Funerals and burial services are expensive, but as the world progresses, the market has expanded far past alternatives like cremation.
To skirt the average $7k cost for funeral and burial services, some have opted for human composting, while others have requested burial by biodegradable pod.
Now, Fast Company reports, the people of Better Place Forests have raised more than $12m to design a cemetery model to help better signify the greener pastures ahead: A forest cemetery.
Get your ol’ bag-o-bones a redwood, would ya?
Now you can put yourself at ease on earth knowing that when you make like a banana and die you can spend… less thousands of dollars on the exclusive rights to have your ashes spread under one of the trees on BPF’s property.
At the startup’s 20-acre forest in Mendocino, California (launched this month), families can spend from $2.9k to as much as $36k to have their ashes spread underneath a tree of their choosing.
Death wellness is on the rise for the living
As people are becoming more in tune with the fear of impending death, death wellness has become a rising subset of the death biz to help the living have peace of mind for that fateful day.
The end-of-life experience is almost never a pleasant one. But unfortunately it’s inevitable, and that fact of life (and death) is one that has catapulted the business of grief and despair to a $14B industry.
But, as anyone who has lost a loved one knows, the experience for those going through a loss can be just as cold a racket.
Better Place Forests wants to go beyond peace of mind for the dead
It also wants to disrupt the old plastic bag gift wrap that often comes with normal funeral services by offering the peaceful grounds as a funeral home as well.
Better Place already has thousands of clients. The startup currently owns 7 properties located around the US and is in the process of transforming each one into a memorial forest. And each one of the trees paid for is protected.
Cheers to positive business news!