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This book unravels the many different experiences, meanings and realities of natural burial. Twenty years after the first natural burial ground opened there is an opportunity to reflect on how a concept for a very different approach to caring for our dead has become a reality: new providers, new landscapes and a hybrid of new and traditional rituals.

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Green Burial: How Natural Burials Help the Planet | One Small Step | NowThis

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Funeral expenses in the United States average more than $10,000. And every year conventional funerals bury millions of tons of wood, concrete, and metals, as well as millions of gallons of carcinogenic embalming fluid. There is a better way, and Elizabeth Fournier, affectionately dubbed the "Gr…

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A high percentage of funerals still take place in a crematorium or other religious building, but there is a trend towards choosing funerals that have less impact on the planet . Out of all the different types of funeral services, a green funeral is one of the most eco-friendly.

Traditionally a funeral will include some hallmarks that many people come to expect such as an expensive coffin, lots of flowers, and several other add-ons. But how necessary are such embellishments and is there a better option that is just as meaningful and memorable?

One familiar type of green funeral features burial in a natural setting but many people are unaware that some cremations can also be considered 'green'.

What is a green funeral?

A green funeral is a term that typically implies woodland burial, eco funeral, and natural burial.

Eco-friendly or green funerals are becoming a popular alternative to traditional burials and funeral services. They use less harmful or wasteful materials for the preparation of the body and during the burial process.

The ceremony takes place in a natural setting, often outdoors in a meadow or woodland area that offers tranquillity for family and friends. This kind of green funeral will be held in a location that has a focus on preserving the natural beauty of the environment and encourages native flowers and wildlife.

The idea behind a more natural style of funeral is to minimise the environmental impact of the funeral. For example, biodegradable coffins are commonly used as they are made out of willow, wicker, or recycled paper. There might also be an electric hearse or horse-drawn carriage.

Types of green funerals

The term green funeral encompasses several options, but if you want a send-off where the burial area creates habitat for wildlife or preserves the environment, there are several types to choose from.

Natural burial

A natural burial attempts to return a body to the earth in as natural a way as possible. This generally means no embalming processes, cremation, and caskets or coffins that won't biodegrade with time. The ceremony often takes place in green spaces, such as wildflower meadows, parkland, or protected woodland.

Some natural burial sites permit the marking of the graves, while others don't allow any identifying features. In effect, this means the whole area is the memorial.

Direct cremation

You may be surprised to learn that Direct cremation could also be considered 'green' because it is more eco-friendly than a traditional funeral. A direct cremation that takes place at a very efficient crematorium without any mourners present results in a lower carbon footprint than a conventional funeral. There's no embalming, big funeral vehicles, headstone or mourners travel and there are fewer staff movements.

Here at Pure Cremation, we do several things to reduce the impact of our direct cremation service on the environment. For example:

We use electronic documentation to reduce the amount of paper used

Electronic documents are completed from the comfort of home, reducing travel

Our logistics are very efficient yet respectful

The deceased are cared for within or very close to the crematorium site

We use solid pine eco-coffins which are transported efficiently

The majority of cremations are carried out in one location, reducing the consumption of gas considerably

Filtration technology capture any harmful emissions and scrubs the air before it's released to the atmosphere

The heat from within the crematory and wider buildings is recovered to reduce overall fossil fuel consumption

An online book of remembrance is available to reduce paper consumption and the need to remembrance visits (see Pure Memories)

We work with Carbon Footprint to assess and offset our unavoidable emissions

Rest assured that Pure Cremation delivers a funeral service that is dignified and provides professional care while giving you the freedom to choose how, when, and where you make your final journey. All whilst doing our utmost to respect the planet.

Sky burial

This is a type of funeral most often practised in Tibet and other areas nearby. Buddhist monks use this death ritual because it is thought to encourage good karma.

Bodies are taken to charnel grounds where vultures come to eat the flesh, offering back to the world what was taken in life. Monks believe that it encourages the dead to move to the next life without being held back by their physical bodies.

