Forever Green

Dying in the USA is an $11+ billion industry, with average funeral costs running about $7,000. Last year, with the population closer to 290 million, there were 2.4 million deaths. Aging boomers are expected to start swelling those ranks and by 2040 there will by an estimated 4 million deaths a year, double the number today.

For those who want to have an environmentally conscious lifestyle, and prefer to leave this world that way as well, there are opportunities of eco-friendly ceremonies, cemeteries, coffins and urns. A green burial, costing about one third of a traditional one, not only saves money, but open space is preserved as well.

See how some creative entrepreneurs are turning the afterlife into a booming green aftermarket:

• Eco-Coffins. A coffin or casket is either buried or burned. No one is going to see it again. The deceased gets no value out of it. The cost is usually quite high. So why do we spend so much money on something which is going to have such a short lifespan? Why don't use a 100% biodegradable and environmentally safe coffin, made from recycled paper and cardboard, designed to make funerals more green and friendly?

  These coffins use wood fiber sourced mostly from recycled paper and cardboard and compressed into alternate solid and fluted layers, using a renewable resource, reducing waste in landfills and the unnecessary destruction of forests and trees.

• Bio-degradable cremation urns. Some people prefer cremation for personal reasons, maybe because they are not attracted to traditional burial or the thought of a long, slow decomposition process is unappealing to them. They also prefer cremation because it disposes of the body immediately. The cost factor tends to make cremation attractive as well, because generally speaking, it is less expensive than traditional burial services. Available now are containers designed to dissolve into the Earth and each one is made using organic materials that are both drawn from and safe for the natural environment. They have no metal or plastic components whatsoever and biodegrades naturally.

• Natural burials. In ecological terms, how we bury our dead is unsustainable. In contrast, a simpler, greener movement that requires fewer natural resources and causes less pollution is emerging. These services use no toxic embalming fluids, no vaults, and only a biodegradable casket or a burial shroud. Natural rocks, wildflowers, shrubs and trees serve as markers and each grave is locatable via GPS coordinates. Their business model is threefold: natural burial techniques; an endowment fund dedicated to ecological restoration as opposed to typical cemetery maintenance, and a conservation easement for the land, so that it cannot be developed in the future.