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Just ran across this HOME FUNERAL GUIDE!

Natural Transitions Winter Workshop

RECLAIMING A SACRED TRADITION -

CARING FOR OUR OWN DEAD

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2008, 9AM- 3:30PM

Location: Boulder Waldorf Kindergarten

4072 19th Street, Boulder, CO 80304

Cost: $95 (non-refundable) Includes materials

After January 15 – $110.

Snacks provided – but please bring a brown bag lunch

Visit Site

Economic woes and funeral choices

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Funeral homes are certainly being effected by the economy, but some are feeling it more than others.

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“Families have to have our service, so it’s something that they plan for. So we’ll be fine,” Poteet Funeral Home Manager, Brent Jones said.

Families are facing some difficult decisions. Brent Jones says he’s seen families choose cremation, even though their loved one wanted to be buried. He says it’s hard to go against someone’s wishes, but it’s hard to pay for them too.

“Before families were able to say, when we have a death we’ll use our 401k from work to pay for our funeral. Those things are disappearing or are being deminished,” Jones said.

Jones says they try to help families whose plans to bury a loved one, have changed because of the economy. He says you can go to the bank for an emergency loan, and you can cut costs by what type of service you want. Jones says cremation is about $3,000 cheaper than a burial, which includes the cemetery plot, headstone, vault, and casket.

“But it has certainly increased more. Families are making every decision they can to cut expenses, and certainly more families are choosing cremation at a time like this. Yes,” Jones said.

While some funeral homes are seeing an increase in cremation, others like Elliot Sons Funeral Home say it’s business as usual.

“People are choosing cremation because of their religious and cultural backgrounds it’s not particularly a choice whether it be as far as an economical situation,” Elliot Sons Funeral Home Manager, Mark Jones said.

He says he’s seen a 30% increase of people planning ahead, and paying for the services now to save money years down the road.

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“Green” burial options gaining popularity

Updated: Jan 6, 2009 08:08 PM

Emily Longnecker/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis – There’s a new way to bury a loved one in Indiana as the green movement is now affecting even the final resting place.

It’s the one experience everyone will face someday.

“It’s the one certainty that we know isn’t going to change, that we deal with on a daily basis,” says Barb Milton with Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers.

Milton is talking about death. But she says what is changing is the way people are deciding to rest in peace.

“I also kind of refer to it as retro-burial because it’s going back to basics,” says Milton.

Milton says the funeral industry is running into more eco-friendly customers who want to go green even when they’re going to their final resting place.

“You get back to the earth faster,” explains Milton.

And to do that, green customers are considering wooden caskets or even ones made of wicker. But there’s more to a green burial.

“Nowadays, with refrigeration and dry ice and things like that, the body can be preserved in different ways instead of using formaldehyde-based embalming products,” says Milton.

Plus, there’s no burial vault inside the ground to protect the casket.

“Ideally everything is going to go back into a natural state,” explains Milton.

And above ground, there are no tombstones to mark the grave.

“You might be near the big oak tree or you might be near the path that leads back in,” says Milton.

The city’s first green cemetery will be on five acres near the back of Washington Park North Cemetery off of Kessler Boulevard. So far, 12 customers have made arrangements for a green funeral and six are waiting for the green cemetery to be ready.

But don’t think going green in death means going cheaper.

“It’s probably going to be comparative,” says Milton.

Indianapolis’ first green cemetery should be open sometime this spring, just in time for that season when new life begins.

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Who knows? This could be a trend!

Environmentally conscious funeral home offers green burials to Northern Nevadans
Jan 6, 2009 07:47 AM

Environmentally conscious Nevadans can now be laid to rest in an earth friendly manner, according to officials at a south-Reno funeral home.

Northern Nevada Memorial Cremation and Burial Society is the first funeral home in Nevada to receive Green Burial Council certification, according to a news release issued by Spokesperson Michelle Kress.

“We are proud to have Northern Nevada Memorial as our first ‘approved provider’ in Nevada,” said Joe Sehee, Executive Director of the Green Burial Council, a nonprofit organization with more than 200 approved providers in its national network.

The council is “dedicated to minimizing the environmental impact of burial and cremation,” according to Kress.

The cremation and burial society is part of Walton’s Family of Funeral Homes, Kress said.

The backdrop of the Sierra Nevada mountain range,was the original inspiration for “going green,” the owner said.

“We have served thousands of families in the Reno/Sparks community over the years,” said Tammy Dermody, owner of Northern Nevada Memorial. “And we recognize that leading the way towards environmentally-friendly funerals and providing sustainable burial and cremation options is also of great service to our community.”

The funeral home offers eco-friendly products like hand-crafted caskets woven from bamboo or willow, biodegradable urns suitable for scattering or burial of ashes, Kress said. Officials also ensure a “green burial” will take place without the use of formaldehyde-based embalming, and both burial caskets, and cremation containers are toxin-free, Kress said. The home’s crematory is regularly monitored for emissions and has exceeded clean air requirements for years, officials said.

