PLANNING what kind of coffin you want to be buried in probably isn’t terribly high on your ‘to do’ list, but there’s no getting away from it: we’ll all need one eventually.

At least these days there’s an element of choice, and you don’t have to go to your final resting place in a sombre box that wouldn’t look out of place in a horror film. Believe it or not, coffins can be rather beautiful.

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“As my generation gets older, they’re going to want different types of services and I think  it’s neat to give them another option,” explained Click.

According to Click,  more people are choosing to have a “Green” burial.  His East Tennessee funeral homes is the only one in the state recognized by the Green Burial Council.

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Steve Sall was an avid outdoorsman before he was stricken with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

As death neared, he chose a “green” burial. These burials are a small but growing industry. With these burials, people chose to be laid to rest in the most natural way possible - no concrete, vaulted coffins or chemicals. Just the body and the earth.

This video is a personal cut of a video report I produced for the AP on the so-called ‘green’ burials.’

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In the last decade, cremation has steadily gained popularity, and people are increasingly selecting natural, green burial settings for their final resting place. A natural environment provides peace, freedom, and continuity. In addition EcoEternity Consecrationto providing a natural resting place, the EcoEternity Forest at Chestnut Ridge will provide family and friends with the opportunity to share a resting place beneath the same tree, effectively restoring the concept of a family burial plot which is difficult in a more urbanized, geographically dispersed culture.

Located in Efland, NC, the EcoEternity Forest at Chestnut Ridge Camp & Retreat Center is in the heart of North Carolina. The forest overlooks beautiful Lake Fellowship. It provides both the gift of community and also the quiet sounds of nature and restful solitude. In this forest, there are a variety of indigenous trees including White Oak, Shagbark Hickory, Birch, Maple, and Tulip Poplar.

ecoeternity3_reducedRhonda Parker, Center Director says, “The addition of an EcoEternity Forest at Chestnut Ridge completes our mission to make the love of Christ visible to the world from the cradle to the grave. This forest demonstrates faithful stewardship of creation through our lives and in our deaths. It embodies the hope that we proclaim in Christ Jesus: even though we die, yet shall we live.”

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A second excerpt from the recently released book published by Island Press called Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities. In this post, we look at cemeteries used as parks and some best practices.

In the past, before official parks came into being, cemeteries were the principal manicured greenspaces for cities – most famously Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. As parks arose, the recreational use of the open areas of cemeteries diminished in importance. But today some cities have hundreds or thousands of acres of public cemetery lands, both with and without gravestones, which could theoretically help with the parkland shortage.

Is a cemetery a park? It certainly qualifies as pervious ground and visual relief, but whether it does any more than that depends on its rules and regulations. The more one can do there – walk, walk a dog, cycle, picnic, play music, throw a ball, sit under a tree (does it have trees?) – the more it’s like a park. The more restrictive, the less justifiable it seems to pretend it’s a park.

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A growing number of Scots are opting for a green burial, a last resting place in a woodland, eco-friendly cemetery

WHEN Stella Macdougall and her sister Gill were left to arrange their beloved father’s funeral, they were certain of one thing - they would steer clear of traditional options. Two years before, their mother Harriet had been cremated after she finally lost her battle with dementia at 87, and the family had been left feeling the ceremony lacked the hoped for warmth and personal touch.

So when their father, Alister - a nature lover and keen walker died - they decided to look for a “greener ” more environmentally friendly way to bury him.

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Prepaid funerals help with the expenses, but low-cost cremation, donating a body to science, and eco-friendly or “green” burials are becoming more popular.

In the United States, burial in consecrated ground has long been the “proper” way for grieving family members to care for their loved ones’ final remains.

As the world moves further into the 21st century, though, Americans are looking at a final resting place for family members in a different way for several reasons.

Traditional Burial Is Expensive, but Prepaid Arrangements Help Families

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Maybe you did your best to live an eco-friendly life — you recycled, rode your bike to work, supported the green cause. So, what better way to shed your mortal coils than with an Earth-conscious sendoff in a sustainable coffin? Sure, embarking on that next adventure into the great unknown may be an inevitability for us all — but the environmental impact that usually comes along with burial certainly doesn’t have to be.

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If you are interested in starting a business that fills a universal need, one that would appeal to all different types of thinkers (traditional and progressive) and one with unlimited growth potential then green burial products might just be it. A green burial and green burial cemeteries
solve all of the basic environmental problems that traditional burial and cremation seem to precipitate.

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