We are often asked what is a green funeral? Is it a Burial, Cremation, Resomation or possibly Precision Organic Disposal?  

To help answer this question lets employ a fundamental human trait. I am sure you will have heard of the ‘flight or fight’ response – that basic chimp defensive mechanism which we employ when faced with a potentially threatening situation. Well, there is a third lesser known more nuanced response, it is called the ‘er’ or ‘hmmm’ response. When facing adversity and choosing which chimp response to adopt, stay and fight or runaway, our higher intelligence deploys the ‘er’ response, creating the mental space to think ‘er’ maybe there is an alternative! For example, instead of staying and fighting I could stay and negotiate. This response has enabled humans to move forward, developing ever more complex strategies to face ever more complex difficulties, and they do not come more complicated than the climate crises.  

In addition, ‘er’ not only empowers the individual to make better decisions, it also makes outcomes more powerful, strong becomes strong ‘er’, kind becomes kind ‘er’ and most importantly for us green becomes green ‘er’! 

In effect this is the answer to the question, it is not about deciding if one option delivers the ‘green funeral’. The solution to delivering more sustainable final outcomes will not be found in a binary response  - individual means of disposal being good or bad  - rather it is about making all funerals greener. 

Through pausing and thinking, the coffin manufacturer could reduce/recycle/repurpose the waste from their manufacturing process, then every funeral which uses one of those coffins will be greener, if the funeral director ensures their funeral home is well insulated and the amount of energy they use is reduced, every funeral they conduct will be greener, if the florist replaces the single use cellophane or Oasis with a sustainable alternative then every funeral they supply will be greener, if the crematorium recycles the metal from the cremation, then every funeral they receive will be greener, if every cemetery transitions to using electric mowers/strimmer’s etc from the current diesel and petrol machinery then every funeral they receive will be greener and if the memorial mason harvests and recycles the water they use when stone cutting then every funeral which includes a memorial will be greener.  

These examples illustrate how everyone in the delivery chain can play a positive role ensuring every funeral, irrespective of it being burial, cremation, Resomation or Precision Organic Disposal, is made more sustainable.   

Recognition that there are opportunities available to make every funeral greener is at the heart the Greener Globe Funeral Awards sustainability audit and resulting standard.   

If all of us involved in delivering the many components which make up a funeral, paused and adopted a greener way of delivering only part of what they did, those marginal gains would add up. Then, multiplied by the 659,719* UK deaths, will make a truly significant contribution toward protecting our environment. 

*Provisional figure for 2022.