It’s one thing to care about mother nature when you’re living. But it’s another when you’re dead.

“I just really believe we all need to take better care of the earth,” said Sara Goepfrich, 59, of Mishawaka.

She and her husband Ray are hoping they spend many more years together. But when they go? They want a green burial.

"We love nature, we love the wild animals,” said Sara. “And we want to keep it this way, as much as possible,” said Ray.

“Green burial is really part of that,” said Sara.

So what, exactly, is a green burial? The process involves no toxic chemicals to embalm; no burial vaults; and no metal caskets. The body is usually buried in an approved cemetery.

From his garage in Goshen, Jan Oostland is building wooden caskets -- biodegradable structures that cost far less than the traditional casket.

"Most of the time people believe that going green is more expensive, and in this case it's the other way around," said Oostland, who has just started a company called Green Legacy Caskets.

Jan got the idea from his own father’s funeral. He’s from the Netherlands, and his father didn’t have embalming fluids or a vault and his burial cost less money than a traditional American burial.

Jan's caskets start at just under $500. At McGann Hay funeral homes, the average casket costs anywhere from $1800 to $2800, said J. Patrick McGann. So far, nobody has come to McGann asking for a green burial. But if they did?

"I would be very much in favor of working with people," said McGann.

For Sara Goepfrich and her husband, though, a more important number than money is age. She will be sixty later this month. Aging, she said, makes her feel a strong sense of her mortality.

And also a sense of duty to Mother Earth.

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust," she said.

There aren’t any green cemeteries in Michiana, though there are approved cemeteries in West Lafayette and Indianapolis.

To learn more about green burials – and to plan one for yourself, since more options will likely be available locally in years to come – please see the following websites:

www.greenburialcouncil.org

http://www.greenlegacycaskets.com/