2020 Conference Sponsors

With Gratitude to our GBC Conference 2020 Sponsors

A big thank you to all of the sponsors who helped make GBC’s inaugural 2020 conference a stellar success. Because of your generous support, we were able to present two weeks of panel discussions, speaker presentations, and workshops to more than 250 attendees, with an average attendance of 80 at each session. The crowd was indeed a testament to the need for, and enthusiasm about, reaching eco-friendly consumers and families across the United States and Canada with natural burial end-of-life options. We could not have done it without all of you.

Major Conference Sponsor

RiverStyx is a small family foundation that provides assistance to organizations that challenge fear-based paradigms and promote new perspectives of compassion and health. They seek high-leverage social change by providing resources to fringe areas that have been most stigmatized and disregarded by society and the funding community, in hopes of effectuating enduring change in both cultural awareness and social policy.

Keynote Speaker Sponsors

The Green Burial Movement in 2020: How Far We’ve Come with Mark Harris

The Inspired Funeral is an end-of-life planning blog and web resource edited by funeral director Amy Cunningham and funeral celebrant Kateyanne Unullisi. Repackaged to fit the Covid-19 age, you'll find the latest on sustainable products, readings for green burials and other services, an obituary platform, and ceremony templates to envision what's possible.

Heartwood Preserve is a conservation cemetery set within a longleaf pine nature preserve in Trinity, Florida. They are happy to sponsor Mark Harris, whose Grave Matters helped to inspire the formation of Heartwood Preserve.

Wake is a nonprofit organization based in Louisiana, with a mission to provide resources and education about meaningful and ecologically sustainable deathcare. Wake is a non-commercial resource for people who are confronting death, either on their own, or another's.

Plenary Speakers Sponsors

The Legal Landscape of Green Burial with Tanya D. Marsh, JD

The Green Burial Project of North Carolina aims to spread the news about the environmental, financial, and spiritual benefits of returning our bodies to the earth in a manner consistent with our values and our heritage. Anne Weston is thrilled to support Tanya's critical work in parsing out cemetery law.

Conservation Cemetery Restoration with Billy Campbell, MD

The Conservation Burial Alliance is a collaboration of conservation burial grounds and invested allies that foster the conservation and sustainable management of land with natural burial for the benefit of people and the planet. They are proud to have Billy helping us to lead the way.

Designing a Green Burial Cemetery: Issues and Opportunities with Jack Goodnoe

The Green Burial Project (GBP) North Carolina aims to spread the news about the environmental, financial, and spiritual benefits of returning our bodies to the earth in a manner consistent with our values and our heritage. Jack's mission is in perfect alignment with the GBP mission.

Panels Sponsors

Making Natural Burial Happen: How We Did It

Mourning Dove Studio builds and wholesales GBC-certified cardboard coffins that care for the earth while also offering a way to express grief with personalization, imagination, and natural beauty. See the GBC Blog post which speaks to this in the context of Covid-19, Money, Grieving, and Burial mid Coronavirus.

Faith Communities, Social Justice, and Green Burial

The National Home Funeral Alliance is dedicated to increasing access to information related to community-led after-death care through home funeral education and advocacy. Their website has vital information and the tools you need to care for your own after death, including directories to help you find home funeral guides and educators.

Workshops Sponsors

Writing Cemetery Guidebooks for Families with Candace Currie

River View Cemetery is proud to sponsor Writing Cemetery Guidebooks for Families. In their 138 years of providing Oregon end-of-life choices, they have become an educational resource and find value in supporting the community with publications, workshops, and seminars such as Candace's presentation.

Words, Music and Ceremony for Green Burial Services with Amy Cunningham

GoodEnding, Inc. is a nonprofit dedicated to improving end-of-life outcomes. The www.goodending.org website offers a free resource providing information, tools, and links addressing a broad range of end-of-life issues including words and music to accompany your exit.

What Funeral Directors Need to Know About Natural Burial with Elizabeth Fournier

White Eagle Memorial Preserve Cemetery at Ekone Ranch is a conservation burial ground in rural Washington, part of Sacred Earth Foundation, a nonprofit land-stewardship organization. White Eagle offers meaningful, family-led, natural burial experiences in a 20-acre oak and ponderosa pine forest.

Working with Conservation Land Trusts with Heidi Hannapel

Green Burial Massachusetts is proud to sponsor land-trust expert Heidi Hannapel. Heidi brings a joyful heart and a creative mind into a vibrant three-way collaboration between LandMatters, Kestrel Land Trust in Amherst, and Green Burial Massachusetts for the creation of the state’s first conservation cemetery.

Converting Historical Cemeteries with Ed Bixby

Bob and Denise Fertig, owners of Fertig Funeral Home, are early adopters of specialized care for loved ones who wish to be buried in a green cemetery. They are featured in the film Steelmantown which expresses the funeral director's role in supporting both families and cemetery stewards in creating satisfying and meaningful green burial experiences.

The Home Funeral/Green Burial Connection with Lucinda Herring

The School of American Thanatology focuses on accessible, inclusive, and equitable education in the fields of thanatology, deathwork, and thanabotany. Led by Cole Imperi, the School has students in 20 countries and has provided no-questions-asked scholarships to students worldwide. The School of American Thanatology is where curious spirits find a home.

Start-Up Nuts and Bolts with Jeff Hodes

Lee Webster has designed both content and websites for some of the top end-of-life and after-death websites in the nonprofit world, including National Home Funeral Alliance, National End-of-Life Doula Alliance, Conservation Burial Alliance, Green Burial Council, and Funeral.org Partnership.

Natural Burial in Urban Areas with Laura Faessel

Fitting Tribute Funeral Service is an earth-friendly funeral service that helps New Yorkers of all creeds and faiths plan uplifting, affordable end-of-life home funerals, witnessed cremations, and burials in upstate New York and within the metro area. Their motto is "We honor the dead, comfort the living, and celebrate the magnificence of each individual."