“We understand,” Dermody said, “that offering nature-friendly options for burial or cremation is the best way to remember a life and remember our earth at the same time.”

Visit www.northernnevadacremation.com for more information, or call 322-2772. Viewers and readers may also write to the Northern Nevada Memorial Cremation and Burial Society at 10101 South Virginia St., Reno, NV, 89511.

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How to Plan for a Green Funeral

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You may not want to think about your death and funeral, but you can choose an environmentally friendly alternative that’s kinder to the planet for almost every aspect of your end-of-life wishes. If you want a green funeral, you must do your research, make your plans, draw up a list of dos and don’ts, and talk to your nearest and dearest about your wishes. Write all the details down, and keep them with your will.

Your family needs to know whether you would prefer to be buried or cremated. There are green arguments against both these options. Conventional burials in cemeteries carry a problem of space and the proper disposal of potentially harmful embalming fluids. For cremation, there’s the issue of gases released into the atmosphere. Whether you’re buried or cremated is one decision that’s intensely personal, so do your research and choose the option that’s right for you.

If you prefer burial and a wood casket, choose one that’s made from wood certified to come from a sustainable forest — that is, one where trees are replaced as they’re cut down. (You can get more information on sustainable forests from the Forest Stewardship Council.) Alternatives to wood caskets are wicker or cardboard caskets, which are biodegradable. Some suppliers offer a cardboard casket inside a wooden shell, and the shell goes back to the undertaker when the funeral is over.

Green or natural burial sites are becoming more common. These nature-based sites don’t usually allow the use of embalming fluids and require biodegradable coffins. Also, there aren’t any headstones in green burial sites; most graves have trees planted on them, so you have a doubly green send-off.

Visit the Centre for Natural Burial for information about green cemeteries in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Another option is having yours or your loved one’s cremated remains mixed in a cast-concrete reef that’s lowered onto the seabed off the coast of Florida, where it can serve as a shelter for marine life for hundreds of years. Eternal Reefs offers this service.

Alternative to traditional burial gains popularity

HERNANDO — Dressed in jeans, Croc flip-flops, his favorite T-shirt and a hooded sweatshirt, Justin Borek was buried just like he lived.

“Justin was not about the pomp and circumstance of life and that is why he wanted a green burial,” said his stepmother, Jennifer Borek of Hernando. “It was simple and peaceful just like Justin.”

Green burial can mean either cremation or a burial with no embalming, placing the deceased in a biodegradable wooden box or a shroud. No casket or vault are used.

It is an alternative to traditional funerals that is gaining in popularity. Worldwide, many are choosing green burials as more personal and environmentally friendly goodbyes.

“Green burial is not new. What is new is the environmental part of it. Green burial is simply an old practice that people are seeing new value in,” said Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance in South Burlington, Vt.

Slocum said a decade ago, green burials were unheard of. Now, funeral providers are getting many more calls from people who want information about them.

“This is something our great-grandparents did,” Slocum said. “In fact, our great-grandparents would gasp at the expense and showiness of traditional funerals today instead of a simple, old-fashioned one like green burials.”

Brett Borek said he honored his son’s wishes for a green burial after the 20-year-old died Oct. 29 from injuries in a car accident on U.S. 51 in Hernando.

“He saw green burials on the Discovery Channel and did the research and told us that is how he wanted to be buried when the time came,” said his father. “We just didn’t know it would come this soon, but we did what he asked.”

The family contacted Hernando Funeral Home owner Brent Taylor to handle the arrangements.

Taylor said this was his first request for a green burial in 20 years as a funeral director.

Working closely with Justin’s family, Taylor had to find a cemetery that would accept a green burial.

The city cemetery in Hernando told him green burials weren’t allowed, so he turned to a rural cemetery, Goodrum in Eudora, about 10 miles from Hernando, and the owners readily agreed.

Finding a cemetery that allows green burials is the hardest part of natural burials, said Kimberley Campbell, who along with her husband, Billy, founded the green-burial firm Memorial Ecosystems Inc. in South Carolina in 1996.

The Campbells also started a green cemetery, the 33-acre Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, S.C.

“The great thing about green burials is it is simply a return to good common sense,” Campbell said.

She said the cost of a traditional funeral including cemetery can range upward to $16,000. At Ramsey Creek, the cemetery charges from $2,800 to $6,000.

Funeral home services cost the Boreks $5,600, compared to the $7,000 national average. For them, it was not about the cost. It was about making Justin’s burial an extension of his personality.

The oldest of five children, Justin took classes at Northwest Community College and was a server at River Oaks and Timbeaux’s in Hernando.

“He was well-read. He was a beatnik artist,” said his father. “He wore mismatched socks and his T-shirts inside out just because he could. He was unapologetic with no malice.”

Wrapped in a muslin cloth that his family picked out, Justin was laid to rest on Halloween.

His body was placed on a plywood platform and lowered into a grave sheltered by an old cedar tree.

