend destination for community members and families to enjoy a nature walk or a guided birdwatching tour.