Rankings
Website: South Carolina is the No. 10 Best State for Green Burials
Lawn Love, a lawn care company, released a report on 2023’s Best States for Green Burials and they ranked South Carolina as being the 10th best in the country. According to the New York Times, green burials “do away with both the embalming chemicals and the extraneous cement, steel or other non-biodegradable materials conventional burials put into the earth, and lack the carbon footprint of cremation, which has been calculated to be the equivalent of a 500-mile car journey.”
To come up with the ranking, the website compared the 50 states based on four categories – access to green burial locations, funeral homes specializing in natural burials, and demand, among 18 total metrics.
How South Carolina ranks in some key metrics (1st = Best):
- Number of Green Burial Council-Certified Funeral Homes – 9th
- Number of Conservation Burial Grounds (Protected Wildlife Conservation Areas) – 2nd
- Average Cost of Traditional Burial (as % of Average Household Income) – 15th
- Average Monthly Google Searches for Green Burial-Related Keywords Over Past Year – 1st
To see the full report, click here.