Our Mission
Green Legacy’s mission is to deliver exceptional deathcare at fair prices that will empower family and friends who want to remember the people they love with funerals that are kinder to Earth.
Green Legacy’s success means that our customers’ children and grandchildren will escape toxic chemicals and more than 200,000 tons of CO2 from conventional funeral sources that will otherwise threaten our atmosphere in the DMV over the coming decade.
About Us
Lily Buerkle is an experienced mortician and funeral director licensed in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. After arranging hundreds of funerals, cremations and burials, Lily has become a green burial resource locally and a sought-out speaker in the community, helping to prepare families for end-of-life changes. She is particularly passionate about green burial and empowering families in their funeral decisions – and loves saying “yes” to families yearning to honor loved ones in unconventional ways. Lily is co-founding Green Legacy after years of listening to bereaved families asking for better environmental options and will join the company full-time as both a funeral director and chief operating officer to lead the company’s funeral staff. She earned her baccalaureate degree in international trade from Georgia Southern University and is a graduate of the Mortuary Science program at the Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service in Virginia.
Adrian Gardner is Green Legacy’s co-founder, lead investor and managing member. After retiring from a 30-year legal career and managing both public agencies and private business organizations, he was inspired to help launch the company after hearing Katrina Spade deliver her viral TedTalk about natural organic reduction. At the time, Adrian was dealing with his mom’s terminal diagnosis and he found it offensive to discover that no suitable green death care options were available in Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. Today, after teaming-up with renowned DMV funeral professional Lily Buerkle, he is leading the company’s legislative initiatives and building-out its core business infrastructure – including its finance, risk management, personnel and regulatory functions. Adrian is certified by the Cremation Association of North America as a crematory operator. He’s also a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Kennedy School of Government and Northeastern University.
We're Bringing New Green Choices to Maryland
Among our initial service offerings will be:
Alkaline Hydrolysis
Water Cremation
Home Funerals
Successful Home Funerals
Natural Burials
Specialists in Funerals with Natural Burials
Natural Organic Reduction (“NOR”)
Gently Reducing Your Body to Natural Soil
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Reach out to us
Meet us at the office share
Green Legacy Brands LLC
8403 Colesville Road, Suite 1100
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910