How It All Started

In 2002, Juliette and Joe Sehee moved to the Mojave Desert with a vision of opening an eco-retreat.  Influenced by early Christian monastics who made pilgrimages to the desert in order to “befriend death” they hoped to invite others to find solace in the fierce landscape that is Joshua Tree, California.

One of the groups the couple hoped to serve were those suffering from loss, which led the Sehees to explore end-of-life rituals they might accommodate. They also wanted to find a way to protect the thousands of empty acres at the edge of their retreat. These interests led them to learn about the green burial movement that had begun to take shape in England, as well as the first conservation cemetery in the United States which had been launched in 1998 by Dr. William and Kimberley Campbell in Westminster, South Carolina.

Joshua Tree Memorial Park, Joshua Tree, California

​A dialogue between them eventually led to their joint involvement in a project they believed could be a model for a new kind of burial ground with the potential to demonstrate how interment could facilitate ecological restoration and landscape-level conservation. It was going to be the first cemetery in the world that would involve a conservation organization as steward. Although the project did not manifest as envisioned, what evolved was a keen understanding that green burial would not gain traction unless there was a credible entity that provided third-party oversight and encouraged the sharing of open source information.

In the spring of 2005, the Sehees sold their high desert retreat and used the proceeds to found the Green Burial Council, a nonprofit business organization, to provide certification for qualifying providers. Ten years later in 2015, Green Burial Council International, a nonprofit educational organization, was formed to expand on efforts to provide reliable information for providers and the public.

"In the spring of 2005, I founded the Green Burial Council to establish standards within the growing green burial movement. To do so, I brought together a host of experts from the fields of sustainable landscape design, restoration ecology, conservation management, law and consumer affairs. Together we developed the the first set of environmental standards for green cemeteries and the funeral professionals and product manufacturers that support them.

​Today, the organization has grown to become the standard-bearer and lead steward of the growing environmental/social/consumer green burial movement to ensure that our end-of-life practices—and the facilities, products and practices associated with them—further legitimize environmental aims. We will continue doing everything we can to support ways of caring for our dead, and in doing so, make end-of-life rituals more meaningful, simple and sustainable."

                                                                                                —Joe Sehee, Founder

Joe Sehee, Founder of the GBC