Go green even in death

Go green even in death. Natural burials are a way to go green even in death. Stock image

One environmental group has found a way to make conserving green spaces not only attainable, but their method ensures the land will never fall victim to development.

The Natural Burial Association (TNBA) is a non-profit organization that launched in 2005 in Toronto, with the goal to conserve lands by establishing, promoting and supporting natural burials, a method of leaving the earth with as little a carbon footprint as possible.

Janet McCausland, director of TNBA and a founding member, said environment groups such as Ontario Nature and The Nature Conservancy, with whom they have similar goals, typically tend to be land rich, but money poor.

"So one of the ways natural burial helps to do that (raise money) is to provide a source of income and revenue for land conservation or a land organization," she said.

Choosing a natural burial means after you die, you skip all of the processes typically done with a traditional burial including embalming, an expensive casket, plot of land and headstone.

With a green burial, McCausland explained, the process is quite simple. You work with a funeral home that caters to green burials, choose a plot and you're body is put into a biodegradable shroud or a plain pine environmentally friendly, locally made casket.

"The grave can be dug with a backhoe or sometimes a shovel, then the body gets put in, the family has a ceremony and that's basically it," she said.

Typically, we have two choices when we die: burial or cremation, but each option comes with an environmental footprint.

For example, McCausland said it takes a lot of energy to burn a body in a crematorium.

"As well, if you have fillings in your teeth or if you have other things that go into the crematorium and that all gets released into the atmosphere through the burning process," she said.

If you are buried, you are embalmed with chemicals such as formaldehyde, which eventually leaks back into the ground, and buried in a hardwood casket that has metal hinges, varnish and glue.

"(The casket) is made from trees cut down half way across the world only to be made into caskets to be put into the ground," she said. "...We thought that was crazy, so what's the greener way to go and how can we help to change opinion and to get people to make that choice?"

McCausland said a natural burial gives people the option of dying as they may have lived, environmentally conscious.

"It just makes so much sense for those who are trying to reduce their footprint and live a greener lifestyle to be able to make their final choice of how they dispose of their body," she said.

As with all burial grounds, by law, the area is considered scared, to never be sold or developed. With natural burial grounds, they are intended for use, not just kept as places to go and remember loved ones.

"If there is no big headstone or things like that, it's just natural space, so people can go hiking and walking and hang out and play with their dogs...so the land is taken up, but at the same time the land is free for other uses as well," she said.

While this may challenge traditional values that say you don't walk on graves let alone partake in leisure activities, McCausland said most people are delighted to hear about natural burials and said she has only encountered a handful of people with apprehensions.

"Most people just love the idea. You just tell people it's compost, you're composting your body and they say, 'OK, I get it,' and they really want to find out more," she said. "I know people that have put it into their wills already."

That being said, McCausland said the education component is a big part of her work. She often speaks to different church groups, memorial societies and university students to educate them about the option of green burials.

She said people usually respond well to the idea and say it makes perfect sense.

However, embracing a greener burial also means people have to change their ideas surrounding traditional burial practices.

"The traditional horror story, 'Is that how much you loved your mother, you want the cheap casket' so there is some stress around that, but people are becoming far less religious and don't want something in a church or synagogue."

And for those religions that have specific rituals for how the body is to be laid to rest, McCausland said they can easily work with each religion to combine green practices with religious ones.

"People find it very spiritual, and it is a milestone in life and a rite of passage and how do you recognize that in a meaningful way but also not to have a big footprint as well," she said. And wakes are still possible, McCausland said. The body is put on dry ice until people say goodbye.

While there are only two natural burial grounds in Canada, one in Coburg, Ontario, and the other in Victoria, British Columbia, McCausland said there are about 15 natural burial sites in the United States and 220 in the United Kingdom.

With the Coburg site officially opening in July, McCausland said people now have a place to make reducing the impact of their burial an option. While the process is simpler and greener, McCausland said their goal is not to be cheaper.

"It would be the same type of cost and any money that would be additional would go to land conservation to try and buy up more land to conserve," she said.

McCausland also said the TBNA is currently working with organizations that want to establish new natural burial sites as well as with conventional providers to allow them to have a greener option for their customers.

They are also trying to raise money to open a site in the Greater Toronto Area.

Visit www.naturalburialassoc.ca for details.