Green Funerals and Burial
By Philip Proefrock, Green Options
The move towards a greener lifestyle extends even to the end of life. Choices for the final resting place include some relatively new approaches. Many of these developments seem to be coming out of the United Kingdom and from Europe, though they are being adopted in other countries, as well.
Green burials are now being performed in park- or forest-like settings. The more familiar green lawn with rows of stone markers is being replaced by a more natural setting, a meadow or a stand of trees. Green burials also forego many of the common contemporary conventions in favor of a simpler funeral and burial practive. Green burials do not use formaldehyde compounds to preserve the body, for example. Metal coffins, or coffins that use exotic and unsustainably harvested wood are also not allowed, as well as not using concrete burial vaults. Many of these steps are both more economical choices as well as avoiding consuming quantities of resources unnecessarily.
GreenSprings is a 100 acre site with meadows and woodlands in the Finger Lakes region of upstate new York that is one provider of green burial sites.
Greensprings offers a sustainable and beautiful alternative to conventional cemeteries. It is a place of meadows and woodlands, where you may choose native trees and shrubs for planting on your gravesite, helping to restore the land to it natural state and providing shelter and food for wildlife.
There are options for coffin selection as well that try to offer a greener choice. Ecopods are coffins made from “naturally hardened, 100% recycled paper.” Being lighter than traditional coffins and having fewer materials used for a coffin is in line with many people’s greener values. The company currently offers them in four color choices, plus silkscreen decoration, but a huge range of individual customization should be readily available as this market expands. The ecopod is suitable for burial or for cremation. However, the ecopod makers encourage people not to choose cremation because of the additional pollution it causes. It is also suitable for use in conjunction with a woodland burial.
In the UK, the Natural Death Centre brings many of these trends together with support for environmentally-friendly funerals and natural Burial Grounds. In the US, the Green Burial Council addresses similar issues on this side of the Atlantic. There are currently providers in nine states, though the website does not include direct links to any of them. The Green Burial Council has two standards for green burials. According to their site, “A “Natural Burial Ground” is a cemetery that encourages sustainable and ethical practices.” Above and beyond that level, a “Conservation Burial Ground” also has a land conservation component.