Green Day - What are People Saying About Sustainability in Death Care?

We were invited to the Isthmus Green Day in Madison, Wisconsin last month to exhibit our sustainable and environmentally friendly caskets.  The Isthmus Green Day is a one-day "sustainability celebration" and expo organized by the Isthmus Newspaper.    What would people think?  Would people be interested in talking about death care at a sustainable living celebration?  What types of questions would we be asked?  We didn't know what to expect but made arrangements for a double-booth to fit four different casket models and four staff.  To our surprise, our caskets were the talk of the show and for more than eight hours starting at 9:00AM that Saturday, the four of us barely had a moment to catch our breath.  An estimated 3000 people attended the expo and we handed out more than 750 brochures.  Here's what people are saying (and asking) about sustainability in death care.

Exhibiting at Green Day, April 2013

Let's talk about cremation.  It isn't often I find myself in a setting where people are openly and genuinely interested in talking about the merits of cremation from an environmental conservation point of view.  After my third conversation, I kept tally marks on a card in my pocket.  By the end of the day just more than 20 individuals or couples had thanked me for speaking with them and affirmed they would be changing their plans from cremation to some type of green or natural burial.  Three key topics emerged in our conversations when comparing cremation and burial in order of interest (1) carbon impact, (2) toxicity and pollution, and (3) land use.  On carbon impact, some people were not at all surprised after considering for a moment the carbon impact of a cremation--a fossil-fueled fire reaching 1800 degrees F for 2-3 hours--ranges from 300 to 600 lbs of CO2.  Compared to the carbon footprint of a conventional steel casket at roughly 2000 lbs of CO2, cremation is a better choice.  However, compared to a sustainable "green" casket at 50 to 150 lbs. of CO2, the environmentally friendly casket is clearly a better choice.  While carbon impact was of significance to most of our audience, some were most moved by thoughts of toxic pollution.  Depending on the study you trust, cremation accounts for 10% to 30% of global Mercury contamination of our environment.  People who care about pollution very quickly agreed to reconsider a natural burial.  A select few individuals were primarily considering land use in their funeral plans based on previous awareness of new conservation cemeteries opening up on the area including Natural Path Sanctuary in Verona, WI.

Let's talk about caskets.  We had four caskets illustrating a range of materials, pricing, and finishes.  To our surprise, the simple, rectangular and boxy "Simple Pine Box" stole the show!  Our experience with Green Day attendees is consistent with our funeral home partners.  While living people choose a simple pine box for themselves, they will not choose the same simple pine box for a loved one who did not previously express their wishes for a simple casket.  There was some curious interest in our Orthodox caskets that contain no metal nails, screws, or hinges, but most attendees had no issue being buried with a handful of fasteners and some metal hinges.  We learned that toxicity and our choices in wood finishes were very important for this audience.  Caskets with finishes free of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) were preferred over those with even low VOCs.  As for interiors, our audience expressed interest in biodegradable natural fiber interiors.  People genuinely recognized that while they could easily imagine selecting a very simple interior for themselves, many recalled a recent funeral experience where they would have had difficulty making the same decision for a loved one.

Let's talk about funeral homes.  There was no confusion whatsoever when people asked about price and we explained prices were set by funeral homes and that we distributed our caskets through funeral homes exclusively.  It was not a leap to recognize us as a casket manufacturer and not a casket retailer--not unlike the Toyota exhibit 15 feet from ours.  We offered ballpark price ranges that funeral homes might charge and that satisfied their questions when comparing the different models.  We shared contact information and literature for our funeral home partners in the Madison area.  We also found it encouraging the number of people who had already made or were making their funeral arrangements in advance.  It seems clear to me that for individuals who care about the environment, they do not want to leave their funeral choices up to their survivors--advance planning was a priority.  Several individuals commented how they wished their funeral director had more information on sustainability, environmental impact, and toxicity of their choices including cremation, embalming, concrete vaults, and casket options.

