There's a lot to be learned in the "field" of natural burial, and a huge amount of it is just common sense (and paying attention to those who've done this for awhile now...)
Thankfully, the UK's woodland burial movement has been going strong for almost 15 years, and the woven coffins offered by the Natural Burial Company are
tried and tested, buried in the UK's more than 200 woodland burial
sites, and now offered for sale by many funeral directors there.
We think one of the most important things is to learn from our peers in Europe, the UK, and elsewhere. For a start, read the condensation of our forthcoming publication, "Be a Tree, the Natural Burial Guide for Turning Yourself into a Forest" at http://www.beatree.com.
We also recommend spending some time exploring the stories in the stories in the Alternative Funeral Monitor and exploring a number of our sponsors and colleagues listed there, as well as reading any of the selections in our recommended book list in the sidebar.
Our beautiful handmade coffins are durable and attractive, and help both the deceased and the bereaved to create a natural return at the end of life that respects the earth and restores dignity for all those who love life and nature and want to make one last statement about that love before they "go."
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NATURAL BURIAL COMPANY RESELLERS - HELPING US ALL HAVE A NATURAL END
We have a growing number of resellers around the US and Canada, and many of them are helping their clients identify more natural options in their area. If you want a natural funeral, you'll have to plan ahead, and if you want to work with a funeral director, we highly recommend the ones who buy our coffins (of course!).
They help their communities just like your natural food store helps your local organic farmers. Visit our featured reseller's and our "Where to Go" pages to locate one, and if YOU know of a funeral director who should be on our list, please put them in touch with us. We're all in this together...
IF YOU'RE A PRODUCER OR SUPPLIER:
We look for some special things when we source products. Mainly, we want items that are produced at lower scales of technology than what's currently in use in the conventional funeral business, from renewable or recycled resources, and naturally biodegradable.
Since over 80% of the caskets sold in the USA right now are some variant of stamped steel (utilizing tooling and machinery technology from the auto industry, now shifting to Mexico and China), we know that means that most of our products, handmade from willow, bamboo, paper, wood, or another fiber, qualify for "greener" right off the bat!
If we sell your product, we'll want to know where it's made, who makes it, what it's made of, how many hands it passes through before it gets to us, how far it travels, and other things like that. If it's destined for burial, it should decompose more rapidly than a conventional burial casket.
If it will go in a crematorium, it should be of all natural materials (staples and nails are ok - they can be recovered with a magnet later). We don't require certified Fair Trade status yet, but someday we might. We'll probably visit your workshop at some point and inspect your goods - our customers want to know that WE know you!
Primarily, we emphasize functional burial products that are made from recycled or renewable materials, biodegrade quickly, have lower energy inputs in production, minimal or zero toxins, diversify materials, preserve artisan skills, have an excellence of design, solve a problem creatively, and are at appropriate scale, etc.
For more information, suppliers should learn about the Natural Step Principles and seek to bring their operations into alignment with those over time. Incremental improvements will go a long way toward both improving the environment and creating a level competitive field.
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