Green Burial Planner
While we can’t usually plan our own demise, it is certainly possible to plan our own burial.
In fact, here on the Keweenaw Peninsula it is almost essential to plan ahead if we want to avoid cremation or the embalming/concrete vault required for conventional burial. While there are many reasons why this is, here are three important ones:
The bottom line is this: if you happen to decease before green burial becomes common and routine, you will need to plan very carefully to feel certain that you will have the greenest burial you desire.
Fortunately, planning ahead is not only possible, it can even be fun and educational. It is also free: funeral directors are happy to meet with you and keep your funeral/burial plans on file without any prior payment. Most people only pre-pay for their funerals before entering nursing homes or when they encounter extenuating circumstances of some kind. While it is a little more common to purchase cemetery lots ahead of time, buying them is also not necessary for planning ahead.
We recommend taking the following steps:
While we can’t usually plan our own demise, it is certainly possible to plan our own burial.
In fact, here on the Keweenaw Peninsula it is almost essential to plan ahead if we want to avoid cremation or the embalming/concrete vault required for conventional burial. While there are many reasons why this is, here are three important ones:
- Green burial is new and far from the norm. Almost everyone still assumes that cremation and conventional burial are the only two choices we have, as green burial lots have only been available in our area since 2015. Furthermore, while some of our local funeral directors have facilitated a modern green burial, not all of them have. Not only do they all need to know that there is serious interest, but they can’t properly prepare unless they learn what people’s expectations will be. Finally, green burial practices will present your survivors with new and different choices and experiences: a clear plan is educational for them, and you need them to be “on board” to help assure your wishes are met.
- Options/choices can vary. Only some of our local cemeteries offer green burial options, and there are significant differences between them. Furthermore, while some funeral directors appear happy to include green burial within their professional services, not all of them have been fully receptive and some will insist that you must be buried much more quickly than with conventional burial. You may have to ask around and “shop around” before you can feel confident that your wishes will be met, which—it should go without saying—is much easier to do before you die.
- Winter burial options are limited here. To the best of our knowledge, no cemetery will accept an un-embalmed body in their winter storage building. Since only Chassell Township is offering winter burial (as of 2019), we are currently faced with two choices: green embalming or Chassell. If complications with one or the other emerge, your plan will dictate which other options are acceptable to you.
The bottom line is this: if you happen to decease before green burial becomes common and routine, you will need to plan very carefully to feel certain that you will have the greenest burial you desire.
Fortunately, planning ahead is not only possible, it can even be fun and educational. It is also free: funeral directors are happy to meet with you and keep your funeral/burial plans on file without any prior payment. Most people only pre-pay for their funerals before entering nursing homes or when they encounter extenuating circumstances of some kind. While it is a little more common to purchase cemetery lots ahead of time, buying them is also not necessary for planning ahead.
We recommend taking the following steps:
- Download our Green Burial Planner. This document has been tested with supportive local funeral directors to assure that it is comprehensive. it includes our best understanding of local green burial choices as well as all other aspects of funeral planning.
- Familiarize yourself with the details of the green burial planner. Discuss your choices with your family and other potential survivors, and fill out the parts that you clearly understand. If there are parts that are unclear, contact us for more information or hold off until you can sit down with a funeral director and discuss them.
- If you have a preferred cemetery and/or funeral director, contact them to see what kind of green options and practices they have available. Or, seek a referral and make an initial appointment with a funeral director to see if they are wiling and able to provide what you need. If possible, have your designated agent, next of kin, or other close survivors attend with you.
- Once you decide you are comfortable and satisfied with a particular funeral director, carefully review and complete your plan with him or her and make sure your choices are fully understood between the two of you. Ask for assurance that your wishes will also be clear to anyone who succeeds that director (you may, indeed, outlive that director’s retirement, but your plan will be passed along to his/her successor).
- Provide copies of your plan to your designated agent, next of kin, and other survivors, and discuss the particulars with them.
- Review and/or update your plan if you experience major life changes (death of designated agent or next of kin, you decide to move, etc.)