Could shrouded burials be the next trend in green funerals?

If we look at the last 10,000 years of human history the casketed cemetery burial is a rather contemporary practice.  Nearly every religion in both Western and Eastern worlds including Christianity, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhism, and Jewish--which together account for about 70% of the world population--have various death rituals that involve burial shrouds.  For the last several thousand years of human history, the majority of death rituals included some type of burial shroud.  Yet today the shrouded burial is almost unheard of in the Western World.  Very few people--less than 1%--have witnessed or otherwise participated in a shrouded funeral followed by either burial or cremation.

The world population surpassed 7 billion near the end of 2011.  There are more people living on the earth than ever before--and that also means there are more people dying than ever before.  More than 50 million people will die this year and most of them will not be entombed in steel or wooden caskets in concrete burial vaults as Westerners today would call a traditional burial.  Most of the deaths on this planet of ours will follow a cultural or religious death ritual that involves a burial shroud.

Only recently has the green and natural burial movement brought the burial shroud into conversations on death care in the Western world.  And at that, there appears to be more talk about burial shrouds than actual shrouded funerals.  Very few Westerners are planning shrouded funerals.  A quick survey of google search trends for "burial shroud" shows zero searches prior to 2010 and trace interest since 2011.  Searches for "natural burial shroud" or "green burial shroud" turn up zero searches.

In 2005 the acclaimed HBO series, Six Feet Under, enacted a shrouded burial for one of the lead characters.  The burial shroud used in the final episode was a secular creation by Esmerelda Kent.  An artist and environmentalist inspired by her practice in Buddhism, Esmerelda starting making green burial shrouds in 2004 and founded Kinkaraco.  Hand-made in California from biodegradable natural fibers like organic cotton, linen, and silk, Kinkaraco provides burial shrouds to funeral homes throughout the United States.

Could shrouds be the next trend for green and natural burial?  The Green Burial Council is an advocate of burial shrouds as are the many conservation cemeteries opening up around the U.S.  Kevin Corrado, natural burial facilitator at the Natural Path Sanctuary in Verona, Wisconsin expresses "that our preference is biodegradable fabric shrouds, but we do allow caskets and other containers."  Several funeral homes in close proximity to natural burial sites are adding green funeral packages but typically include a green casket made from biodegradable materials including wood, willow, and seagrass.  Those that offer a shroud are finding that very few families opt for a natural burial shroud when a green casket is available.

Organic Cotton Burial Shroud with Wooden Trundle by the Northwoods Casket Co.

There are a handful of online retailers who sell green burial shrouds to the public or via wholesale to funeral homes.  In addition to Kinkaraco, also founded in 2004 there is the Natural Burial Company founded by former organic grocer, Cynthia Beal, based in Eugene, Oregon.  Tennessee-based, Forlora offers burial shrouds made from dupioni silk or cotton inspired by the Baha'i faith but also offers secular shrouds since 2010.  Another online retailer, Village Memorial, offers a selection cotton burial shrouds.  Retail prices for burial shrouds tend to range from $250 for cotton and up to $500 or more for silk and intricate hand-made designs.

What families are opting for a natural burial shroud?  Dwight Cushman, founder of Village Memorial, has observed that families opting for a burial shroud are doing so out of a need to be more hands-on in the funeral ritual.  In the last few years there has been a transition by many shroud makers to move from their culturally or religiously inspired roots to make shrouds that are secular and more creatively expressive.  Artisans are adding their own personal touches utilizing reclaimed printed fabrics, natural dyes, scented oils, flower petals, and a variety of other creations.  Those opting for shrouds seek an alternative to the conventional funeral.

In the great scheme of things, Westerners make big changes quickly.  In 1950, 70% of caskets buried in the United States were made of wood.  By the late 1960s, steel replaced wood with 60% of the market.  Similarly, cremation trended from less than 4% in the 1960s to more than 40% by 2010.  Contemporary burial shrouds just might have the right blend of environmental consciousness, artistic expression, hands-on involvement, historic relevance, affordability, and a loose connection to a variety of religions faiths to appeal to the very diverse population that makes up the Western World today in order to become the next great shift in funeral practices in the United States.

