the Natural Burial Company - USA

Biodegradable Caskets and Ash Burial Urns for North America

"VISIT OUR PRODUCT LIST and GALLERY"

"The Natural Burial Company promotes the production
of natural goods and services to support
environmentally sound funeral and cemetery
practices in the 21st Century"

 

OUR MISSION: The Natural Burial Company develops, markets and supplies environmentally friendly burial products and services that offer people more natural choices, and truly personalizes one of the most important times of a life - its end.

"VISIT OUR PRODUCT LISTING PAGE"

GREENING UP THE GRAVES - why we do what we do:

Time and again, conversations with the public reveal that a large percentage of people would rather have a natural burial. It's possible to do this safely and sustainably (the UK is proving it!) but we've simply not been given those options in the US - until now.

Check out our natural burial products list to see the creative and interesting range of natural caskets and urns coming into the marketplace. We love the recycled paper Ecopod for its style and forward thinking, our formaldehyde-free casket kits for economy, efficiency, and ease of use.

Thanks to New Society Publisher's generous permission, you can read a free online condensation of Natural Burial Company founder Cynthia Beal's forthcoming book, "Be a Tree, the Natural Burial Guide for Turning Yourself into a Forest" at http://www.beatree.com.

There's an open comments thread there, and Cynthia is actively soliciting feedback to help the book, scheduled for publication, become as good and useful as it can be. If you find great links, or have questions, just post them there. Also, don't hesitate to look into a couple of the best online forums for natural burial conversation - they're listed in our sidebar to the right under "Natural Burial Conversations".

 

WHY WE IMPORT: "Tried and Tested"
The Natural Burial Company is sourcing its first generation of woven biodegradable burial coffins from the UK because funeral directors and cemetery managers in the UK have been using these caskets and urns successfully in cemeteries and crematoria for over a decade.

Thousands of these coffins are now in woodland burial grounds throughout the UK, and we're confident that using a tried and tested product in the early days of the natural burial/clean cremation movement will ensure that our customers always receive the best, and that the new natural burial groundskeepers learn what good products look like.

Our first (and most glamorous) coffin is the recycled paper Ecopod, pictured in Brighton's ARKA Original Funerals shop in the store window to the left. The Natural Burial Company provides solid wood, chemical-free plywood, woven fiber, cardboard, and handmade paper vessels as both biodegradable coffins and ash burial urns. Our  variety of flat-packed coffin kits are great for both earth burial or cremation.

We're excited that, in the process of seeking these out, we've found other items from Asia, Indonesia, Europe, and Australia, as well as a few overlooked gems in our own USA. Many of those are on display in our first gallery, located in Portland, Oregon.

The "CARBON FOOTPRINT"

We work hard to minimize the miles a product travels whenever possible. We work with shipping services that find the shortest routes while balancing the needs of our customers, and we try to ensure that the products are transported as few times as necessary to reach the end-user. 

We understand the "carbon footprint" argument quite well. William Wainman of the SAWD Partnership offers this comparison of fuel costs when shipping his Fair Trade Certified woven bamboo coffins. By our calculations, 1 coffin in one of our loaded containers uses 1/6th - 1/3rd of a gallon of fuel for the complete trans-Pacific trip! Even if it used 2-3 times that much,

One thing we'd like our customers to keep in mind - the amount of energy that went into making one of these woven coffins in the first place is VERY small, compared to the resources used to make the parts of many locally created metal, plastic - and even wooden - items. Locally woven caskets aren't available wholesale yet (but we're working on it!). There's always a balance to consider.

Finally, we import very few coffins, and we only pick the ones that are "well-made by the well-paid." We work with a local watershed restoration tree-planter and fund native tree-planting in our area to offset fuels spent in transport. And of course, if you're eventually planted and turned into a tree, you're performing your own personal carbon offset for years to come.

We support anyone who is buying a casket made locally - more power to you for finding a local maker! But if you're located in an area that doesn't have casket makers and basket weavers anymore, perhaps a Natural Burial Company biodegradable coffin, import or not, is still the best way to go -- and we're constantly adding more makers and options, so LOCAL is on its way!

BUILDING CONSUMER OPTIONS FOR NATURAL BURIAL:

Did you know that it's legal to buy your own casket and have it delivered to the funeral home or cemetery of your choice? Did you know that embalming is NOT required by law? Have yo u ever wanted to be buried naturally, and just "turn into a tree?" Do you wonder why it has to be so hard?

