Embedded Files
2011). It proved to be successful as it showed a “reduction in energy use of 2% over one year within a sample set of 35,000 households” (Schultz et al. 2007; Fink, 2011). According to Schultz, this was the result of the positive support as well as the comparative scoring in relation to their peers in the area (Schultz et al. 2007; Fink 2011). The use of this psychological technique in relation to climate change concerns “is gaining support in Australia and the United States, where the cliche ́ ‘‘keeping up with Joneses’’ may eventually work in reverse and encourage greater energy savings” (Schultz et al. 2007; Fink 2011). GREEN BURIAL: THE LAST FOOTPRINT 24 Measuring Impact. The above review of the literature has shown the negative environmental impacts of cremation and burial as well as the positive environmental benefits of green burial. However, there are conflicting perspectives on how big of an environmental impact it truly has and whether it’s worth worrying over (Keijzer, 2015). This is mirrored in other environmental concerns such as water usage and ways to conserve it (EPA, n.d.). According to the Environmental Protection Agency, thermoelectric power counted for 45% and irrigation counted for 32% of the U.S. freshwater withdrawals in 2010 (EPA, n.d.). Therefore if consumers aim to reduce their water usage, how big of an impact will that have? If reducing the time consumers are in the shower won’t solve the world’s global water problems, “then choosing green over conventional burial will not be an end-all solution to our environmental death problems, either” (Kelly, 2015). Kelly says that although individual consumer choices matter and moving away from environmentally destructive habits are positive, the “rhetoric of green choices provides the illusion that individual acts amount to profound cultural shifts'' (Kelly, 2015). Essentially, individual “change doesn’t equal social change” (Jensen, 2009). Funeral directors are urged to please the decision-makers in all of us, but this hasn’t been proven to be effective (Kelly, 2015). Despite the focus and attention on individualized funerals, the fact remains that “funerary practices remain quite uniform and our choices quite slim” (Kelly, 2015). Barriers to acceptance and practice. There are significant barriers to the green burial movement and they have been there from the beginning (Kelly, 2015). The biggest being the death care industry and cemetery laws (Kelly, 2015; Brown, 2019). Kelly writes that the funeral care industry, worth more than $15 billion, consists of “funeral homes, funeral directors, and products - caskets, chemicals, vaults, insurance that manages prepaid funerals, and cemeteries” GREEN BURIAL: THE LAST FOOTPRINT 25 (Kelly, 2015).
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