Overall, I would say our participation in Green Day was a success and full of pleasant surprises.  People are genuinely interested in talking about sustainability in death care at an event like this.  I would encourage others vendors in the death care industry to seize the opportunity to participate in local "sustainable living" events.  People were more interested than even I would have expected before attending Isthmus Green Day.

The Conversational Undertaker

Finding the meaning of "green" in green funeral inquiries

I've heard this story many times in the last few years as relayed to me by funeral directors.  A couple arrives to make funeral arrangements for an elderly family member in the final days of life or immediately after death.  Early in the conversation, a member of the family says something like, "Dad wants one of those Green Funerals... you know, like we heard on Public Radio."

As professionals in the death care industry, hearing a family ask about a Green Funeral is a good conversation starter.  In the whirlwind of news, sensational articles, books, television shows and Hollywood productions in the last several years, many people are interested enough to ask about a Green Funeral.  However, not every family knows fully what "green" can mean regarding a funeral.  The family's request could be motivated by any of several factors and warrants further conversation to understand the family's wishes.  The better we understand the reason for the family wanting to know more about green funeral options, the better we can serve them.

Often times the key motivator for inquiring about a green funeral is cost.  Many funeral directors have shared with me the family's directive, "Dad just wanted a simple pine box.  Simple and plain, nothing fancy."  Directives like this are sometimes a bit hostile and motivated by Mitford's writings on American funerals.   We've learned that after presenting an inexpensive "simple pine box" like our Phillips Simple Pine Casket, many families shy away from this option unless the deceased had made explicit arrangements beforehand with the funeral home or a family member.  In this early stage of grief, many families are not prepared to make as bold a statement as might be perceived by the family and community with just a plain pine box.  For this family, we can show a more conventional-looking wooden casket like our Pine Panel Casket that appeals to the family that is both price-conscious and eco-conscious.  Additionally, we can address their concerns for cost in other ways--planning a funeral to meet a budget is not new to the death care industry.  The lesson learned here is that there are a few families who will ask for a Green Funeral when they mean to be more informed about ways to manage cost.

For some families the foremost concern when inquiring about a green funeral is the environment.  Unlike the cost-conscious, this family is primarily concerned with minimizing the impact on the environment.  Until recently, the only perceived alternative to a conventional funeral has been cremation.  We now have alternatives to cremation that convert many families to a full service green funeral that may be much more appealing to the eco-conscious.  A good indicator that a family has already done their homework on green funerals is their openness and willingness to discuss detailed matters such as the cemetery, burial vaults, biodegradable

Handcrafted Pine Casket by Northwoods Casket Co.

caskets, and embalming alternatives.  Cost is typically not an issue when it comes to paying a premium for a burial site in a natural burial cemetery, a hand-crafted wooden casket, and the added cost for refrigerated storage and/or dry ice in lieu of embalming.  For the family most interested in avoiding environmental impact, it may be appealing to complement the funeral services with a memorial tree-planting or a donation to an organization that will plant trees as an off-set for the impact of the funeral.

For other families, the main concern when considering a green funeral is more personal.  A family that is well-informed about natural burial may seek a funeral that inters the remains of the deceased in a manner that does not prohibit decomposition and allows the body to return to the earth.  For some, this is a spiritual matter and they want to be in direct contact with the soil in order to return to the earth more naturally.  Depending on the cemetery requirements, there may be options to fore-go the concrete vault altogether or use a grave liner.  The family may ask about biodegradable caskets that do not contain precious metals or chemical finishes.  For these families it is important to recognize that "biodegradable" and "low environmental impact" are not the same.  (Recall from a previous installment of this column that a biodegradable natural burial casket shipped from Indonesia via ocean cargo and air-freighted across the US would have more than twice the environmental impact when measured with carbon life cycle analysis than a steel casket assembled in the US.)