Well, so did we. However, the tide is turning in the USA, and we predict that we'll be following in the footsteps of the UK shortly (but with our own special twists, of course!)

EVIDENCE OF CHANGE:
Analyses by respected economists and others increasingly suggest the usefulness of funeral regulations that favor certain funeral businesses over others should come to an end. Consumers are agitating for more choice. Independent sellers are beginning to file lawsuits and get support from the FTC. And even large funeral industry players are preparing to make changes that will shift how things are done (such as moving former US production to Mexico and China) - truly change is afoot!

Look for unexpected sources - like your natural products cooperative, for example, or a newly-green funeral director, or even a progressive city cemetery - to help you get quality natural caskets in the future. That's how they did it in the UK, as you can see by Carlisle's beautiful woodland city cemetery, begun by Ken West in 1994, and we can expect that we will likely follow suit over here.

After all, the UK doesn't need vaults for cemetery management, and Europe doesn't require embalming for public health, so why should we? When we talk about "more affordable options" perhaps we should shift our attention from the independent funeral directors and artisan coffin-makers and look to the city-owned cemeteries to help us all make the change.

The conventional industry knows natural burial is on its way, and smart funeral directors and cemeterians will be there for you. Alternative funeral service providers like Jerrigrace Lyons of Final Passages, Beth Knox of Crossings, graduates of Celebrants, USA, and dozens of others around the country are also stepping up to offer newly personalized memorials, celebrations, and guidance in the home-death-care options.   

SUPPORTING THE FUNERAL SERVICES TRADE: We create new options for true personalization

We strongly support the greening of the professional funeral services trade, recognizing that the majority of individuals will continue to choose to use a funeral service provider to help them make their purchase and their end-of-life arrangements. We outreach directly to the end-user of natural burial items - the retail customer - and we help conventional providers learn what "natural" really means to their environmentally minded public.

Mt. Scott Funeral Home in Portland is a case in point. They are now adding a "natural option" - one that includes a biodegradable casket or natural cremation container, a no-embalming option (and no hassle over it), home-funeral assistance to whatever degree the client desires, and a unique variety of memorialization and celebration options that haven't been readily available before.

Peoples Memorial Funeral Cooperative in Seattle, Washington is doing the same thing, as are the New Hampshire funeral homes of Tristan McKenna and the Cournoyers, and Bob Prout in New Jersey. (We'll have a list soon!) Mourning Dove Studio in Boston sells Ecopods and personalizes biodegradable caskets.

If you are a funeral products reseller - a cemetery, a funeral director, a celebrant, a cooperative group buyer, or a home-funeral guide - please visit our "About" page  to determine if we might be of service to you.

CONSIDER A VOLUNTARY "CARBON OFFSET TITHE" when you make an international purchase

...Looking to get the transportation mileage out of your purchase but still want a woven or fiber coffin from the UK? Want a wooden coffin, but can't find it locally? No problem! Check out the Renewable Energy Certificates on Wikipedia, and offset the carbon if you don't think you're doing enough. Or better yet, contact Go Zero or your local memorial tree planting organization and plant a few trees in the Planet's name!

Some people compare the straight carbon footprint of production to production - i.e., how much carbon does a tree store vs. how much carbon is spent getting your product to you. We don't. We know that just by going "out" in a biodegradable coffin - whether cremated or buried - a lot less fuel-energy goes into creating the product in the first place than if you'd used a conventional casket made from steel, chip-board or other resource-intensive materials. (Ironically, a lot MORE human energy may go into making the natural coffin itself, but that's why we insist that the coffins be ART. Art is GOOD!)

And besides, we think that when you plant yourself in a natural coffin that biodegrades completely and becomes a tree, you'll more than offset the carbon spent in getting your special seed-case (your casket) to you. Think of all the oxygen you'll make, and all the water you'll transpire, and all the carbon you'll sequester during your life as a tree.

Carbon footprint? "Make one!" we say. "Be a Tree!"

Contact the Natural Burial Company for more information

 

 

 

"VISIT OUR PRODUCT LIST and GALLERY"

"The Natural Burial Company promotes the production
of natural goods and services to support
environmentally sound funeral and cemetery
practices in the 21st Century"

 

OUR MISSION: The Natural Burial Company develops, markets and supplies environmentally friendly burial products and services that offer people more natural choices, and truly personalizes one of the most important times of a life - its end.

"VISIT OUR PRODUCT LISTING PAGE"

GREENING UP THE GRAVES - why we do what we do:

Time and again, conversations with the public reveal that a large percentage of people would rather have a natural burial. It's possible to do this safely and sustainably (the UK is proving it!) but we've simply not been given those options in the US - until now.

