There isn’t a choice when it comes to dying, we will all pass on. But there is a choice of where your final resting place will be and there seems to be a growing interest in eco-conscious interment options, known as green burials.
Green burials, or natural burials, are already here in Guelph with funeral homes providing them and cemeteries having the place for them.
“We’re excited to have it coming to Woodlawn. The community has been asking for it for a long time,” said Rebecca Kit, Woodlawn Memorial Park general manager.
Almost daily the cemetery gets calls about green burials, Kit said.
Woodlawn Memorial Park has a target date of fall of 2024 to open its green burial section.
The site approval is with the City of Guelph. Once there is a stamp of approval, then Woodlawn can begin tendering out the project, said Kit.
Paul Taylor, former general manager at Woodlawn, had the expansion for the cemetery underway and passed the torch onto Kit when he retired. Part of the expansion will include a green burial section, additional full size casket graves and cremation areas.
There are five components for a burial to be considered 'green'; no embalming, direct earth burial, communal memorialization, optimized land use, ecological restoration and conservation, according to the Green Burial Society of Canada.
There is a boulder from the cemetery property that could be used for a communal memorial, said Kit. "I want that rock split in half and then the engravings will take place on that."
Although the green burial area at Woodlawn isn’t operational, people who are looking to have a green burial can do so in another part of the cemetery.
The other cemetery in Guelph is Marymount Cemetery. Green burials aren’t offered but there are no restrictions on embalming or what type of casket is used. There is a requirement for a concrete vault in the ground the casket is laid in, so it would not tick off the direct earth burial standard for green burials.
Realistically, Woodlawn staff can’t hand dig every full size burial so gas powered equipment will aid in opening and closing services, Kit said.
“There are some folks that would like to see a green burial section that is 110 per cent taking into account every aspect of not only the design but the operations,” said Kit.
There will be an option for shroud burials where the deceased is wrapped in bio-degradable cloth and is lowered into the ground with a board placed underneath them.
Another option is a pine casket for the deceased to be placed in made with wooden dowels instead of metal, no glue or varnish are used.
The term shades of green comes up with discussions of green burials, said Jeff Robinson, funeral director at Passages Cremation and Burial, in Guelph.
“For some people what constitutes an environmental choice, it may just be “I’m choosing not to be embalmed,’” said Robinson.
Cost-wise, a green burial is the same as a traditional burial at Woodlawn, said Kit.
A Care and Maintenance Fund is a requirement from the Ontario government for all burials, to maintain the burial site in the future.
The money from the fund can be used by the cemetery “only to maintain, secure and preserve the cemetery, including its grounds, buildings, structures and markers, and the equipment used to maintain, secure and preserve the cemetery,” stated in a presentation from the Bereavement Authority of Ontario.
“Given that it doesn’t cost as much to maintain a natural burial ground, there’s no mowing, no pesticides. There’s no taking the whipper snipper around each tombstone,” said Susan Greer, executive director of the Ontario based Natural Burial Association.
Greer said the fee is “punitive for those who would like to have a natural burial. It doesn’t make sense because of the lower maintenance cost of natural burial. So we’d like to see them bring that down.”
The Natural Burial Association is asking the provincial government for a lowered maintenance fee for natural burials.
"My colleague Mark Richardson who works for the City of Niagara Falls has a green burial section called Willow’s Rest and it's setting the tone for green burial sections within cemeteries," Kit said.
“Our last choice in this earth can be a positive one. Can have a significant positive impact on the earth,” said Richardson, manager of cemetery services for the City of Niagara Falls, and green burial advocate.
Richardson is happy to guide the way for green burials in Ontario but since Guelph has Green MPP Mike Schreiner “Guelph should be leading the charge,” he said.
“I also think the political climate right now requires that cemeteries look to the possibility that conservation authorities, conservation lands need us as much as we need them and a natural burial provides us that perfect partnership to work together," said Robinson.
“The thing about natural burials is it appeals to people for so many reasons and environmental reasons is one of the reasons,” said Greer.
By and large many people choose cremation, and with green burials people in Guelph have a new option, said Greer.
“They’ll have this natural option and for many people maybe they are able to die in the way that they’ve lived, now in Guelph,” said Greer. “That’s a beautiful thing.”
