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Tom Young, BusinessGreen, