When it comes to planning a funeral to be environmentally friendly, many people opt to be cremated because of its minimal environmental impact. However, regardless of whether you favor cremation or burial, there are several ways to make this event more environmentally friendly. Stipulating your wishes in your funeral planning document will ensure that the funeral home and your surviving family members honor your wishes after your passing. This can be comforting to you, especially if you're someone who has always cared for the environment. Here are some ideas that you can specify.
No Printed Funeral Cards
It's common for funeral attendees to receive a funeral card and/or program upon arriving at the funeral home. The card features your photo and a bit of information about you, while the program outlines the sequence of events for your service. To lower the environmental impact of the funeral, you might wish to stipulate that you don't want cards and programs to be printed. Although some people will hang onto these items as keepsakes, other people will inevitably throw their copies out. Instead of these documents, you might wish to ask for a sequence of events to be listed on a board at the front of the room.
Minimal Use Of Electronic Devices
Just as turning down the lights in your home is an environmentally friendly step that many people take on Earth Day, you may wish to stipulate that you'd like a minimal usage of electronic devices during your funeral. This could mean that the room's lights are dimmed and that no video production — which involves the use of a computer and a projector — takes place. When you make these plans, you shouldn't abstain from having the speakers use a microphone, however, as it's necessary to help people toward the back of the room hear the remarks.
Request Of No Flowers
While flowers can be beautiful as they adorn the room at a funeral service, they also have an environmental impact. Commercially grown flowers take a lot of water and chemicals to grow, and may also involve the burning of fossil fuels as the flowers are transported from large farms to local stores. You might wish to request that no one brings flowers to your funeral. With these plans clearly outlined in your funeral preplanning documents, you can feel much more comfortable knowing that your funeral will have a minimal impact on the environment.
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