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Green Cremation

At The Cremation Society of New Hampshire, we strive to be as environmentally conscious and earth friendly as possible. There are many areas within our processes and business practices where we have gone green and it is part of what makes us so special and unique. The act of cremation itself is a natural, earth friendly process and we carry it out with the utmost care and consideration for the deceased, the family, and the environment, all while complying with state laws.

Simply put, the body is reduced to small bone fragments – and those small bone fragments are given to the family.

The body is not embalmed, it is placed in a rigid cremation container that is completely consumable, then that is placed in the cremation chamber. There is no waste and none of our processes are harmful to the environment.

Cremating an adult produces between 250 and 500 pounds of carbon dioxide. Beginning in 2018, we are purchasing carbon offsets to offset 100 percent of the carbon footprint for each of our cremations.

Other ways that we have gone green include installing clean burning propane retorts in our cremation equipment. This minimizes the impact that the cremation chamber has on the environment when it is in operation.

Additionally, we have gone paperless and use local vendors whenever possible. While we do still offer certain paper-based services for our members and prospective members, such as mailing a paper application for membership or sending them our full color brochure, we do make all of these items available online. In fact, we encourage our families to make arrangements online instead of driving to our offices to further reduce our carbon footprint.

Here are some of our paperless options that we have made available to our members and prospective members:

Earth Friendly and Biodegradable Urns

We also offer a full line of earth friendly and biodegradable urns, also known as our “green” urn collection. Each of these urns is carefully manufactured with a special regard to its potential impact on the environment. Only natural and recycled materials are used to fabricate each of these urns, which are meant to break down once they are place in water or buried in the earth. Some of the materials used in construction include Himalayan rock salt, recycled paper, cornstarch, hand thrown porcelain and wood.

Each of these beautiful urns is carefully constructed to provide families interested in back-to-nature alternatives an environmentally friendly, attractive option that is still dignified and affordable while maintaining an emphasis on our precious natural resources.

We want you to feel good about choosing The Cremation Society of New Hampshire so we take great care to provide each of our members with options that support the things they care about the most. This includes being kind to our planet. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions on our green practices please don’t hesitate to reach out.

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Reducing Our Carbon Footprint

Choosing the cremation process in place of a traditional burial has been growing across the country. Cremation services do result in the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, but the Cremation Society of New Hampshire is the first funeral home in New Hampshire and Vermont to offset its carbon footprint from cremation.

CSNH has committed to a decade of projects with NativeEnergy of Burlington, VT, to offset the carbon footprint created by cremation. By making a long-term commitment, CSNH will effect positive change via projects that reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) in the United States and aid those who do not have something many of us take for granted – clean drinking water. One of the projects CSNH supports is a clean water effort in Ethiopia. The donations will help provide more than 6 million gallons of filtered water to the Sidama Zone.

“Through each monthly contribution, the Cremation Society of New Hampshire supports NativeEnergy in providing five families—of six people each—access to clean water for more than a year,” said Titus Kabega of NativeEnergy. “We are honored to work with CSNH as they embark on this journey toward reducing their GHG impact. Each month’s commitment helps avoid 33 tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere over the 10-year life of the project.”

In Ethiopia’s Sidama Zone, 75% of the population consumes unfiltered water from rivers, lakes and rain pits, which can cause deadly typhoid and diarrhea. CSNH’s contribution to NativeEnergy adds a water filtration system to the region as well as community-based training in proper sanitation and hygiene practices. While the Sidama Zone is known for its coffee production, it has little access to sanitation resources for its 8,500+ people.

“This is a win-win situation. By offsetting our own carbon footprint, we can help save lives,” said Buddy Phaneuf, President of Phaneuf Funeral Homes & Crematorium. “Going green is a priority for Phaneuf and The Cremation Society. We are aware that cremation services use natural gas and have CO2 emissions, and we want to counteract that effect on the environment and work towards becoming carbon neutral.”

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