Learn · Compare your options
Four natural goodbyes, side by side.
Every family weighs this differently, and there is no right answer, only the answer that is right for your person. Here are the four paths we offer, laid out plainly: what happens, how long it takes, what comes back to your family, and what each one gives the earth.
At a glance
| Comparison | Terramation | Water Cremation | Green Burial | Flame Cremation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What happens | Your person is gently transformed into Regenerative Living Soil™ inside a Chrysalis™ vessel, through warmth, moisture, and natural microbes. | A flameless, water-based process returns your person to nature with warm water and a small amount of natural alkali. | Your person is laid directly into living ground in a shroud or biodegradable casket, with no embalming and no vault. | The familiar cremation process, performed by a licensed crematory we trust, with your person in our care before and after and reverence at every step. |
| Roughly how long | A few months, including about thirty days of curing and rest. | A few weeks in our care, start to finish. | The burial itself usually happens within days, at your family’s pace. | Days, typically within a week or two including paperwork. |
| What returns to your family | Rich, living soil for a memorial tree, a garden, or land your person loved, or a donation to conservation land. | Pure white mineral ash, softer and lighter than flame cremation ash, in a simple, beautiful vessel. Families may also receive the essence, a nutrient-rich liquid that feeds trees and gardens. | A natural resting place your family can return to, season after season, marked simply or left wild. | Your person’s ashes, to keep, scatter, or transform into Parting Stone your family can hold and share. |
| What it gives the earth | The most generous option we know: a life becomes soil that feeds new life, with very little energy used. | No fire and no smoke, and roughly a tenth of the energy of conventional cremation. | Almost nothing is taken and much is given: the ground stays living, and some burial grounds double as protected land. | The most energy-intensive of the four. We offset what we can and tell you the truth about the rest. |
| What it costs | Plain pricing, shared the moment you ask. How our pricing works | |||
A little more on each
Terramation
Your person is gently transformed into Regenerative Living Soil™ inside a Chrysalis™ vessel, through warmth, moisture, and natural microbes.
The full picture →Water Cremation
A flameless, water-based process returns your person to nature with warm water and a small amount of natural alkali.
The full picture →Green Burial
Your person is laid directly into living ground in a shroud or biodegradable casket, with no embalming and no vault.
The full picture →Flame Cremation
The familiar cremation process, performed by a licensed crematory we trust, with your person in our care before and after and reverence at every step.
The full picture →Questions families ask
- Do we have to decide right away?
- No. Decisions can wait until your family is ready. Your person rests in our care in the meantime, and nothing about this needs to be hurried.
- Can we still have a ceremony with any of these options?
- Yes, every one of them. Vigils, laying-in ceremonies, graveside gatherings, home funerals, and celebrations of life all pair with any path. Ceremony is about your person, not the method.
- Is terramation legal in Colorado?
- Yes. Colorado legalized terramation, also called natural organic reduction, in 2021, and The Natural Funeral helped lead that effort. We are the only funeral home in Colorado offering it.
- What does each option cost?
- Plain pricing is shared the moment you ask, by phone or in person, and our full price list is coming to the pricing page on this site. Cost never needs to be a mystery here.
- Do any of these options require embalming?
- No. We never perform chemical embalming. Your person is kept safely and naturally through temperature control, which is what we use in place of embalming for every family. Reverent Body Care®, our gentle bathing and anointing ritual, is available in addition if you would like it, and many families choose it.
Still weighing the options?
That is exactly what we are here for. Talk it through with someone who has time for you.