Check out our natural burial products list to see the creative and interesting range of natural caskets and urns coming into the marketplace. We love the recycled paper Ecopod for its style and forward thinking, our formaldehyde-free casket kits for economy, efficiency, and ease of use.

Thanks to New Society Publisher's generous permission, you can read a free online condensation of Natural Burial Company founder Cynthia Beal's forthcoming book, "Be a Tree, the Natural Burial Guide for Turning Yourself into a Forest" at http://www.beatree.com.

There's an open comments thread there, and Cynthia is actively soliciting feedback to help the book, scheduled for publication, become as good and useful as it can be. If you find great links, or have questions, just post them there. Also, don't hesitate to look into a couple of the best online forums for natural burial conversation - they're listed in our sidebar to the right under "Natural Burial Conversations".

 

WHY WE IMPORT: "Tried and Tested"
The Natural Burial Company is sourcing its first generation of woven biodegradable burial coffins from the UK because funeral directors and cemetery managers in the UK have been using these caskets and urns successfully in cemeteries and crematoria for over a decade.

Thousands of these coffins are now in woodland burial grounds throughout the UK, and we're confident that using a tried and tested product in the early days of the natural burial/clean cremation movement will ensure that our customers always receive the best, and that the new natural burial groundskeepers learn what good products look like.

Our first (and most glamorous) coffin is the recycled paper Ecopod, pictured in Brighton's ARKA Original Funerals shop in the store window to the left. The Natural Burial Company provides solid wood, chemical-free plywood, woven fiber, cardboard, and handmade paper vessels as both biodegradable coffins and ash burial urns. Our  variety of flat-packed coffin kits are great for both earth burial or cremation.

We're excited that, in the process of seeking these out, we've found other items from Asia, Indonesia, Europe, and Australia, as well as a few overlooked gems in our own USA. Many of those are on display in our first gallery, located in Portland, Oregon.

The "CARBON FOOTPRINT"

We work hard to minimize the miles a product travels whenever possible. We work with shipping services that find the shortest routes while balancing the needs of our customers, and we try to ensure that the products are transported as few times as necessary to reach the end-user. 

We understand the "carbon footprint" argument quite well. William Wainman of the SAWD Partnership offers this comparison of fuel costs when shipping his Fair Trade Certified woven bamboo coffins. By our calculations, 1 coffin in one of our loaded containers uses 1/6th - 1/3rd of a gallon of fuel for the complete trans-Pacific trip! Even if it used 2-3 times that much,

One thing we'd like our customers to keep in mind - the amount of energy that went into making one of these woven coffins in the first place is VERY small, compared to the resources used to make the parts of many locally created metal, plastic - and even wooden - items. Locally woven caskets aren't available wholesale yet (but we're working on it!). There's always a balance to consider.

Finally, we import very few coffins, and we only pick the ones that are "well-made by the well-paid." We work with a local watershed restoration tree-planter and fund native tree-planting in our area to offset fuels spent in transport. And of course, if you're eventually planted and turned into a tree, you're performing your own personal carbon offset for years to come.

We support anyone who is buying a casket made locally - more power to you for finding a local maker! But if you're located in an area that doesn't have casket makers and basket weavers anymore, perhaps a Natural Burial Company biodegradable coffin, import or not, is still the best way to go -- and we're constantly adding more makers and options, so LOCAL is on its way!

BUILDING CONSUMER OPTIONS FOR NATURAL BURIAL:

Did you know that it's legal to buy your own casket and have it delivered to the funeral home or cemetery of your choice? Did you know that embalming is NOT required by law? Have yo u ever wanted to be buried naturally, and just "turn into a tree?" Do you wonder why it has to be so hard?

Well, so did we. However, the tide is turning in the USA, and we predict that we'll be following in the footsteps of the UK shortly (but with our own special twists, of course!)

EVIDENCE OF CHANGE:
Analyses by respected economists and others increasingly suggest the usefulness of funeral regulations that favor certain funeral businesses over others should come to an end. Consumers are agitating for more choice. Independent sellers are beginning to file lawsuits and get support from the FTC. And even large funeral industry players are preparing to make changes that will shift how things are done (such as moving former US production to Mexico and China) - truly change is afoot!