It also happens to be a very practical solution to the scarcity of wood and usable burial grounds.

Burial at sea

A sea burial follows the tradition of Vikings, pirates, naval officers, and anyone who loved the ocean in life. It's an opportunity to return to the sea in death.

There are many ways a sea burial can take place. For example, a body can be set to sea in a designated area in a casket that sinks to the ocean floor. Eco-friendly options such as water-soluble urns for a person's ashes are another alternative.

It's also possible for cremated remains to be mixed with environmentally friendly concrete to create artificial reefs that support marine life.

The cost of a green funeral

The average cost of a funeral that is relatively simple is around £4,184 (source: SunLife Cost of Dying Report 2021). How does that compare with the cost of a green funeral? The cost of a green burial can be anything from a few hundred pounds up to several thousand. Of course, it depends on the area you choose for your plot and what other arrangements you decide to make.

How to organise a green funeral

Organising a green funeral will be a fitting tribute to someone who felt at home outdoors, in wide-open natural spaces. It's also ideal for anyone who wants to protect the environment.

You need to consider some factors when organising the perfect service for your environmentally conscious loved one.

Green funeral directors

It is possible to organise a green funeral yourself, but a funeral director can make the process easier. The first thing you have to do is choose the best one

An excellent place to start your search is by contacting the Association of Green Funeral Directors. Established in 2009, one of its main objectives is to help members of the public find funeral homes in their area which are willing to provide more sustainable and eco-friendly options in the funerals they carry out.

Green funeral providers

There are several green funeral providers to choose from. One thing to look for is that they are working with the Carbon Trust to quantify the carbon footprint associated with its business and are implementing the Carbon Trust's recommendations to make reductions where possible.

Many characteristics make a funeral provider green. For example, they should allow:

The use of sustainable, biodegradable clothing, shroud, or burial container

Use recycled paper products, locally-grown organic flowers, or food

Provide electric-powered transportation to the ceremony

Arrange a small memorial gathering in a natural setting

Provide a natural or green burial

Research natural burial grounds

There are natural burial grounds all around the UK, with new sites opening every year. There are some excellent online sources of information. You should have no problems finding a natural burial ground in your area if you visit the following websites:

More tips on holding an eco-friendly funeral

There are lots of things to consider if you want to hold an eco-friendly funeral. Here are some valuable tips to help you.

Consider the type of coffin or urn you want to use; eco-friendly coffins can be made from banana leaf, bamboo, cardboard, wool, seagrass, pandanus, coco stick, cane, or water hyacinth

If you want to store your loved one's body in an eco-friendly way, discuss refrigeration with your funeral director

Burial shrouds are an ideal option for an eco-friendly funeral

A simple way to be greener is to consider your transportation options; for example, consider car-sharing, cycling, walking with the family, or a horse-drawn carriage if you can find a local carriage-master

Avoid printing Order of Service sheets or hymns use digital ones instead

Avoid the use of plastic cutlery, plates, and glasses

Use a local catering supplier and make sure the food is grown or sourced locally

Ask for donations to charity instead of funeral flowers

Plant a tree instead of having a memorial

Limit the impact of funeral or memorial events

Plan a 'green' memorial service

As more and more of us are asking what we can do to protect the environment, one meaningful way we can make a difference is in our approach to death. Planning an eco-friendly funeral and memorial service can be a powerful parting gift to the planet.

Saying goodbye to a loved one doesn't have to be done traditionally anymore. It's now possible to arrange a green funeral and green memorial service in the UK and take comfort in the knowledge that every aspect has been carefully considered to minimise the impact on the environment and be more aware of the footprint we leave on Mother Nature.

A green memorial service can be just as meaningful and a time for quiet reflection in nature. See some inspirational memorial services planned by families who chose Pure Cremation.

See all articles

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Guide to Green Funerals | Pure Cremation™

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Out of all the different types of funeral services, a green funeral is one of the most eco-friendly. Find more about it in this guide.