Funerals, Fiber, and Fabric

Much of our discourse on green and natural burial is focused on the biodegradability and toxicity of casketed remains in a cemetery burial.  The five standards published by the Green Burial Council in 2011 for shrouds, urns, and burial containers extend our thinking on green burial to also include local-sourcing of organic or sustainable materials.  Let us explore the fibers and fabrics that are used in caskets and burial shrouds and how they measure up to our talking points on green and natural burial.

Organic cotton has a lower carbon footprint.

In previous installments of this column we've used five key talking points to measuring how green a funeral product or service might be.  The five talking points include biodegradability, toxicity, local-sourcing, sustainability, and carbon life cycle assessment.  Each of these talking points is evident in the Green Burial Council standards for burial containers, but not all five of these are necessarily in alignment all the time.  There are compromises to be made.  If we view each of these points through a lens of a harmonious and healthy environment for all living things, the compromises are easier to discuss.

The textile industry is the 5th largest contributor of carbon emissions in the United States followed by primary metals, nonmetallic mineral products, petroleum, and chemicals according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.  World-wide fabric production consumes 1,074 billion kWh of electricity or 140 million tons of coal and 2 trillion gallons of water annually.  Here in the United States the textile industry accounts for 1 ton, or 5%, of every individual's annual carbon footprint.  So when it comes to maintaining a healthy environment for living things, fiber and fabric matter.

The impact of fabric production can be broken into two components.  First, there is the production of fiber to make thread and second, there is the energy required to weave thread or yarn into fabric.  The energy required to operate a fabric mill to weave threads into fabric is about the same for both synthetic and natural fibers.  The differentiation is on the production side.  Natural fibers like hemp and cotton are cultivated and harvested.  Animal fibers like wool also require land and water resources to raise and harvest.  The good news is that agri-fibers are renewable and sustainable.  While synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon do not have an agricultural impact, synthetics are produced from petroleum or other chemicals which have significant toxicity and carbon emissions.

Overall, the heaviest polluters and carbon producers are synthetic fabrics.  Polyester generates 21 lbs of CO2 emissions per ton of fabric produced.  Acrylics produce more than 25 lbs of CO2 and nylon is worse yet.  Domestic cotton by comparison, emits 13 lbs of CO2 per ton of fabric.  Organic cotton does not use nitrogen fertilizer.  Just 1 ton of nitrogen fertilizer emits more than 7 tons of CO2!  Domestic organic cotton weighs in at just over 5 lbs CO2 per ton of fabric produced.  Organic cotton emits less than 1/4th of the CO2 that is emitted by the same amount of polyester.  In short, synthetics are bad, natural fibers are good, and organic fibers are better yet.

Descriptions for conventional casket interiors include words like taffeta, velvet, crepe, pebble, chalet, and chiffon, but nearly all conventional casket interiors are made from polyester.  Polyester fabric is available in various different weave patterns and textures that are durable, wrinkle-resistant, and easy to work with for making casket interiors.  Polyester is less than half the cost of cotton and far less than the cost of organic cotton.  So from a manufacturer's perspective, polyester is a logical choice for making casket interiors.

Lyocell is a low impact fabric alternative.

If we revisit the talking points on greening the funeral industry, any natural fiber-based fabric is biodegradable and organic fabrics have a smaller carbon footprint. Local-sourcing, however, limits our choices in the U.S.  The Green Burial Council standards limit material sourcing to within 3000 miles making domestic organic cotton a good choice.  While some Egyptian, Indian, and Romanian organic fabrics may have a smaller carbon footprint than even domestic organic cotton, these materials compromise on the local-sourcing standard.

On a side note, there is a growing variety of green burial caskets made from natural fiber plants including wicker, willow, cane, seagrass, bamboo, and banana leaves.  While all of these are 100% biodegradable, few meet the local-sourcing guideline for distribution in the United States.  European willow caskets and Indonesian seagrass caskets must be imported racking up carbon emissions from transportation.  Some of these natural fiber materials also fall under scrutiny in their production practices.  For example, the bamboo industry, while touting the sustainability of bamboo as a renewable resource has become subject of criticism for cultivating in marginal waters, displacing local fishing industries, polluting waters, and unfair labor practices.  Seagrass production in Indonesia has been subject to similar criticisms.

