MELBOURNE, Australia -- Affordable, eco-friendly funerals in Melbourne
Even though having a green, eco-friendly funeral is all about minimising the environmental impact of a funeral, a funeral will still have some impact on our environment. Our challenge is to minimise the impact as best we can.

Having a green funeral is becoming increasingly important for the many people who live their lives in a more environmentally conscious manner. People not only want to live greener lives, they now also want to be environmentally sensitive when they leave this world too.

At Greenhaven Funerals, we have a strong environmental ethos. We can help you create a personal, farewell celebration for yourself or a loved one, by providing many options to reduce the environmental impact of a funeral and leave a lighter, softer and smaller carbon footprint on the earth when you leave. A funeral can be made ‘green’ through environmentally friendly cremation options, natural bushland burials, sustainably-produced coffins, stationery made from recycled materials, memorial tree tribute planting programs and catering with organic produce.

Cremation
When it comes to green and environmentally friendly funerals, cremation is actually the greenest form of disposition. When a cremation is performed, the oxygen present in the cremation chamber ensures that all of the carbon present, including the coffin and everything it contains is converted into carbon dioxide. Cremations also take up less land use for memorials, in some cases the ashes can be scattered or placed in an environmentally friendly container.

Burials
When an individual is interred as they are with a burial and there is no oxygen, the carbon in the coffin and it’s contents are converted to methane gas. Methane is a form of greenhouse gas which has 25 time the environmental impact of carbon dioxide. The fuel and manpower in many of metropolitan cemeteries used to maintain the gardens also contributes to greenhouse gases being emitted.

Natural Burial Reserves in Victoria
A natural burial means that the deceased’s bodily remains are returned back to nature with as little intervention as possible. The deceased’s mortuary care is completed using natural products (no embalming chemicals are used) before their disposition. Using a shroud or coffin made from natural, bio-degradable materials allows the individuals’s remains to return to the earth organically.

Only a few natural burial reserves in Victoria. Some offer natural memorial options. It’s not necessarily just for people who see themselves as environmentalists or “greenies”, but rather those who have tried to reduce their carbon footprint during their lifetime.

Lilydale Memorial Park’s Djeernongs Walk
Lilydale Memorial Park has sectioned off a part of their cemetery and made it into a natural burial ground. Within this section, individuals can be buried in a bio-degradable shroud or an eco-friendly coffin, there are no headstones and the grounds feature lots of grasses and trees. Djeernongs Walk located at Lilydale Memorial Park, is the Aboriginal name meaning pathway or many footprints.
http://www.gmct.com.au/our-locations/lilydale-memorial-pa...

Healesville Cemetery’s Tharangilkbek
Healesville Cemetery has a large section of it’s grounds designated to natural burials. The grounds feature many beautiful trees and bushes, with natural grasses set in a beautiful, bushland setting. Tharangilkbek is fittingly named after the Aboriginal term for woody country in the sky or promenade for the blessed dead. This area resides in the picturesque site of Healesville Cemetery and boasts elegant views of Mount Riddell, Mount Monda and Mount St Leonard.
http://www.gmct.com.au/our-locations/healesville-cemetery...

Kurweeton Road Cemetery
Kurweeton Road Cemetery is located in the Corangamite Shire southwest of Mt. Elephant, an extinct volcano that is a prominent geographic feature of the western Victorian plains. The cemetery is a peaceful, pastoral setting that is purposefully left in a natural state to minimise the impact of burial activity on the environment. The name of the deceased person will be recorded in perpetuity on a memorial wall, and the next of kin can receive an exact location of the individual grave site.
http://www.uprightburials.com.au

Online Memorial
Utilising technology and going digital with your funeral arrangements as much as possible allows you another option to reduce your carbon footprint. Having an on-line memorial where individuals can leave condolence messages and sympathy notes to you about your loved one. It also enables your family and friends to support each other by uploading candles, pictures and appropriate poems. The amount of paper and printing resources that is saved is quite significant..

Eco-friendly, bio-degradable shrouds and coffins
Greenhaven Funerals provides a wide range of bio-degradable shrouds and eco-friendly coffins and caskets made from recycled materials and using sustainable practices.

Bio-degradable shrouds are made from silk, cotton, hemp and hessian. Our coffins and caskets are made from natural fibres such as pure wool and recycled card-board, hand-woven sea grass and wicker, bamboo, recycled timber and cardboard using sustainable products to provide gloss finishes on coffins where required. All our coffins are bio-degradable and suitable for natural bushland burial.

Environmentally Friendly Urns:
The NatureUrn is permanent unless it is buried and unlike most biodegradable urns, the NatureUrn is not affected by moisture.
If the urn is buried it biodegrades within 7 to 9 years and under favourable conditions in less than 2 years.

Let Greenhaven Funeral Services assist you to ‘Green’ Your Funeral Service ……
As with any event, much of the environmental impact is in the details. Even if you don’t opt for any of the ideas above, you can still make a funeral greener by incorporating the following practices into the gathering

Programs: Use recycled paper for programs or hymn sheets
Flowers: Source any flowers from organic, local growers.
Procession: Make arrangements for carpooling from location to location during the funeral.
Refreshments:If the deceased was an environmentalist, the chances are they enjoyed local, organic food. If refresh me nts are being served, it makes sense then to look closely at where they come from.

To review our green, environmentally friendly funeral service packages please visit our website: Greenhaven – Green-funeral-options (http://www.greenhavenfunerals.com.au/green-funeral-options/)
We are Melbourne’s leading provider of affordable, Green Funeral Services, please contact us on 613 9569 0534 or info@greenhavenfunerals.com.au at any time to discuss your environmentally friendly funeral wishes.

Carly & Tim Dalton
Greenhaven Funerals
http://www.greenhavenfunerals.com.au


Contact
Greenhaven Funerals
613 9569 0534