Poetree: The Innovative Urn

Photo credit: fototelegraf.ru

The “eco-funeral” or “green burial” has been a rising trend in the past few years. And Poetree, the latest invention by the French industrial designer Margaux Ruyant, is a welcome addition to the many planet-conscious end-of-life options we’ve covered here at SevenPonds. From the underwater Neptune Memorial Reef to the Fernwood Green Cemetery of Mill Valley, it’s been exciting to watch the growing emphasis being placed on reducing our carbon footprint not only in life, but in death as well.

Photo credit: treehugger.com

Ruyant’s design for an ecologically savvy urn provides a unique cremation alternative for those with a penchant for planet-consciousness. The deforestation of earth’s most important natural forest regions (such as the Amazon) has become a sort of poster-child for environmentalist concerns today, and rightly so. But sometimes finding an approachable way to reduce our environmental impact can feel overwhelming. Preserving an entire rainforest is a task that does not, and should not, belong to a single person; that kind of obstacle takes the effort of the global community.

Rather, what Ruyant and Poetree would have us do is tackle the simple, and symbolic act of creating an environment for a new tree to thrive. The Poetree urn thus serves a kind of double function; it is at once a receptacle for the remains of a loved one, as well as an environmentally progressive vessel in which those surviving the deceased can plant a sapling of remembrance. The planting and caring for the tree ends up fostering a sense of awareness on several levels, with one being environmental, and the other being emotional.

Photo credit: treehugger.com

When a family opts for a Poetree urn, they bring home not only their cremated loved one, but the boxwood tree sapling they will eventually plant inside the urn. Next, when the family feels ready, they plant the sapling in the Poetree urn. It is a symbolic, poetic act that commences the growth and care for a new life while honoring that of a loved one who has just passed. In this way, the urn truly accompanies the family through the various stages of the grieving process with grace, and a tangible sense of recovery from such a difficult time.

“The planting and caring for the tree ends up fostering a sense of awareness on several levels, with one being environmental, and the other being emotional.”

The urn itself is handsomely designed, and fashioned out of white ceramic that is engraved with the details of the deceased. The entire concept of Poetree is “about keeping [the burial process] simple” for Ruyant, but “also [about] tying death back into nature’s cycle of renewal.” There is no single answer to how we can combat the sense of loss that follows a death. The sapling is removed from the Poetree urn once it has reached a reasonable state of maturity. Then, the tree is removed from the urn and relocated to a larger garden space. But the ceramic ring from the urn still remains around the tree, transforming it into a delicate headstone around its base.

Poetree offers an environmentally aware, and emotionally refreshing means towards embracing death as a necessary part of life. What better way could there be to tackle our trepidation of death than through the cultivation of a new life? And particularly, with one that is so inextricably bound to the life and memory of a loved one.

Related Articles:

• Biodegradable urns turn ashes into trees… (dejohnfuneralhomes.wordpress.com)
• EterniTrees Urns Grow a Living Monument (thefamilyplot.wordpress.com)