Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility at Better Place Forests

Better Place Forests provides alternative solutions for those who choose cremation. Natural burial aims to reduce the environmental impact of after-life traditions, especially by eliminating non-biodegradable elements and reducing carbon emissions.

A 2011 study from The Netherlands examined environmental impacts, including carbon and methane emissions and land use, of different types of burial there. While some of the laws and customs differ, their results showed that cremation carried about half the environmental impact—measured to include carbon and other emissions, as well as use of land and other resources—compared to traditional burial.

By spreading ashes, we don’t have to worry about digging holes around the trees, and the trees themselves sequester some of the carbon released by cremation. In the future, we want to offer carbon-offsetting options.

Environmental Sustainability

Better Place Forests has developed a way to protect forests, permanently. In America today, cemeteries take up a million acres of land. We want the next million acres to be forest instead. By buying forests, arranging conservation easements intended to prevent the land from ever being developed, and then selling people the right to have their cremated remains buried within the soil of their very own memorial tree.