Recently the clothing and fashion industry has been subject to scrutiny on fair trade, safe working conditions, pollution, sustainability, and carbon life cycle assessment of textile production.  There is a bright side to all of this scrutiny.  The textile industry has organized the new Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) to address the many issues in world textile production.  This new standard is a tool for an international common understanding of environmentally friendly production systems and social accountability in the textile sector.  The new standard covers the production, processing, manufacturing, packaging, labeling, exportation, importation and distribution of all natural fibers.  The standard is promoting the use of certified organic fibers, prohibition of all GMOs and their derivatives; and prohibition of a long list of synthetic chemicals (for example: formaldehyde and aromatic solvents are prohibited; dyestuffs must meet strict requirements such as threshold limits for heavy metals, no AZO colorants or aromatic amines and PVC cannot be used for packaging).  So there's a lot going on in the textile industry to change the way the fabrics are made to make for a healthier and safer environment for all living things.

So what is the Green Verdict for fabrics in caskets and burial shrouds?  We should look for fabrics made from

Natural cotton monk's cloth casket liner.

natural fibers for their biodegradability.  Organic fibers are slightly better in terms of carbon life cycle assessment.  On local-sourcing, domestic cotton is widely available.  Organic cotton is better from a toxicity perspective.  Cultivated fibers are renewable and sustainable materials.  Interesting alternatives not as easily available as cotton include lyocell, a wood-pulp fabric produced with low energy, fewer emissions, less water, and no bleach.  There are also eco-friendly fabrics made from plants including hemp, soy, and linen (from flax).  These, too, are great green alternatives to the conventional polyester, but not as readily available as cotton.  Animal-based fabrics including cashmere (from goat hair) and alpaca wool would be green alternatives, but are expensive and long-lasting and thus may be better suited to clothing than casket interiors.  Domestic organic cotton might be the greenest and most readily available option for natural burial caskets and shrouds distributed in the U.S.

Are There Green Alternatives to Concrete Burial Vaults?

Are concrete burial vaults bad for the environment?  The Green Burial Council's position on steel and concrete burial vaults is that they must be "not required" in hybrid burial grounds and that they are "prohibited in Council-certified conservation and in natural and environmentally low-impact burial grounds."   Contrast this with claims on some web sites and in advertisements by both funeral homes and concrete vault manufacturers that concrete vaults are "green" because concrete is natural, biodegradable, non-toxic, or otherwise harmless to the environment.  So some of us might be left wondering just what is the problem with concrete burial vaults when it comes to being green or promoting natural burial?

Concrete is all around us and is an inexpensive, long-lasting, multipurpose building material.  As an undergraduate student in civil engineering, I found concrete fascinating.  It cures by absorbing water (hydration) not by drying like many people think.  This magic rock-like stuff gets stronger with age--especially with continued exposure to water.  I was present for the ceremony in 1998 at UW-Madison for the 100th year in a long-running experiment load-testing concrete cylinders that had been mixed by undergraduate students in 1898!  Each year, the cylinders stored in a room with 100% humidity continued to grow in strength whereas those left in dry conditions had long since plateaued.  What could be wrong with concrete?

Concrete is made from water, cement, and aggregate (sand & gravel).  While water and aggregate are relatively easy to come by and inexpensive, cement is not.  Cement is 85% lime and silica by mass plus gypsum and trace amounts of aluminum and iron.  Cement is typically made from calcium carbonate that must be mined, transported, and crushed before being loaded into a kiln.  These kilns are 12 feet in diameter and as long as a football field and heat the calcium carbonate to 2700 degrees F producing lime and lots of carbon dioxide.  The foreign elements, including toxic heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, evaporate off and the remaining marble-sized material called "clinker" is then ground-up into a very fine powder we know as Portland cement mix.  The high temperature kilns require significant amounts of fossil fuels to bring up to operating temperature so these kilns are run continuously.  There are about 100 cement plants in North America.  The cement is transported all over North America by rail and truck for use in our highways, bridges, buildings, and of course, concrete burial vaults.

