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In many ways, going "green" is as much about reclaiming long-forgotten skills and values as it is about embracing modern technologies. The life of environmental stewardship is also about asking with each of life's decisions, "What is the best I can do with the resources I have?"

Take the death experience, for example. A growing number of Americans are starting to reconsider the conventional, Western practice of embalming the bodies of family members and placing them in metal caskets and concrete vaults under manicured cemeteries. Those methods disrupt the natural cycle of decomposition and also conflict with some traditional religious practices.

Consumer groups are springing up to promote the time-honored practice of natural burial and other alternatives. Triad-area organizations include Funeral Consumers Alliance of the Piedmont and Crossings Care in Greensboro.

Nationally, the number of providers listed with the Green Burial Council has grown from roughly a dozen to 300 over the course of a year, said Joe Sehee, executive director. That listing includes funeral homes, natural burial grounds, casket providers and other goods and services.

Sehee said the funeral industry is in the process of being de-industrialized, where consumers take more control of their own funeral arrangements.

"The problem in this field is consumers have been dissuaded from participating by some," Sehee said. "Not only does it hurt the planet, but I really think it's hurt the grieving process."

Natural burial: What is it?

Many options exist for greening a funeral service. They include opting for a wood over metal casket, using dry ice instead of embalming fluid for preservation of the body, and burial in a cemetery that does not require the use of cement vaults.

By law, funeral homes cannot charge a separate handling fee for families that provide their own casket. Also, North Carolina does not require bodies to be discharged from hospitals or nursing homes to funeral home employees. Neither does the state require embalming, which is the process of temporarily preserving a body through formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals.

The state lacks natural burial grounds, with only Chapel Hill and Asheville having sites approved by the Green Burial Council. Families in the Triad without access to a natural burial ground can cremate the body or have it buried on private land as long as it meets municipal or county ordinances.

With family-directed funerals, families need to plan ahead to overcome several logistical challenges, such as processing the death certificate and picking up the body from a hospital morgue.

But this approach can have many advantages, said Sandy LaGrega, a member of Crossings Care in Greensboro.

• It helps with the grieving process and empowers family members and friends to get involved.
• It respects the individuality of each family.
• It is less expensive than conventional funerals because most of the arrangements are handled by volunteers.

Organ/whole body donation

People can also benefit others by donating their organs or bodies after death for medical research. Individuals can donate their heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas and small intestine, as well as their eyes and several types of tissue.

"Our bodies have value at death and in this way we can give a gift before we move on with cremation or burial," said Harriet Bartnick, president of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of the Triangle.

Adults can register by identifying themselves as donors when obtaining a state driver's license or by signing up at www.donatelifenc.org. Individuals also should discuss their intentions with family members in advance.

North Carolina's four medical schools accept whole bodies for research and training. Learn more at commissiononanatomy.ncdhhs.gov.

Other resources

Green Burial Council: www.greenburialcouncil.org

Crossings, a national home funeral and green burials resource center: www.crossings.net; get involved with the local group by contacting Sandy LaGrega at sunsan52@aol.com.

Undertaken With Love: A Home Funeral Guide: www.homefuneralmanual.org/index.htm

Contact Morgan Josey Glover at 373-7078 or morgan.josey@news-record.com