At these new green cemeteries, your body will turn into a tree

When you die, traditional burial uses toxic chemicals like formaldehyde along with steel and concrete, and the acres of grass in cemeteries usefertilizer and water. A lot of energy is used in cremation. Transcend wants to rethink cemeteries as forests, with each body planted under a tree as it begins to decay.

A shallow grave is lined with wood chips or hay, the body is wrapped in a linen shroud, and then a mix of local soil, wood chips, and fungi is added to the grave. A young tree, native to each area, is planted on top. Matthew Kochmann says that mycelium acts as a steroid for the roots of the tree to reach down and suck up all of the hyper-rich vitamins and minerals. There will be a plaque for each tree.

It is one of many options for burials that are more eco-friendly. Human composting is legal in a few states and one startup that offers it opened last year. urns can be buried under a tree in other memorial forests.

Kochmann liked the idea of a tree burial but realized that the designers weren't pursuing it. The first people who usually propose solutions are graduate students and designers. It takes business to be able to figure out how to make that happen.

He had experience in financing land projects and dealing with the regulatory and logistical challenges of a new type of business, but he wasn't planning to go into the end-of-life business. He collaborated with other people to design the system, including experts in human decomposition and soil- tree interaction. The director of The Fountain, who used the idea of a tree on a grave in the movie, became an adviser.

1,000 additional trees will be planted when customers reserve a burial. There is an opportunity to provide a better solution for individuals at the time of their death, but also to create a model that will accelerate their impact forward to today and get a younger audience saying, 'Yeah, I want to be a tree eventually, decades from now, but if.' The system would end up planting 1.2 trillion trees if the approach could be scaled up.

The first sites will be on deforested land close to large cities. The mini-forests will never be developed because they are a conserver. Transcend is starting to offer founding memberships that allow customers to plant 100 trees and lock in the ability to reserve a future interment. The company sells a home kit that can be used to bury pets in backyards, as well as a blend of fungi-enriched soil, and a tree burial guide.