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"I would like to have myself returned to the earth with everything else that can biodegrade, to have the least impact."

In death, Megan Spencer wants to return something to the earth and use her body to nourish it. She wants a "natural burial."

"I've always been someone who has lived simply in connection to the earth," says Spencer, 44, co-owner of The Sacred Gardener, an Ottawa Valley school where students are taught how to recognize and harvest wild plants, and to grow, preserve and store their own food.

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"For all the earth has given me, the least I can do is give my body back, and have it be part of the cycle of things," she says. "Inherently, that seems good and right to me - and the least we can do."

Yet, as the Golden Lake woman has discovered during the past three years, that simple idea remains radical enough that most people who want a natural burial have few options available to them. In response, Spencer has helped launch Green Burial Ottawa Valley, a non-profit co-op dedicated to opening a cemetery where natural burials can take place. The co-op already has about 70 members.

Green burials eschew the use of embalming fluid, metal-lined coffins or fossil-fuel fired cremations in favour of what people used to do with their dead: bury them in shallow graves in pine boxes or cloth shrouds to let nature take its course.

Natural burials are shallower than conventional burials so the body remains within reach of insects. "The biggest question we get is, 'Will animals dig me up?'" says Spencer. "But it's not generally something animals want to do: They like things on the surface."

A small mound of dirt is piled on top of a natural grave to discourage animals and account for the settling that occurs when a body decomposes.

The co-op has recently been offered a one-acre plot of land Spencer hopes will one day serve as a cemetery for people across the region who want a low impact end to their existence. "We envision a space where anyone, regardless of their faith, can be buried in a natural way," she says.

Green Burial Ottawa Valley is part of a movement dedicated to making death a more environmentally friendly event. Advocates in the green death movement contend that conventional burials - those that involve embalming, caskets and concrete grave liners - are polluting and unsustainable. What's more, they argue, flame-based cremation leaves behind an unnecessary environmental footprint since it produces greenhouse gases, particulate matter, and sometimes, heavy metals (such as when mercury-based fillings are incinerated).

More environmentally friendly cremation alternatives are now available in Ontario, including two water-based methods: high-temperature and low-temperature alkaline hydrolysis. Arnprior's Pilon Family Funeral Home began offering liquid cremation last year after a two-year battle to obtain a licence.

Several companies also offer biodegradable urns designed to convert cremated remains into a support system for a new tree. A cemetery in Granby, Que. recently opened a section devoted to the urns it calls the "boisé de vie" or "wood of life."

Funeral homes are also responding to the green death movement, and some have started to offer formaldehyde-free, biodegradable embalming fluids, and eco-friendly caskets.

More green innovation is on death's doorstep. The 81-year-old doyenne of Canada's literary scene, Margaret Atwood, is among the investors in Recompose, a Seattle-based company that promises to "return bodies to the land" through natural organic reduction, a form of human composting.

The process, legalized by Washington State in 2019, uses microbes, wood chips, alfalfa and straw to turn a human body - including bones and teeth - into soil within four to seven weeks. The body is placed in a closed drum that's rotated several times a week to assist in decomposition. What remains at the end of the process is about one cubic metre of soil, or about two wheelbarrow loads of material.

Human composting was legalized in the state based on the findings of a study led by soil scientist Lynne Carpenter-Boggs of Washington State University. Six people donated their bodies to the research study, which sought to apply to human corpses a process that has long been used to dispose of animal carcasses.

The study found the heat produced by microbial activity during composting - the temperature inside the drum reached 55 C for six days - killed pathogens and reduced levels of arsenic, cadmium, copper, zinc, lead and mercury to well under Environmental Protection Agency standards. Carpenter-Boggs concluded: "The process of recomposition has been shown to effectively and quickly biologically convert human remans. Final material was obtained that was unrecognizable visually, chemically, or microbiologically as human remains."

