Funeral directors are now able to offer much more eco-friendly funeral options including eco-friendly burials and we can offer services which make much greener choices in terms of the environment. We use the word ‘greener’ rather than ‘green’ very consciously. The carbon footprint of a funeral can be reduced in a variety of different ways, but carbon zero funerals don’t (yet) exist in the UK.
We notice that what can be gained with one eco-friendly funeral choice is often lost at another stage of the process.
For example:
- Woodland burials can often involve using fossil fuels to travel a greater distance to the funeral and on future visits
- The natural materials used in eco coffin-making are sometimes sourced from overseas
- Cardboard coffins can involve highly intensive production processes
- Some would argue that cremation is as environmentally friendly as burial. Although cremation uses natural resources, it quickly achieves a process that takes many years to achieve through burial and it doesn’t use up precious urban or agricultural space
Although there is no truly green, carbon-zero funeral, there are ever-increasing ethical eco-friendly funeral choices for those of us who want to protect our environment.
