At KORU Cremation | Burial | Ceremony, we’re focused on making the death care industry a more sustainable one. We’re grateful to be able to work with organizations, partners, and clients who share this commitment, helping to facilitate intentional and conscientious choices in end-of-life planning and care.
This is the last article in a 4-part series about more sustainable options that folks can make when it comes to death care. You can read the first post on sustainable disposition options here, the second post on eco-friendly flowers here, and the third post on biodegradable caskets and shrouds here.
In this post, we’re delving into practices, products, and principles related to the act of memorialization.
Eco-Friendly Memorialization Practices
There are many ways to make environmentally-conscious choices around memorialization. We’ll go into more detail about physical memorial products and markers in the following section, but to start off, here are 8 things you can practice, from small gestures to more permanent tributes:
- Carpool to funerals, ceremonies, or other gatherings
- Donate to a charity rather than sending flowers
- If you’d still like to send flowers, choose sustainable ones
- Choose to supply local foods and beverages for gatherings
- Use recycled paper for memorial cards
- Leave condolences online rather than sending a card
- Tell others about the option to choose eco-friendly funeral products and services
- Plant a native tree or shrub to leave a living marker in memory of the one who has died
These practices are often top of mind for us as we help clients plan eco-friendly ceremonies, but the last one is something we do regularly at KORU Cremation | Burial | Ceremony. To honour and remember the clients we’ve served that month, we plant 10 trees each month with Tree Canada.
Sustainable Memorial Markers and Products
When most folks think about memorializing someone who has passed, they might picture visiting a cemetery or a grave marker. If conventional burial is the chosen method of disposition, there are a couple ways to incorporate more sustainable choices:
- Using a memorial marker made from local rather than imported stone
- Opting for an eco-friendly casket
- Opting for burial without a grave or casket liner, if the cemetery allows it
- Placing local, in-season cut on the grave, or, if the cemetery allows it, a potted plant
It’s worth pointing out that, while these are certainly traditional ways of remembering the dead, they’re not the only ways. Conventional burial can be quite costly in both environmental and financial respects, requiring you to pay for a plot and a grave marker at the very least. We’re conscious that this can be a big barrier, especially here in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, where we don’t just pay higher rent on residential real estate.
In our work, we are honoured to help facilitate all kinds of memorials and to witness acts of memorializing that are as diverse as the clients we serve. Here are some ways to memorialize your loved ones in ways that are sustainable, accessible, and even transportable:
- Shoe box shrines: After the death of her sister, Ngaio wanted to hold space and honour her memory with a few meaningful objects. She created a small shrine and kept it on her bookshelf – and liked that she could take it with her and set it up elsewhere if she wanted to, since everything fit into a shoe box.
- Living Reefs: These marine tributes transform cremated remains into underwater reefs, helping to turn overfished areas into biologically healthy and productive ecosystems.
- Memorial jewelry: Whether it’s a keepsake that has a fingerprint engraved, an urn pendant, or a handmade piece inlaid with cremated ash, wearing jewelry can be an act of remembrance that helps keep your loved one close.
- Eco-friendly urns: Whether you are scattering or preserving cremated remains, you can choose an urn made of local or natural wood or stone, or sustainable and/or biodegradable materials.
- Parting Stone: This innovative process solidifies cremated ash remains into a collection of 40 to 60 smooth stones.
Environmentally Friendly Memorialization, According to Green Burial Principles
The Green Burial movement is based on a number of different practices and principles, and one of these is simple memorialization with naturally and locally sourced and biodegradable materials.
It foregoes individual burial plots in favour of the whole cemetery being treated as a protected ecosystem: a living memorial to those interred there. As such, it also prizes communal memorialization over individual monuments.
As the Green Burial Society of Canada puts it, “For people who are mindful of the cyclical nature of life, green burial is a spiritually fulfilling alternative to conventional burial or cremation.”
Honouring Your Loved Ones with KORU Cremation | Burial | Ceremony
If you’d like to learn more about any of these memorialization practices, products, or principles, or incorporate them into end-of-life planning for yourself or a loved one, you can contact us here.
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1 Comment
Franklin
Thank you for offering this helpful post. It is fantastic to hear more about the options available and how they might assist families during such a tough time. Your thoughts about planning and costs are valuable and appreciated. Keep up the wonderful work.