Look for unexpected sources - like your natural products cooperative, for example, or a newly-green funeral director, or even a progressive city cemetery - to help you get quality natural caskets in the future. That's how they did it in the UK, as you can see by Carlisle's beautiful woodland city cemetery, begun by Ken West in 1994, and we can expect that we will likely follow suit over here.

After all, the UK doesn't need vaults for cemetery management, and Europe doesn't require embalming for public health, so why should we? When we talk about "more affordable options" perhaps we should shift our attention from the independent funeral directors and artisan coffin-makers and look to the city-owned cemeteries to help us all make the change.

The conventional industry knows natural burial is on its way, and smart funeral directors and cemeterians will be there for you. Alternative funeral service providers like Jerrigrace Lyons of Final Passages, Beth Knox of Crossings, graduates of Celebrants, USA, and dozens of others around the country are also stepping up to offer newly personalized memorials, celebrations, and guidance in the home-death-care options.   

SUPPORTING THE FUNERAL SERVICES TRADE: We create new options for true personalization

We strongly support the greening of the professional funeral services trade, recognizing that the majority of individuals will continue to choose to use a funeral service provider to help them make their purchase and their end-of-life arrangements. We outreach directly to the end-user of natural burial items - the retail customer - and we help conventional providers learn what "natural" really means to their environmentally minded public.

Mt. Scott Funeral Home in Portland is a case in point. They are now adding a "natural option" - one that includes a biodegradable casket or natural cremation container, a no-embalming option (and no hassle over it), home-funeral assistance to whatever degree the client desires, and a unique variety of memorialization and celebration options that haven't been readily available before.

Peoples Memorial Funeral Cooperative in Seattle, Washington is doing the same thing, as are the New Hampshire funeral homes of Tristan McKenna and the Cournoyers, and Bob Prout in New Jersey. (We'll have a list soon!) Mourning Dove Studio in Boston sells Ecopods and personalizes biodegradable caskets.

If you are a funeral products reseller - a cemetery, a funeral director, a celebrant, a cooperative group buyer, or a home-funeral guide - please visit our "About" page  to determine if we might be of service to you.

CONSIDER A VOLUNTARY "CARBON OFFSET TITHE" when you make an international purchase

...Looking to get the transportation mileage out of your purchase but still want a woven or fiber coffin from the UK? Want a wooden coffin, but can't find it locally? No problem! Check out the Renewable Energy Certificates on Wikipedia, and offset the carbon if you don't think you're doing enough. Or better yet, contact Go Zero or your local memorial tree planting organization and plant a few trees in the Planet's name!

Some people compare the straight carbon footprint of production to production - i.e., how much carbon does a tree store vs. how much carbon is spent getting your product to you. We don't. We know that just by going "out" in a biodegradable coffin - whether cremated or buried - a lot less fuel-energy goes into creating the product in the first place than if you'd used a conventional casket made from steel, chip-board or other resource-intensive materials. (Ironically, a lot MORE human energy may go into making the natural coffin itself, but that's why we insist that the coffins be ART. Art is GOOD!)

And besides, we think that when you plant yourself in a natural coffin that biodegrades completely and becomes a tree, you'll more than offset the carbon spent in getting your special seed-case (your casket) to you. Think of all the oxygen you'll make, and all the water you'll transpire, and all the carbon you'll sequester during your life as a tree.

Carbon footprint? "Make one!" we say. "Be a Tree!"

Contact the Natural Burial Company for more information

 

About the Natural Burial Company

We Import, Market and Distribute Natural Burial Products - but above all, we network and educate...

We source and distribute biodegradable burial containers - caskets and urns and shrouds - suitable for natural burials. The products we choose are made by responsible companies who want to supply environmentally friendly options in the US. We do this because we want to see natural burial become commonplace in the USA and we're confident that many of the people who buy coffins want that, too.

Wooden caskets are the most commonly thought of natural burial container, and we have several. However, we like woven fiber right now because it's lightweight and inexpensive to ship, it's naturally durable but doesn't take a lot of packaging, it biodegrades rapidly, and it keeps the weaving and paper arts alive. We hope to see a lot of new weavers take up the work in the next couple of years, and we hope they'll contact us when they do.

We love finding new items that we think are great. We're really excited about some of our highlighted products this year - like the recycled paper Ecopod - or our Seagrass and Bamboo Coffins - or our handwoven willow - (read more about our natural burial products). We've got new products in the pipeline - an alternative to the old-style vault; finely carved Fair Trade urns from salvaged wood, or the inexpensive and very clever "Everybody Coffin (tm)", shippable, paintable, and very affordable!

