How a Nature-Based End-of-Life Startup Is Innovating in the Deathcare Industry

Why it matters:

• More Americans are opting out of traditional cemetery burials, with some 81% of Americans likely to choose cremation by 2045.
• The $18 billion U.S. funeral market will be driven by America's 65-and-over population, which is estimated to climb from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050.
• With its memorial forests, living memorial platform, and other online tools, Better Place Forests is striving to create end-of-life solutions that reflect changing preferences.

More than half of Americans now choose cremation as their end-of-life option over a traditional cemetery burial, a preference that's only expected to accelerate. By 2045, some 81% of Americans could decide to be cremated, up from 60% in 2023, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.

The shift is driven by people seeking less expensive, more environmentally friendly, and more personally meaningful burial options, coupled with a more transient population. Better Place Forests was an early entrant into nature-based end-of-life services, providing an option for people who wanted a natural alternative to cemeteries.

Since its 2015 incorporation, the company has bought over 1,000 acres of land, creating protected forests in which customers place a deposit on a memorial tree. Upon their death, loved ones place a mixture of their ashes and local soil under the tree. Now, Better Place Forests operates nine memorial forests across six states, having served over 6,000 families. Since its first forest opened in summer 2019, growth has taken off — an additional eight locations opened nationwide, and in the height of its growth, the startup was doubling its year-over-year revenue.

"People want to have a more natural connection to their end-of-life options than the traditional cemetery burial," said Adam Tibbs, who's served as Better Place Forests' CEO since June 2023. "And, because of our nomadic culture, cremation makes a lot more sense to [many] people."

Better Place Forests is a part of the $18 billion U.S. funeral homes market, which also includes companies that provide human composting and aquamation — a water-based alternative to cremation. Driving its growth is an aging population. Over the next three decades, America's 65-and-over population is estimated to climb from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050, a 47% increase.

To reach customers, founders prioritize useful online content to draw peoples' attention as they begin the grieving process

Better Place Forests came into being when its founders realized they were dissatisfied with their personal experience around traditional burial and cemeteries. They based the company on forest ecology principles, or the idea that forests function as complex, interconnected ecosystems made up of trees, plants, soil, water, and climate. Customers would "choose a tree instead of a tombstone," a choice that appealed to many people since it didn't involve embalming chemicals or nonbiodegradable caskets with metal linings.

Memorial trees start at $5,900, well below the median price of a funeral with burial and viewing costs of $7,848, according to the NFDA. Each Better Place Forests burial includes a memorial marker, and pet ashes can also be scattered with its owner's, too, which helps the company to stand out from other end-of-life options.

The first few years presented a series of hurdles for the startup: Acquiring old grove forests was a massive expense, as was creating trail systems and caring for the land. It's a costly ongoing effort to maintain the forests in a sustainable way, said Tibbs. Better Place Forests has raised almost $80 million toward these efforts, the most funding of any green interment company to date.

When the company started out selling directly to consumers, content was key. It published high-quality articles and end-of-life guides on its website and also placed ads on Facebook. It was a strategy that worked well because more people's first stop after the death of a loved one today is online. For example, 34.4% of consumers said their first interaction with a funeral home was online, a 20.8% increase since 2023.

"There's a big shift toward a digital-first start," Tibbs said. "That’s been a big part of our customer acquisition strategy, and a chunk of our success. We got really good at understanding what people are searching for in those moments."

At the same time, the company has been intentional about not losing the personal touch. "Buying executives" walk customers through the process, answer questions, and arrange in-person visits for people who want to walk through a forest before they buy.

Better Place Forests also focuses on the customer experience through its forest memorial ceremonies that function as joyful celebrations of a person's life. Company guides help family members mix ashes with soil to create the right chemical composition for the tree where their ashes will lie. Some people mix in wildflower seeds. Families return often to visit. It's not uncommon for wedding parties to have photo shoots in the forest where a loved one is buried or for families to hike and picnic nearby.

"It's a much more life-affirming and uplifting experience than the sadness and finality of burying someone in a grave because of that connection with nature," said Tibbs. The positive experience drives highly-rated Google reviews and personal referrals.

B2B partnerships with funeral homes and cemeteries have helped Better Place Forests expand its customer base across the U.S.

Recognizing that a significant percentage of people still call their local funeral home immediately after the death of a loved one, Better Place Forests recently began to partner with funeral homes. It's a new business-to-business (B2B) sales channel of business that's been successful.

The company has worked to develop relationships with around 250 funeral homes across the country. The funeral homes present Better Place Forests as a burial option and then offer exclusive Better Place Forests' pricing to their customers.

Also, in response to customers who want a less expensive option plus feedback from funeral homes, Better Place Forests recently launched its Spreading Grove program. Customers interested in the company's St. Croix Valley location, which is 40 minutes from the Twin Cities in Minnesota, can buy a $2,000 package that lets them spread ashes in a dedicated area in a forest rather than under a specific tree. There are plans to expand the program to its other eight forests this year.

Through prepurchases, "we're already seeing a lot of success with that," Tibbs said.

In October, Better Place Forests began partnering with green cemeteries, including Fernwood Cemetery in Mill Valley, California. It offers its services on two acres of the cemetery's 100 acres that weren't being used.

"It's helping us expand without having to go through the capital-intensive process of buying, conserving, and developing the land," said Tibbs.

The digital factor: 'We're creating an end-of-life set of solutions that help people regardless of where they are'

Meanwhile, it's offering online products to improve peoples' end-of-life experience. Better Place Wishes is a quiz that helps people understand their end-of-life preferences, document them, and easily send preferences to family and friends.

The company also acquired a digital memorial platform, which it's dubbed, "Better Place Memories." Loved ones will be able to upload pictures, and artificial intelligence prompts will help people to share memories of the deceased.

"I call it atoms to bits — we need both of those," Tibbs said. "The trend is moving away from traditional burial. And we're not just an alternative to cemeteries. We're creating an end-of-life set of solutions that help people regardless of where they are."

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