Colorado is now considering legislation to legalize the same process. (Colorado is already home to the only open-air cremation site in the U.S.: In the town of Crestone, people can have their remains cremated on a funeral pyre.)

Not everyone has welcomed the launch of Recompose, which began offering its body composting services last year. The Catholic Church in Washington State has denounced the composting of human remains as undignified. "The Catholic Church believes that disposing human remains in such manner fails to show enough respect for the body of the deceased," Joseph Sprague, executive director of the Washington State Catholic Conference, said in a submission to the state legislature.

A group in southern Ontario is now trying to bring human composting to this province.

"When I die, I want to be a tree," says Susan Koswan, 65, a Waterloo writer and environmental activist who founded a non-profit group called The Good Green Death Project. The non-profit volunteer group is working to legalize human composting in Ontario and secure a plot of land where composted remains can be made part of a forest.

Koswan launched the project in 2017 after losing both her parents: one was buried, the other cremated. Koswan decided she wanted something different. "I've always been an environmental activist and I thought there has to be a better way to do this," she says.

Her research led her to Seattle's Recompose, and she was inspired by founder Katrina Spade's vision for a more sustainable form of burial. "I'm a gardener, so composting is what you do, it's what nature does," she says, "and it doesn't require fossil fuels."

Koswan is convinced it's only a matter of time before human composting is legalized here given the public response to the idea. In October 2017, Oracle Research surveyed 1,500 people in Ontario for the Good Green Death Project, and found 57 per cent of them supported composting as a burial option. Support was even higher among those less than 50 years old.

The Ontario government has acknowledged the green death movement. Last year, it issued a discussion paper that sought public input about both alkaline hydrolysis (liquid cremation) and human composting.

"While many people today choose cremation over traditional burial, consumers have been expressing an increased desire for lower-cost services and for newer, 'greener' and more environmentally-friendly forms of disposition," reads the consultation paper issued in March 2020 by the ministry of government and consumer services.

In Ontario, the disposal of human remains is governed by the 2002 Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, but the consultation paper concedes the law may not be adequate to regulate what it calls "emerging technologies." An independent agency, the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO), enforces the existing law and ensures the province's funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoriums abide by its rules.

Right now, liquid cremation is allowed in Ontario under conditions imposed by the BAO, but human composting is not.

Koswan believes composting is so novel as a disposition method that it will likely require new legislation in order to be introduced.

So why is there now so much green disruption in the funeral business? Why are there so many demands for a good green death? Experts suggest it's a combination of secularism and science, economics and environmentalism.

Lisa Wilson, managing funeral director of the Funeral Co-operative of Ottawa, contends the waning influence of the church in North America is one of the factors propelling the green death movement. People are deciding for themselves, she says, what they want at the end of their lives.

"I think this movement is all part of it: We're a different society than we were when I started in this business," says Wilson, a licensed funeral director who has worked in the industry for 27 years.

Green burials are commonplace in some religious communities. Traditional Jewish and Muslim burials, for instance, do not involve embalming or cremation, and the dead are laid to rest in a simple shroud or wooden coffin as soon as possible after death. "It's all religious-based, but it just so happens that the religious traditions and principles are green in nature," says Abu Nazir, chair of the board of the Ottawa Muslim Cemetery.

Megan Spencer says the public's push for greener burials is a natural extension of the environmental movement. "People are now realizing that our decisions impact the Earth at every stage of our lives, from birth to death," she says.

Cost is also a factor. Limited space inside urban cemeteries means prices for burial plots have skyrocketed in most cities during the past two decades. In Ottawa, there remains ample space for burials in existing cemeteries, Wilson says, but prices have gone up sharply. Burial plots in Ottawa's Capital Memorial Gardens Cemetery are now selling for as much as $8,000 each on Kijiji.

The rising cost of being buried is one of the reasons more and more Canadians are opting for cremation. Canada's cremation rate has been rising steadily for decades and reached 73.1 per cent in 2019, according to the Cremation Association of North America.

