Our thinking

The Goods: Dead Good

1 October, 2021

While The Goods tends to focus on recommending products that help you to lead a greener life, this week we’re thinking about how to have a greener death. We’ve already written about Aura, which helps with end-of-life planning, but what about the funeral itself? Enter Poppy’s, an award-winning funeral director based in South London, who are encouraging the funeral sector to make more sustainable choices, and opening up more honest and constructive conversations around death and dying.

As part of their own journey towards B Corp status, Poppy’s are committed to becoming more sustainable as a business, and now power their HQ with renewable energy and provide seasonal, locally-sourced flowers as standard. As well as offering natural burial options (which are more environmentally friendly than cremation or traditional cemetery burial) Poppy’s offer customers a choice of eco-friendly coffin materials, including cardboard, wool, and bamboo. They also use calico instead of plastic to line all their coffins, and have biodegradable urn and electric-powered hearse vehicle options.

As our regular readers will already know, another important aspect of sustainability is transparency. Poppy’s has an online quote generator to give people an accurate understanding of what their services cost. Their online catalogue clearly outlines the different available options, with prices included, and they also post ideas and guidance on their website blog to make the process of planning a funeral as easy as possible.

We think Poppy’s is dead good, and we’re looking forward to seeing more funeral directors following their lead.

By Miriam Shovel