Some Manitobans are going green when it comes to burials

With growing concerns about climate change, some Manitobans are committing to reducing their carbon footprint even after they die. 

Eco-friendly burials, which typically skip embalming and use a cotton shroud or wicker casket, are becoming increasingly popular in Manitoba, with one group even working to develop a fully-green cemetery in the Winnipeg area. 

Winnipeg-based funeral director Richard Rosin has been doing green burials for about four years, and says they are not much different from how people used to bury the dead before the evolution of the funeral industry. He's also the president of the Green Burial Society of Canada.

"Our grandparents and great-grandparents took care of their own. It was a community event. People died at home," Rosin said. 

"And that's really what the green burial movement is, is going back to a very basic route, being a lot more ecologically friendly, being a lot more hands-on, which in a grieving way is far better because your life stops when someone dies anyway."

Green burials are allowed under Manitoba law as long as the body is buried under at least three feet, or about one metre, of soil. 

While there isn't a fully-green cemetery in the city yet, the City of Winnipeg does offer natural burials at the three cemeteries it operates. It's hoping to offer a small green burial area at either Brookside or St. Vital Cemetery in the next 18 to 24 months, a spokesperson said. 

When it comes to privately-owned cemeteries, Rosin said it's on a case-by-case basis. 

"It's just talking to the cemetery to bring awareness to them to say that this is going to be a green burial, there isn't any big difference between what you're you're commonly used to," he said. 

LISTEN | A look at green burials in Manitoba: 

Grieving on their own terms 

Angelika Jantz and her siblings opted to have a green burial for their mother when she died in 2017 in a care home.

A mortician arranged for the body to be kept in a cool room until it could be brought to the family, who then cleaned and prepared her mother's body for burial themselves, Jantz said. 

"For us, it felt like we could let go of her more slowly and a little bit more on our terms."

Jantz, who had lost her father 11 years prior to her mother's death, said this helped ease her grief. 

"I think being able to be involved with her this way helped with the grieving process as well because it it gave us the time to be with her and that was helpful," she said. 

"I noticed that grieving my mom was a little bit easier than grieving my dad, and I think that was one of the reasons for that."

Fully-green cemetery 

Amid growing interest in green burials, the Green Cemetery Project Winnipeg is working toward creating or repurposing a publicly accessible space that can be used for natural burials in the city. 

"It is possible in some circumstances, but overall it's very much not accessible to the general public," said Trish Penner, one of the leaders of the project. 

As an environmentalist, Penner said she thinks burials should be seen as part of the cycle of life and done in the most natural way possible.  

"Why would we incinerate a body, or why would I put my body into the ground in a way that prevents the decomposition?" she said. 

"I think there are a lot of people like me out there that that are looking into this for environmental reasons. But there's also the whole idea of returning to our roots." 

Penner says they have looked at dozens of properties, some of which have potential, but need to be tested for ground water. 

The ideal property would be within 50 kilometers of Winnipeg and be high enough to avoid flooding, she said.