The environmental impact of concrete adds up quickly.  To manufacture and distribute cement and then mix and transport concrete is very expensive in terms of carbon life cycle analysis.  The concrete industry estimates that a little less than 1 ton of CO2 is released into the atmosphere for each ton of concrete we produce--and this includes a 30% improvement in CO2 production from concrete since then 1960s!  On a global scale, concrete production accounts for 5% to 10% of the total world carbon footprint.  In 2010 the United States alone produced an estimated 63.5 million tons of concrete.  In that same year, the funeral industry buried 1.6 million tons of concrete burial vaults.  Surprisingly, the funeral industry accounts for 2.5% of domestic concrete production.

A single concrete burial vault weights 1800 lbs. and ranges upward to 3000 lbs.  For a 1 ton burial vault we produce about 1 ton of CO2 to manufacture and transport the vault to a cemetery.  This is the same amount of CO2 that a four-person family produces in about 9 days.  It takes a tree about 40 years to sequester 1 ton of CO2.

With the exception of only two or three states, Massachusetts being one, most states do not require concrete or steel burial vaults.  However, most municipal and church maintained cemeteries do require burial vaults.  Burial vaults do have a practical purpose and every vault manufacture's web site is quick to explain the safety and aesthetic value of vaults in preventing grave collapse.  A cemetery operator would also tell you it is far easier to locate neighboring graves with a thin rod when identifying where to dig a new grave if the adjacent graves are vaulted.  Aside from the Green Burial Council's position to forego the vault altogether, could there be a green alternative to the concrete burial vault?

There are some ideas among green-thinking funeral directors and cemetery operators.  One simple idea is to use a vault lid to cover the casket.  If the grave is dug several inches wider than the casket on all sides with a casket-sized channel at the bottom of the grave, the soil could support a simple slab--just a vault lid--and get the benefit of preventing grave collapse with less concrete.  We can do better.

There's no shortage of research on greener concrete.  Carbon tax laws in countries like Australia have implemented a tax of $25 per ton of CO2 produced.  While such laws and regulations are prompting the building industry to improve concrete production methods by adding fly ash, bottom ash, or slag.  One Italian company has developed a concrete that is supposed to fight air pollution.  The mix includes titanium dioxide that absorbs ultraviolet light and purportedly breaks down pollutants in the air that collide with the concrete.  The Jubilee Church in Rome is made from this type of concrete.  In any case, all of these attempts to make green concrete are minimal at best in reducing carbon emissions.  We can do better.

There's a new vault company on the scene--since 2009, that is.  Massachusetts-based, Duke Burial Vaults, markets a plastic burial vault that is five times stronger than concrete, ten times lighter than concrete, and costs less.  Before we get too far, yes, plastic (even recycled plastic) comes with some cost in environmental impact and carbon life cycle analysis.  However, at 140 lbs shipping weight and as much as $1500 savings over concrete burial vaults, Duke has a value-proposition worth a good look.  The vaults are made from polyethylene inner and outer shells with polyethylene structural foam molded in between.  Lighter. Stronger. Cheaper.  But is it Greener?  Polyethylene ranges in CO2 output of 1-3 lbs. per 1 lb. of product produced.  Even at 3 lbs. CO2, that 140 lb vault might be responsible for 500 lbs. CO2 even after freight distribution.  The National Institutes of Health final report on the safety assessment on polyethylene tells us this stuff is pretty safe.  Which is good news because polyethylene is widely used in cosmetics, food packaging, prosthetics, and various implant devices in medicine.  

So what is the Green verdict?  If one can forego a burial vault altogether, that is the greenest option.  But if a vault is required, a Duke burial vault is at least 4 times less harmful in terms of carbon life cycle analysis, and has almost zero impact in terms of environmental pollution.  And if you are a funeral directory or cemetery operator, the best news might be that this green alternative can save money and add a few dollars to your bottom line.

Concrete Burial Vault Facts

• Concrete Burial vaults range from 1800 lbs to 2400 lbs.
• 1 ton of concrete produces ~1 ton of CO2
• The concrete industry accounts for 5% to 10% of the world's carbon footprint
• The average household of 4 people in America produces 40 tons of CO2 per year
• It takes a tree about 40 years to absorb 1 ton of CO2.
• The US Congress has proposed carbon tax $25/ton of CO2-e (this already exists in Australia)
• Every year, we bury 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete burial vaults in America's cemeteries
• The total concrete in made in the US in 2010 is a combined total of 63.5 million tonnes