Many people are choosing to go green these days. But most of those people are still alive. Although fewer people are choosing to be green after their death, that number is steadily growing. And the funeral industry is changing along with them to suit their posthumous needs.
Today’s funeral practices are going back to the way they used to do it a couple hundred years ago. Some funeral directors are getting away from using embalming fluid, a practice instituted during the American Civil War to preserve bodies so they could be transported home for a proper burial. Concrete burial vaults are also being used less and less as they disrupt the natural ecology of things. Hearse manufacturers are also making changes to Cadillac hearses and other brands to make them more efficient and cleaner-burning to make them more eco-friendly as they transport bodies around.
“Green death care may sound like just another trend in the eco-chic movement, but it’s actually the way most of humanity has cared for its dead for thousands of years,” explained Joe Sehee of the Green Burial Council. “Things live, they die, they decay and they are reborn. This happens all around us. And with green death care we can take ownership of this in a more environmentally conscious way.”
