Ways to make a
funeral greener
To date it has been difficult for people to agree on what a ‘green funeral’ is. For some, it’s the choice of a wicker coffin and a woodland burial. For others it is a decision not to have flowers at the funeral or to walk to the service. Below are some key aspects you may wish to consider should you decide on arranging a more environmentally conscious funeral.
Your Coffin Choice
There are many factors that have an impact on how environmentally friendly your chosen product is.
What materials are the coffins made from and are the materials ethically sourced? Where are they manufactured and how are the items shipped? Are the coffins biodegradable? And do they use volatile compounds in their manufacture? With so many aspects to consider it can be very hard to know which products are better than others.
J C Atkinson have been at the forefront of supplying the most ethical and environmentally sustainable products on the market, and are happy to share the environmental credentials of each item on the individual product pages – making your choice a little easier.
Understanding accreditation
Accreditation has an important role in helping you understand how businesses work to mitigate the environmental impact of products and services that they offer. As well as a number of internal initiatives offered to support J C Atkinson products (including Tree Tribute and Plastic Free options), we are proud of our certification awarded by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the ISO 14001 Standard.
The ISO 14001 standard maps out a framework that is used in order to set up an effective environmental management system. ISO 14001 ’s main aim is to assist companies to continually improve their environmental performance, whilst complying with any applicable legislation.
J C Atkinson attained this standard in 2012, and as its focus of natural resources, handling and treatment of waste and energy consumption.
The FSC facilitates the development of standards, ensures monitoring of certified operations and protects the FSC trademark so consumers can choose products that come from well managed forests.
JC Atkinson sources and monitors FSC certified raw materials through our manufacturing system thus allowing them to apply the FSC logo to their products.
Representatives from Traidcraft, the UK’s largest Fair Trade organisation, have conducted a rigorous assessment of the business on location in Bangladesh, and are pleased to endorse all of the coffins and urns produced by Oasis as Fair Trade.
Ongoing assessments will be made to ensure that these high standards are maintained.
Plastic Free is our own internal accreditation. Where a product carries the ‘Plastic Free’ or the ‘Plastic Free option available’ symbol, the product is either entirely plastic free or comes with the option of being entirely plastic free.
Another part of our increasing commitment
to ensure our products excede market expectations.
Offsetting the carbon
The average funeral arrangement emits 2-3 tones of CO2e. By purchasing carbon credits you can offset these associated emissions by supporting accredited environmental projects that help mitigate the impact of greenhouse gasses. This is often done by planting trees in the UK, but credits also support carbon projects globally such as forest conservation and waste management.
How offseting works
step 1
Calculate the carbon
This includes Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from materials and manufacture of coffins, energy used in the cremation process and emissions from funeral transportation.
step 2
Convert to carbon credits
A carbon credit is a tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or equivalent and attempts to mitigate the growth greenhouse gases.
step 3
Find a carbon project
Use the carbon credits to back and support local or global projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere, or equivalent projects addressing climate change.
….Or just let us do it for you
By Using the Greener Goodbyes App
Greener Goodbyes is a web-based application that helps you model your funeral by answering some simple questions. Using the answers you provide, Greener Goodbyes calculates the estimated carbon footprint of your funeral arrangements and allows you to offset these emissions by supporting Forest Carbon.
Forest Carbon maintain the projects that are supported by your purchased carbon credits. They lead the way in developing woodland creation and peatland restoration in the UK and have removed over 2,000,000 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere since 2006. Their schemes are assured by the UK government’s Woodland Carbon Code and the IUCN’s Peatland code.
Greener Goodbyes meets increasing consumer demand as the industry addresses climate change and offers green options as part of any funeral arrangement.