We all have much to learn as the death care industry changes.  The more families are willing to get involved, make advanced arrangements, and ask questions about death care, the more opportunity we have as death care professionals to make a lasting impression.  For many of us, it is that lasting impression, and the loyalty earned with it, that keeps us engaged in our profession.  When we are prepared to talk about Green Funerals with those families that inquire about them, we can better serve their interests, varied as they may be.

Green Funerals are for the Living

A Simple Pine Box by the Northwoods Casket Co.

Dead people don't have choices.  They're dead.  Living people understand that dead people don't have feelings, don't care about money, have no interest in being comfortable, and do not care about the weather.  These are concerns for living people.  And yet, when living people make funeral decisions for the deceased many of these elements come to the forefront in the decision making process.

As death care professionals, we've seen it all.  While there are those moments we witness something we've never seen before, we are intimately familiar with the grieving family and their difficulty in making funeral choices.  Is this the casket Mom would have wanted?  Are these flowers too much, or not enough?  What will the rest of the family and her friends think?  Yeah, Dad wanted a cheap pine box, but is this too cheap? Will Grandma be comfortable?  We just cannot stand the thought of Grandpa's casket being submerged in water--maybe we better get the sealed concrete burial vault with a 5-year warranty.

When it comes to making smart choices in death care, we've noticed that living people make decisions very differently for themselves than they do for the deceased.  At the Northwoods Casket Co. we can attest that our funeral home partners sell very few Simple Pine Boxes to a family in an at-need funeral situation; yet in the same time our partners have sold more than 200 Simple Pine Boxes to living people making choices for their own funerals.  What does this mean?

Our industry is on the verge of change.  The decade beginning 2010 is one of significant social, economical, and political change.  The population itself is changing--aging baby-boomers are reaching their final stages of life, GenX-ers are becoming late parents or early grandparents, and a new generation raised on social media is entering the working class.  The "green" marketing fad is maturing into a movement built on an imperative for Environmental Sustainability.  Attitudes toward the environment, the economy, and entitlements are changing.  Today, there are volumes of information (and mis-information) available through multiple channels of media for the voter, consumer, or otherwise individual searching for an answer or the confidence to make an informed choice.

In death care, we see casketed burials shrinking by 2% annually despite a growing death rate giving way to cremation--the only alternative to a casketed cemetery burial in the last several decades.  At the same time, we see exponential growth in openings of new green cemeteries, and new "green" areas of existing municipal and private cemeteries.  In its third year of offering natural burial, River View Cemetery shares that nearly one-quarter of all burials at their cemetery in Portland, Oregon were natural burials in 2012.  There are more local casket builders today than there have been since the First World War.

Living people make choices, and the living people are choosing local and sustainable alternatives to Big Business.  This is as true in food with the rapidly growing population of local community supported agriculture producers (CSAs) as well as with the trend toward local breweries and distilleries (the ATF has awarded more distillery licenses in the last 5 years than in all the years since prohibition).  These are just two examples of many trends toward local, sustainable, and environmentally friendly practices that transcend ethnic, class, and geographic divides in our population.

Here's the rub for us death care professionals.  There's a growing trend in death care not unlike those in the food and beverage industry.  There have been more green funerals in the last 5 years than in the previous two decades.  There are hundreds of funeral homes, churches, and volunteer groups organizing in America to offer assistance with green funerals.  At the Northwoods Casket Co. we answer more than a dozen callers each week asking for help with local ordinances and state laws, casket & vault requirements, and the many other questions best answered by a licensed funeral director.  We refer every caller to their local funeral director.

As death care professionals, the opportunity is ours to embrace changing attitudes and reestablish ourselves as local partners committed to both environmental sustainability and helping our families make informed choices in death care.  We already recognize that funerals, like choices, are for the living.  The death care industry may shrink [in dollars] in the coming decade despite the long over-anticipated 25% growth in the death rate by baby-boomers, but as with all change those of us who embrace change will persevere.