According to Canadian Funerals Online, cremation is about one-quarter the cost of a conventional burial, which can range anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 depending on how elaborate the service, flowers, casket and grave marker. Green burials cost less than conventional burials, but are generally more expensive than cremation, according to Ontario's Natural Burial Association.

Vancouver's Catriona Hearn, president of the Green Burial Society of Canada, says cremation is now the "default" position for most people. But the average cremation, she notes, still requires the fuel equivalent of one tankful of gas for an SUV, and she's convinced green burials will overtake cremations once more people understand the benefits.

"We want to educate people and make green burial available to all Canadians from coast to coast to coast," she says.

Hearn contends the movement has been driven both by a new openness about death, and the internet's ability to disperse ideas and information. "There's a huge explosion of books about death and dying, and there's a lot more honesty," she says. "I think the world of death has been very slow to change because people didn't think about it before."

Founded in 2013, the Green Burial Society of Canada advocates for natural burials and certifies green burial sites. The organization has so far certified 10 green burial cemeteries in Canada, including two in Ontario: one in Niagara Falls and one in Picton.

Existing cemeteries, however, may not be quick to embrace green burials. Many cemeteries, Wilson says, have invested in chapels, receptions areas and other funeral services, and stand to make more money if they can sell those services - caskets, embalming, grave markers - as part of a full burial package.

What's more, opening a new cemetery dedicated exclusively to green burials is not easy. Money has to be raised to buy the land, which has to undergo geological and hydrological studies to ensure it's appropriate for a cemetery. As part of the licensing process, the BAO also requires that a new operator deposit $100,000 in a trust fund to ensure the grounds are properly maintained.

The local Muslim community raised money for two decades before opening the Ottawa Muslim Cemetery in 2013.

Although death and burial rites are deeply rooted in culture, faith and tradition, green death advocates also want people to consider biochemistry since the vast majority of the human body - more than 99 per cent of it - is made from just six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous. About 60 per cent of our mass comes in the form of water from the combination of hydrogen and oxygen.

People like Megan Spencer want a burial that recognizes we're made from common Earth elements, that we're part of the ages-old cycle of life.

"I would like to have myself returned to the earth with everything else that can biodegrade, to have the least impact," she says. "I don't need to have my legacy remembered for eternity by the amount of things that get put into the ground with me."

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The green death: How environmentally friendly options are changing the way we bury our dead

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"For all the earth has given me, the least I can do is give my body back, and have it be part of the cycle of things."

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Funeral practices are succumbing to environmental concerns. Most bodies are either buried or burnt. With the proliferation of our species both methods have become problematic.

In ecological terms burial is environmentally friendly because it recycles the dead on an organic level, feeding worms and arthropods. But burial needs space and is therefore expensive. There is also the environmental risk of contaminating the water table.

Cremation dispenses with the problem of space, but the body is recycled as inorganic material. Hence cremation is wasteful and the process requires a great amount of fuel; moreover, the emissions contain noxious substances.

Although burial and burning are the most common ways of disposing of the dead, some cultures use other methods. Littoral cultures have often made use of burial at sea, offering the body to marine scavengers. Pastoralists living in semideserts cast bodies to hyenas and vultures.

Cannibalism deserves a mention, notwithstanding the fact that Jonathan Swift's advice to the Irish that they should eat their children is unlikely to find worldwide acceptance.

The most rational method of recycling would be to feed the dead to animals, which are good food converters and which, when their turn comes to be recycled, are nutritious and tasty.

In Christian countries, the eel and the pig seem to be suitable candidates. The Islamic world may have to settle for poultry. In Florida the prosthetic content of corpses would have to be considered. That state could take advantage of the tolerance of large reptilian scavengers for indigestible items, and alligator farming could be made into a pillar of Florida's economy.

