Just What Is a Green Funeral?

There is a lot of interest — and a lot of debate — about just what constitutes a green funeral. 

According to the National Funeral Directors Association, a green funeral “incorporates environmentally-friendly options to meet the needs of a family requesting green products, services, or burial.” As the NFDA explains, the trend is only expected to grow as consumers search out these greener solutions.

For some people, the first concern is the carbon footprint their choice will leave behind, both from the emissions from the chosen method and the power that’s needed for it to take place. 

For other people, the priority is avoiding chemicals like embalming fluids. Some may want to skip the use of concrete vaults or avoid land covered in sod, which requires ongoing, regular maintenance for the foreseeable future.

There’s a range of choices out there for end-of-life planning, everything from terramation to water cremation and natural burial. Below, we will shed light on some of the factors to weigh as you consider this very personal decision.

Natural Burial for a Low-Carbon Goodbye

According to Emily Miller, a funeral director, the founder of Colorado Burial Preserve in Florence, Colorado, and a member of the board of the Green Burial Council, a green or natural burial implies that it is a full-body burial with no embalming and in which all wraps or coverings are biodegradable, and no vault is used. There can be a casket, but it must be made of unfinished wood, or it can be made of renewable materials like willow, bamboo, or seagrass. Shrouds can be used if made from cotton, linen, or hemp. Miller explained, “The idea is to return the body to the earth in such a way that there is nothing preventing its natural return to the soil,” she explained.

Greener Choices for Other Methods

Geography is a significant factor, Miller says, as families look for green choices. Not all areas have a preservation cemetery available for burial, but conventional area funeral homes may have some flexibility for hybrid options, where they’ll allow some greener approaches.

If choosing burial, families can ask if the cemetery will allow:

• Burial in a shroud
• Burial that does not use a casket or uses renewable materials instead of metal
• Burial with an overturned vault so the body can be in contact with the ground
• Burial with no vault at all

No state requires outer burial containers or vaults. Vaults are used to make the management of the cemetery grounds easier and are often required by cemetery policy. 

Miller says that some conventional cemeteries will have both gravesites with vaults and those without, side by side. And she says all cemeteries have access to soil to even out uneven spaces.

Miller says some conventional cemeteries may also be open to having natural spaces devoted to native plants and flowers that will help sequester carbon.

When to Skip Embalming

In both cremation and burial, embalming is rarely required, Miller says. “This is something that we might choose because embalming gives the funeral home the ability to do a full restoration with cosmetics, that kind of thing. But even in cases of transportation, air travel, and even in cases where we have to wait for some time for the burial to take place, embalming is not required for any of those eventualities,” she explained. Being buried (or cremated) without embalming means six to eight plastic bottles of chemicals don’t have to be used, and there is less exposure to chemicals by staff. 

More ‘Green’ Issues to Weigh

Miller had a few other tips for those wanting to have a greener goodbye for themselves or others:

• Compare the carbon emissions in “reduction disposition” methods. The Green Burial Council says alkaline hydrolysis or “water cremation” has a smaller carbon footprint than flame cremation. Organic reduction does require energy as well, but the Green Burial Council does not have an estimate of the carbon footprint. 
• Use a soil amendment if you are putting cremated remains into nature or your garden because it is salty, and the pH balance is not friendly to plants.
• Choose urns made from friendlier materials that require less labor and shipping, and can naturally decompose. For urns and caskets, consider skipping plastic or metal and choosing a lighter material like cardboard, bamboo, or papier-mache.

Miller says she found her passion for green burials while working as a funeral home manager, “I had an immediate reaction to the idea of a final resting place in nature. That it wouldn’t feel real manicured and groomed and manmade, but that it would be a real return to the Earth in a natural setting, a wild setting,” she explained.