What Do We Need to Know About Green Caskets?

In this first  part of a two part interview about green caskets, I am talking to Jonas Zahn, the founder of Northwoods Casket Company in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Jonas built his first casket two days before Christmas in 2002 — for his grandfather, who was a big John Wayne and Clint Eastwood fan. When his family couldn’t agree whether to bury or cremate his body, Jonas, then 29, offered to build  “the toe-pincher,” modeled after the coffin he had seen in the 1992 western “The Unforgiven.” 

Jonas Zahn

It was a perfect fit for his grandfather and for Jonas, who would become the founder of the Northwoods Casket Company in 2010. From the start, part of his business plan has been to plant 100 trees for every casket sold, in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and readability.

Laura B. Hayden: Hi Jonas and thank you for agreeing to talk to SevenPonds today. I don’t like to think a whole lot about the container in which I will be laid to rest, but the notion of a green casket is intriguing. First of all, just what determines if a casket is green?

Jonas Zahn: A green casket is usually part of a green burial which a lot of professionals in the industry have moved to calling a natural burial. I use both terms interchangeably.

What most people think of first with a green casket is biodegradability. Most green cemeteries require a solid wood casket, though more and more have backed off and realized that a few ounces of nails, a latch mechanism and a few hinges are not a big deal. I bring that up because with that modest amount of metal — which will oxidize  probably faster than some bones do — the coffin can be priced under a thousand dollars. Green coffins that are designed with wood dowels or some kind of traditional woodworking joinery instead of any metal or less metal can cost $3000 to $5000.

Laura: Is biodegradable wood the only criteria?

Jonas: We use a number of other standards to measure how green our caskets are. Besides biodegradability we take into consideration toxicity, which has to do with what we are using for the finish, the upholstery and the adhesive. There are several different water-based finishes and natural oil finishes we can use to avoid any toxicity or any chemicals at all. The Green Burial Council looks at that pretty closely when they certify caskets for their level of greenness.

Laura: What are other standards for a green casket?

Jonas: Local sourcing is one because transportation has a negative impact on the environment. Local sourcing is also good for the local economy. All of our caskets (and cremation urns) are handcrafted in Wisconsin by the hands of local craftsmen and women. We use only local lumber sources that follow sustainable forestry practices.

Another important measure is carbon footprint. Now here’s the interesting thing about carbon footprint and caskets. Besides wood, there are seagrass and wicker caskets that are considered green. These are made in Indonesia. They may biodegrade faster than wood, but, weighing about 70 pounds, most are shipped to the U.S. by ocean cargo — which leaves a slight carbon footprint. However, they still have to be air freighted to their final destination — and the carbon footprint of a 70 pound seagrass casket that’s flown from, let’s say, Los Angeles to Denver or Chicago is more than double the one ton of CO2 emissions left by a steel casket manufactured in China and distributed via ocean cargo and truck. On the other end of the spectrum, the footprint left by  a locally sourced simple pine box is maybe 50 pounds of CO2.

Laura: Those differences are startling. Are green caskets and burials changing American funeral traditions?

Jonas: Actually, humans have cared for their dead with natural burial practices for several millennium. It’s just recently that the western world has created an entire industry connected with funerals. Much of the rest of the world doesn’t utilize big steel caskets embedded inside a big concrete vault with a cadaver pumped with embalming fluid. This idea of preservation is really a post Civil War idea that let folk preserve and transport the deceased in order to give the family time to travel and have a funeral.

Still, today less than 2 percent of all interments in the United States are in certified green cemeteries. Many more — maybe most of our customers — want something sustainable, locally sourced and biodegradable,  but they still want to be laid to rest in the same cemetery the rest of the family is buried in. They may even want the body to be embalmed for viewing. Those families will choose our green caskets for any number of reasons: for instance, because we plant trees for each casket we sell, because they are locally sourced, or because they are biodegradable, even though they may be interred in a traditional cemetery with a vault. We call that the many shades of green for a natural burial.

Join me next week when I continue my interview with Jonas. We will be talking about Jonas’ partnership with funeral homes, how family values can influence the purchase of a green casket and his unique arrangement with the State of Wisconsin to plant 100 trees for every casket the Northwoods Casket Company sells.