Tim's Blog

In United States being ecologically friendly became so popular so even funeral services started to turn “green”. Funeral services typically do not offer new innovative products, as the ways of burring people did not change much since few centuries ago. However some of them as Jeff Edwards, owner of Edwards Funeral Service in Columbus introduced a new way of putting remains of human into in urn, which is called alkaline hydrolysis. Using this new method only very small amount of carbon dioxide is produced compare to usual cremation, also it has many benefits over burring in coffin, as it is more affordable. However there is one serious problem which does not allow Jeff to expand his business, the government of Ohio and several other states have made alkaline hydrolysis illegal as they wrongly believe that only bones of the person remain for the urn after the process, rest of the body is gone with liquid in the drain.

While Jeff is in a legal battle with Ohio government the demand for the green funeral business is growing, more and more families across the US started to consider ecologically friendly burials, the number of funeral services offering ecologically friendly options for burials dramatically increased since few years ago.

Obviously the traditions and the conservatism of this industry may make it hard for the eco-friendly options to become popular, but there is no reason why some industries should become green and others should not. Being ecologically friendly is not a trend, it is a necessity, why should not something as big and old as funeral services become a part of it.

Read More: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-greening-of-death-11032011.html

Image Source: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-greening-of-death-11032011.html