Can Death Be Sustainable? Delving Deeper Into Green Burial Ethics
Most people think about living choices when we consider terms like sustainability, including things like energy usage, food choices and transportation.
However, there’s now a growing movement behind maintaining sustainability beyond the grave—but the big question remains: can death be sustainable?
The answer to this question is a lot more complicated than most people would assume, but the emerging concept of green burials is a huge way that individuals and families are doing their parts to foster returns to nature that are environmentally ethical.
Below we’ll be detailing what green burials are, the eco-conscious issues associated with traditional burials and green burial ethics!
What Exactly Are Green Burials?
Green burials, also referred to as natural burials, are eco-friendly alternatives for people who want to stray away from conventional burials and cremations.
Green burials avoid metal caskets, embalming chemicals and concrete vaults—and instead they utilize biodegradable materials that help minimize a burial’s ecological impacts.
Many green burials include features like:
- A biodegradable casket (wicker, wood or cardboard)
- No embalming fluids
- Natural cemetery burials, which often preserve natural habitats and land
- No concrete burial vaults
The Eco-Conscious Issues With Traditional Burials
A lot of people don’t know this, but every year (in just the United States) traditional burials utilize:
- 1.6 million tons of concrete
- 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluid
- 64,500 tons of steel
- 20 million hardwood board feet
And as if resource usage isn’t enough, embalming fluids often seep into a cemetery’s soil and traditional vaults disturb ecosystems for generations.
Even though cremation is widely considered to be a less-impactful option in comparison to traditional burials, they still release a lot of mercury and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
But on the other hand, green burials actually help people reduce the footprints of burial services—which essentially provides one final farewell for an individual’s lifetime conservation efforts!
Green Burial Ethics
The green burial movement has always been about environmental ethics, because countless people are now making the honorable decision to die in harmony with the planet.
Some of the most common green burial ethics include:
- Environmental Stewardship: Green burials confirm an individual’s commitment to protecting their local ecosystem and limiting waste. For many, green burials are sort of like the ultimate sustainability expression.
- Honesty & Simplicity: Green burials eliminate unwanted funeral factors like commercialization and excess, and a lot of people now consider natural burials as a more humble, honest approach to end-of-life ceremonies.
- Land Conservation: The vast majority of green burials occur on dedicated, nature preserves. This subsequently means that the people who choose green burials are simultaneously protecting land from future development.
Green Burials Are Gaining Popularity All Around The World
Thanks to some incredible organizations like The Green Burial Council, people all over the world are now able to embrace these ethical funeral practices.
The United States is currently leading the movement with hundreds of certified natural burial sites, the UK and Canada are close behind as green burials are now being closely linked to land trust efforts, and all over Europe and Oceania there are eco-conscious families who are beginning to reshape funeral norms!
Green Burials Offer A Personal Choice To Make Death More Sustainable
The answer to our original question is a resounding yes, but we’re still a long way away from the type of cultural paradigm shift that’ll have more people rethinking what it means to say goodbye to their families and loved ones.
Green burials undoubtedly provide a lighter carbon footprint in comparison to conventional funerals, and they also contribute greatly to the type of land preservation that countless people support.
For many, green burials are their final act of environmental responsibility—and they’re saying in death: I chose to care about the planet.
