Everything That You Need To Know About Green Funeral Home

Even a decade or two ago, the level of conscience in humans was relatively low when it came to our duties towards the environment, which has resulted in having disastrous effects on the health of our planet. Fortunately, the awareness amongst us has spiked to a level which has compelled us to take spear-heading moves to protect Earth. We have realised that we don’t need to abuse our planet to bury our loved ones and read your condolence message. Although it has been slow in coming, we are happy that a portion of the population is at least making some efforts towards it. One such effort is the existence of a green funeral home. So what is a green funeral home and how can you avail one? We bring the answers to these questions and much more here.

What is a Green Funeral Home?

A green funeral home is a type of funeral home that provides environment-friendly goods to their customers while offering non-toxic body preparation options. Besides, they also work with natural burial grounds and green cemeteries to help lessen the level of pollution.

A green funeral home has to meet certain criteria set forth by Green Burial Council. These homes must offer to hold a public viewing without embalming and should have multiple burial containers made from plant-based and biodegradable materials. And most importantly, they should make environment-friendly body preservation and storage available.

Things to Keep in Mind before Using a Green Funeral Home

The first trouble that people face is to make sure whether a green funeral home is authentic or not. An ideal green funeral home will anyways advertise itself as one. It will have at least one staff who has experience of getting educationally trained by Green Burial Council.

However, you can also perform a green funeral at a normal funeral home that does not advertise itself as a green funeral home. If you are confused regarding the status of a funeral house, you can directly talk to the funeral director there. He or she will be able to give you a clear answer as to whether it’s a green funeral house or not.

Also, one thing that you should keep in mind is that there are varying levels of “green” in a funeral home. You can choose to have a green casket instead of a conventional casket or you can decide to have the body of the deceased person to be refrigerated instead of embalmed. You can also decide whether you want to cremate the body or you want to bury the body in a natural burial ground or green cemetery.

However, don’t think that having a green funeral will stop you from experiencing the rituals and actions of a standard funeral. A green funeral doesn’t interfere with the logistics of funeral or memorial service. You can still conduct gatherings, receptions, wakes, reading of sympathy messages, visitations, etc., in a green funeral. In fact, a great way of incorporating the fact that you are giving back to planet Earth even in the midst of a severe loss is to highlight the fact that you are not polluting or harming the environment while performing the last rites for the deceased person. You can include it in a small way while reading your condolence message. This will show that the said person cared about nature and refused to use pesticides and other chemical fertilizers to degrade their body and instead relied on only natural products for the same.

A funeral is the last time that you will be physically in close proximity of the said person. So, don’t compromise with your emotions. But performing a green funeral will be your way of showing that you are not willing to have the last actions done in honor of the deceased end up in jeopardising the environment. You can also choose to have your own funeral be done in a green way. You can do so by pre-planning your funeral and stating that you wish to have a green funeral. You can rest assured that all of the other aspects of the funeral, including gatherings, receptions, and reading of condolence messages will take place with no compromise.