Western man-unsentimental, rational, utilitarian-has overcome difficulties greater than those surrounding environmentally friendly and economic body disposal. Economists and environmentalists will solve the problems, and ways will be found to retain piety.

Piety must concentrate on the personality of the deceased and not on the corpse. Funerals unburdened by the presence of troublesome remains will take on new meaning.

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Soundings: Environmentally friendly disposal of the dead

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Funeral practices are succumbing to environmental concerns. Most bodies are either buried or burnt. With the proliferation of our species both methods have become problematic. In ecological terms burial is environmentally friendly because it recycles the dead on an organic level, feeding worms and arthropods. But burial needs space and is therefore expensive.

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Bellefontaine is proud to be a Green Burial Council certified cemetery, offering green burial and green burial products and funeral services in addition to our traditional burial and cremation options. Green burial is an environmentally friendly choice for those wishing to leave a smaller ecological footprint on the earth. Also known as natural burial, this option is free of both conventional chemicals and non-renewable resources. Green burial is often a more affordable funeral option compared to conventional burial, as it forgoes embalming and an outer container for a natural disposition in a simple wicker or wooden casket or burial shroud.

Should you wish to learn more about green burial practices, pricing, or to set up a guided tour of location options, please email us, or contact the cemetery office at 314-381-0750.

Green Burial v. Traditional Burial

Green burial is among the most environmentally friendly and energy efficient forms of interment. Unlike traditional burials, green burials avoid embalming, metal caskets, and burial vaults, which have become standard features for many funerals. Instead, green burial calls for a biodegradable cloth shroud or a simple casket made from renewable material such as pine, bamboo, or wicker.

The Green Experience

Those considering green burial are often surprised to discover how engaging the process can be for the family and loved ones of the deceased. Green burial offers many opportunities for families to participate in a variety of steps throughout the burial process, such as lowering the body into the grave, and filling in the gravespace. Though family participation is entirely optional, many families appreciate the intimacy such close involvement provides.

Green Burial in Historic Bellefontaine

Green burial is permitted throughout all of Bellefontaine Cemetery, whether on a new or existing family lot, or a single grave in a public lot. Individuals can choose to mix green burial options with traditional burial practices to meet specific wishes and desires. For example, one may choose to be un-embalmed, in a shroud, biodegradable, is slower in its return to the earth than a shroud or simple casket.

Evergreen Meadow

In addition to offering green burial throughout traditional burial sections, Bellefontaine has established a dedicated green burial area known as Evergreen Meadow. Evergreen Meadow offers contemplative spaces on a sunny hillside, and is surrounded by mature trees, drifts of flowering shrubs, and woodland ground cover. Grounds maintenance in this area is environmentally sensitive, with limited mechanized maintenance and no use of pesticides or inorganic fertilizers.

Unlike green burial in other locations within the cemetery, each of the following are integral to each burial in Evergreen Meadow:

Only un-embalmed full burials; no cremation in this area

Outer container must be simple and biodegradable, such as a shroud or simple casket; no vaults or traditional wood or metal caskets permitted

Graves are natural in appearance, and free of individual markers, monuments, or specific plantings

For further information about funeral and burial costs associated with going green, please contact the cemetery office.

Flameless Cremation

Flameless Cremation offers many of the environmental benefits of green burial. The process uses water instead of flame, expending 85% less energy than traditional cremation. Using a combination of gentle water flow, temperature, and alkalinity, flameless cremation accelerates the natural breakdown of the body creating ashes for inurnment or burial. This process mirrors what naturally happens during a green burial, but in a period of 10-12 hours instead of several years.

The Green Burial Experience

Two of our Green Burial families genoursly shared their experiences with Paul Shankman in this HEC-TV video.

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Green Burial Options - Bellefontaine Cemetery

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Bellefontaine is proud to be a Green Burial Council certified cemetery, offering green burial and green burial products and funeral services in addition to our traditional burial and cremation options. Green burial is an environmentally friendly choice for those wishing to leave a smaller ecological footprint on the earth.