We're glad to offer our items to cooperatives, church groups, and alternative funeral service providers as well as cemeteries, cremetoria and licensed funeral directors.  Contact us for more information if you have questions.

Changing Our Ways

(check out the online excerpt of the book, "Be a Tree, the Natural Burial Guide for Turning Yourself into a Forest" for more information on natural burial...)

The environmental impact of current funeral and cemetery practices is growing too clear to ignore. Everything we bury now that does not degrade thoroughly over time is there for the next generation to dig up and pay to restore tomorrow. The future costs of clean-up are rising everywhere. Savvy developers know that. So do citizens and cemetery owners. Green burial grounds are taking off in the UK and they''ll catch on in the USA - of that, we're sure.

Natural burial is not only beautiful (thanks to the forests and beautiful landscapes it creates) - it's practical, too. So is clean cremation, and - in our experience and contrary to popular belief - the USA is filled with practical people. Actually, most people around the world are practical, really, when you get right down to it - and when they're clear on the choices and the consequences of their actions, most people want to do the right thing. It's only a matter of time, and of providing sustainable options.

We can't bury plastic and stamped steel and chipboard and embalming fluid forever. The tide will turn, and natural burial will become one of the answers for a growing number of environmentally concerned people. As the  paradigm shift around a natural end of life happens, a variety of opportunities will open up for both service and livelihood. The Natural Burial Company is working to help that happen.

What the Natural Burial Company wants:  Wise Alternatives

As soon as enough people say they want a "natural burial" or a "clean cremation" forward thinking funeral directors and cemeteries will begin to transition to better practices, and the NBC wants to see them get there. We've started a list, and we grow it daily.

New types of services - like celebrants and home funeral guides - are coming into being. We want to see artisan casket makers, urn creators, weavers, shroudmakers, and a whole host of other crafters rise up to participate in an opportunity to turn a market around.

Natural Burial Product Standards - they're coming

We have standards. They're not formalized yet because we're still evolving - natural burial is a new field and most of the entrants are still learning what can be done, and what's most important to do first.  There's a lot to understand, and a lot to discuss before standards can be set in stone, but there are good guidelines out there, thanks to the thirty-year old organics and natural products movements, Fair Trade,  Co-Op America, and others.

The Natural Step Framework with its four principles creates a solid overall guideline that any business or individual can use to evaluate its potential sustainability in the larger scheme of things. Local Agenda 21 offers concrete steps that cities and governments can take to green their projects, and hundreds of groups and organizations around the world are currently suggesting ways that

The Green Burial Council is working on drafting guidance in North America, along with the Memorial Association of British Columbia, the Natural Burial Co-Op of Canada, and the Association for Woodland Burial Grounds in the UK.

In general, we seek out well-run businesses and artisans who consistantly produce quality products and services without harming the environment. We encourage family wage jobs and we're really proud of our Fair Trade Certified supplier with IFAT status from China.  Our bottom line, however, is having a variety of biodegradable and natural burial products made from a diversity of fibers and materials. We want to see hand arts kept alive. We'd like to see designs taught and transferred, with local making common in 5-10 years. We've got high hopes. We hope others do, too.

Making the (up)grade to Greener Funeral Pastures - a Call to Producers

If you make (or want to make) a suitable natural burial product but don't feel you'd qualify as a 'sustainable business', or if you doubt your business practices will pass muster, but you want them to, that's where we really shine. Give us a try. It's not that we're easy, but we can probably help you figure out what to change first, and then next, in order to green up your act.

For a first step to understanding what natural products buyers expect in the realm of green burial, check out some of the suppliers in Co-Op America's Green Pages. Some things to keep in mind are:

• Materials sources - renewable, repurposed, recycled, recyclable
• Biodegradable - your product components should be both non-synthetic and biodegradable
• Labor - you should meet or exceed fair labor standards
• Transport - items should ship flat (no airspace) whenever possible
• Production - minimize pollution and resource extraction
• Technique - artisan-scale to that preserves handarts

Right now

We do this so that we can make a living and do marketing on behalf of our favorite products, the ones we think are going to change a little bit of the world. This year, we got the license to distribute the Ecopod in the USA. Gaiam Real Goods Trading Company is retailing some of our line.

At the moment, we think the English make some of the best biodegradable caskets - they're tried and tested in UK woodland burial grounds, many for over a decade. They've been at it so long, they now have an inspiring range of weaves and fibers and so we're happy to say "The British Are Coming."  

 Contact the Natural Burial Company by e-mail