Families find solace in natural burial, home funerals and honored rituals.

Transcription

1 Families find solace in natural burial, home funerals and honored rituals. Shari Wolf, Operations Officer Green Burial Council and Owner/Funeral Director Natural Grace

2 Presentation Overview Introduction Green Burial Council Natural Grace Green Burial History of funeral and burial practices in the US Who is interested in green burial and natural deathcare and why Pictures and video of green burial Natural and conservation burial grounds in the US Natural Funeral Options Home Funeral Vigils ralgracefunerals.com

3 Green Burial Council Independent, tax-exempt, nonprofit organization working to encourage environmentally sustainable death care and the use of burial as a new means of protecting natural areas. With the involvement of environmentalists, scientists, attorneys, and representatives from the funeral service industry, the GBC has set forth the world s first standards and eco-certification program for: Burial Grounds Funeral Homes Products The standard bearer throughout North America with 300 approved providers operating in 41 states and 5 provinces In the process of forming a (c)(3) to focus on community education and outreach. ralgracefunerals.com

4 Natural Grace Natural Grace is a full service funeral provider offering exclusively environmentally friendly funeral, burial, and cremation options to families. Natural Grace supports the empowerment of the family to take ownership of any and all aspects of the funeral process. Natural Grace encourages funeral, burial and cremation services that are simple, affordable and focus on respect for the deceased, the living, future generations, and this planet we all share. naturalgracefunerals.com

5 What makes a burial green? Green Burial No embalming, or embalming with a natural product only (i.e. non-toxic) No concrete vault Biodegradable casket or shroud Can result in the conservation of natural resources and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat. Conventional Burial Embalming with formaldehyde or other toxic chemicals permitted Concrete vault required Metal caskets allowed

6 How did we get here?

7 What did we do before the advent of the modern funeral industry?

8 ralgracefunerals.com Embalming

9 ralgracefunerals.com President Lincoln s Funeral

10 ralgracefunerals.com Concrete Vault

11 Each year in the U.S. we bury: 827,060 gallons of formaldehyde-based embalming fluid 90,272 tons of steel (caskets) 2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets) 30-plus million board feet of hardwoods including tropical (caskets) 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults) (Compiled from statistics by Casket and Funeral Association of America, Cremation Association of North America, Doric Inc., The Rainforest Action Network, and Mary Woodsen, Pre-Posthumous Society). ralgracefunerals.com

12 Eco-conscious consumers Who wants green burial? 21% of 50+ Americans polled were curious about green burial (AARP National Study, 2007) 43% of those polled in a 2008 survey conducted by funeral industry publishers Kates-Boylston said they would consider a green burial Religious traditionalists (and non-traditionalists) Cremation consumers Baby Boomers ralgracefunerals.com

13 Today s Aging Baby Boomers Just as they've reinvented or modified every life stage they've entered, the Baby Boom generation is beginning to rewrite the way America deals with life's final chapter. A major new trend among Boomers is to crack open the taboo, question institutionalized approaches to death and replace them with a more personalized, more humane model. The geometric growth of hospice care and alternative approaches to funerals, including the increase in cremation and casket stores are indications that traditional and institutional approaches to the end of life are now undergoing Boomerization. For Boomers and their parents, the ways to say goodbye will increase as they gain more knowledge about end-of-life issues and the power that goes with it. American Demographics ralgracefunerals.com

14 Options for Green Burials on the Rise

15 Why green burial appeals to consumers Environmentally-friendly Authenticity Intrinsic value Invitation for participation Connection to ritual Connection to life ralgracefunerals.com

16 Conventional Cemetery

17 Natural Burial Ground Greensprings is a place of one hundred acres of rolling hilltop meadows south of Cayuga Lake in New York s lovely Finger Lakes region. Greensprings is bounded by 4,000-acre Arnot Forest and 4,000-acre Newfield State Forest.

18 Natural Burial Grounds require the adoption of practices that are energy-conserving eliminate the need for materials that are toxic or non-biodegradable prohibit the use of vaults, metal caskets, and embalming of decedents with toxic chemicals must be designed, operated and maintained to produce a naturalistic appearance based on the use of plants and materials native to the region have patterns of landscape that are derived from, and compatible with, regional ecosystems ralgracefunerals.com

19 Conservation Burial Grounds In addition to meeting all the requirements for Natural Burial Grounds must: further legitimate land conservation involve an established conservation organization (i.e. land trust, park service agency) that holds a conservation easement or has in place a deed restriction guaranteeing long-stewardship ralgracefunerals.com

20

21 Natural & Conservation Burial Grounds Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve, NY Greensprings offers ecologically sound burial options and a natural return to the earth simple, affordable, and respectful of the human spirit. It supports an idea that you can give in death, as you do in life, for the people and things you love. Through natural burial at Greensprings, you create a legacy of enduring stewardship and renewal for generations to come.

22 The smallest sprout shows there really is no death --Walt Whitman White Eagle Nature Preserve Cemetery, WA Twenty beautiful acres set within 1100 acres of permanently protected oak and ponderosa forest, meadow, on the edge of spectacular Rock Creek Canyon near the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. ralgracefunerals.com

23 Ramsey Creek Preserve, SC Memorial Ecosystems Inc. opened Ramsey Creek preserve in 1998, the first green cemetery in the United States. The preserve was formed to harness the funeral industry for land protection and restoration, to fund non-profits, education, the arts and scientific research, and to provide a less expensive and more meaningful burial option.

24

25 Natural approach to care of the body Natural body preparation through topical treatment Preservation through cooling Natural appearance

26 Unique funeral and memorial service options Home funeral vigils Family Participation Witness cremations Life celebrations Personally made caskets and urns

27

28 To bury the dead is a corporal work of mercy. To revere the earth is our spiritual duty. The End Trappist Monks, New Melleray Abbey ralgracefunerals.com