Green Funeral Service Ideas

In today’s environmentally conscious society, planning events to be ‘greener’ has become an established standard. You too can make your funeral service significantly more environmentally friendly with just an extra 20 minutes of planning. All it takes is a little effort to make a big difference. This article will help you discover the best ways to plan a green funeral service. Read on to get started now.

Finding the Bad Reveals the Good

Step one is identifying all the potential environmentally unfriendly activities that typically take place at a funeral. Don’t limit yourself to only thinking about the obvious, consider even the most common, mundane steps such as:

• Invitations
• Reception
• Transportation
• Flowers
• Location

Those are some of the main points to help spark your mind. Think about what a traditional funeral service expects of each listed point, then think of the potential environmental dangers. For example, consider carpooling with friends and family to both save gas, and avoid potential parking issues at the reception. There are many quick fixes, such as carpooling, that can instantly make your funeral service more environmentally friendly.

Use Eco-Friendly Funeral Products

Hinted above, purchasing local flowers grown without pesticides can reduce your eco footprint while supporting your local economy. The problem with purchasing flowers online, or from big box stores, and having them delivered is the heavy stress the large delivery trucks and excessive packaging puts on the environment. Consider creating a flower fund for the entire family to guarantee only the best eco-friendly flowers are purchased all at once.

Minimize Use of Resources

After the funeral service ends, most family and close friends tend to gather together at a local home. Consider waiting until that moment to have lunch together and share memories. If you’re looking to have a picnic at a natural burial ground, remember to bring re-usable plastic containers, avoiding non-recyclable disposable sandwich bags.

Another tips is avoiding using paper entirely by emailing funeral invites and thank you notes rather than using cards that are going to be in the trash just a month later. If you choose to go the digital route and email family and friends it may be a good idea to have everyone RSVP by phone call. This ensures everybody receives your email without any technical issues.

Use a Green Casket

Green caskets are specially designed to biodegrade naturally. They are constructed with sustainable wood products absent of any dies, chemicals, or metals, using traditional carpentry methods to create corners and folds. Green caskets tend to have a higher price tag than their more common metal alternatives due to the manual labor they take to create. Green caskets are often handmade in small specialty woodworking shops. They are very beautiful pieces of art that also benefit the environment around us.

Planning a Green Funeral Benefits Everybody

Planning a green funeral service is a great deed to the local eco-system. Doing your part to better the environment is an honorable thing, especially at the time of a funeral. For even more green funeral service ideas, consider having a green burial done in a natural burial ground. Every small adjustment which betters our world is a step in the right direction.