Do you recycle and seek to minimize your carbon footprint? If you live in the Washington, D.C. area, learn how to make your final disposition more environmentally friendly by greening your final arrangements.

Historic Congressional Cemetery, 1801 E Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003, is hosting “No Fooling: You CAN Have a Green Burial at Congressional Cemetery.” Taking place the evening of April 1, the presentation will be preceded at 5:30 by a 60-minute tour of Congressional Cemetery’s green burial options and new solar panel project. Wine, beer and cheese will be provided! FREE, but pre-registration is required. Register through this link.

Pioneering death educator Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist and The Doyenne of Death®, uses film clips and humor to teach about evolving death care trends. She’ll talk about green burial, alkaline hydrolysis, the carbon footprint of cremation, and related end-of-life topics. You’ll leave saying “We can do that? I had no idea.." Let’s face it, funerals are the parties no one wants to plan.

Gail Rubin is author of the award-winning books A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die, Kicking the Bucket List: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die, and Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips. She is the coordinator of the Before I Die New Mexico Festival.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Gail used to be a producer at C-SPAN. She worked there during the time Tip O’Neill was Speaker of the House, from 1980 to 1985 (His cenotaph is at Congressional). Gail grew up in Silver Spring, MD, graduated from Springbrook High School, Montgomery College, and the University of Maryland. She lived in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. before moving to New Mexico in 1990.

A doyenne is a woman who’s considered senior in a group who knows a lot about a particular subject. Gail is a Certified Thanatologist (a death educator) and speaker who uses humor and films to get end-of-life conversations started. Her TEDx talk “A Good Goodbye” focuses on the importance of starting end-of-life conversations before there’s a death in the family.