Next to him, his dad placed a cigar that he planned to smoke with his oldest son on his 21st birthday, Nov. 13. His stepmother put sunflowers, his favorite flower, beside him.

“I am telling you, that was one of the sweetest and most reverent services I have seen in a long time,” Taylor said. “We are in the buckle of the Bible Belt and traditional funerals are the norm. But green burials are merely another form.

“It is not up to us to judge. It is my job to take the family’s request and celebrate a life that’s been lived.”

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Americans sell burial plots, scale back funerals

Associated Press

By KATRINA A. GOGGINS , 12.16.08, 12:06 PM EST

After months of unemployment and weeks of soul searching, Helen Walker has decided she won’t spend eternity alongside her parents at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, Md.

Instead, the 61-year-old Indian Trail, N.C., resident, who’s worried about making ends meet from one day to the next, is selling off her burial plot and planning to be cremated when she dies.

“I know in my heart my mom’s saying, ‘Take care of yourself. You need to pay your monthly bills. Take care of yourself and if this will help, do it,’” said Walker, who lost her job as a cashier in June.

Mounting financial pressures are prompting Americans to sell their cemetery plots for cash, arrange less-formal funerals and consider cremation as a more affordable alternative to burials. Breaking away from traditional, sometimes expensive funeral protocol is just one of the ways families are shaving off nonessential spending, experts say.

People typically sell burial plots, which cost between $1,500 and $4,000 on average, when they move to other parts of the country or get divorced. But growing numbers are doing it to simply raise cash, according to several cemetery plot brokers.

Whether the money is needed for rent or another pressing expense, “people are just blatant about it,” said Bob Ward, who runs The Final Arrangements Network, a Web business that advertises tens of thousands of burial plots.

The uptick in sales is driving down prices and creating a buyers market, said Ken Brant, marketing director for GraveSolutions, a national online database that charges a one-time fee of about $89 to advertise burial plots and $49 for certified appraisals. “People are looking for bargains,” Brant said.

Financially squeezed families that are going ahead with burial plans are opting for less formal services. That means nixing limousine rides, purchasing less ornate caskets and in some cases putting off tombstone purchases, funeral industry experts say.

“Are we going to bankrupt the living to pay for the dead?” said Josh Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit organization that offers advice on funerals.

The Casket & Funeral Supply Association of America said sales of mahogany, copper and bronze caskets – which can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 – are on the decline.

Instead, low-end metal caskets can be purchased for about $1,000 and the most basic pressboard, wooden caskets go for around $400.

Likewise, lower-cost urns, for those who choose cremation, are on the rise, said Ralf Heckenbach, president of Corpus Christi, Texas-based Prestige Memorial.

Demand for cremation services, which cost anywhere from about $600 to $3,000 depending on location and type of service, also appears to be on the rise.

“We’re hearing reports that families that may have been on the border line of a traditional burial funeral and a cremation for less money – that more of them are opting for the cremation route than we’ve seen in a while,” said Mark Allen, executive director of the Casket & Funeral Supply Association of America.

Pat Lynch, treasurer for the National Funeral Directors Association – and a funeral home director in suburban Detroit, said there’s no truth to the belief that funeral homes are immune to economic downturns.

“During very, very good times people might be inclined to spend more on memorialization than they would otherwise,” Lynch said. “During very, very difficult times … they taper back if they need to.”

Laurel Gill, a Golden, Colo., resident is hoping to sell three burial spaces to bolster her 86-year-old mother’s finances. The family is opting for cremations because they’re less expensive than traditional burials, and the money from the plot sales will go to Gill’s mother and perhaps to another family member.

In Columbia, S.C., one funeral home director who caters mostly to African-American families predicted the times will get tougher as people stop paying life insurance policies that help fund funerals.

“And people who do have life insurance policies will not spend as much because they will need to save money to pay for other bills,” said Chris Leevy Johnson, managing director of Leevy’s Funeral Home.

Leslie Vandegrift is selling off a burial space at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Wheat Ridge, Colo., as she keeps a wary eye on the economy and her own finances, which she said are not in dire straits.

“This would be a way of getting some extra money,” said Vandegrift, a 68-year-old retiree who sold her home in Denver a few years ago to travel the country in a 16-foot camper. “We’re all scaling back on things right now … and for Americans it really is a wake up call to watch what it is you spend money on.”

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Green Burial described by Mark Harris

“On some basic level, green burial acknowledges that the natural end of all life is decomposition and decay,” Harris said. “Instead of fighting it at literally all costs with chemical embalming, concrete vaults and bulletproof metal caskets, green burial says, ‘Let’s just let the natural process play itself out.”‘

Today’s cemeteries act as “de facto landfills of nonbiodegradable materials,” Harris said. Embalming solutions contain formaldehyde, which is toxic, he said. It is a “human carcinogen, and because of its potentially toxic effect when released into the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency regulates it as a hazardous waste,” according to “Grave Matters.”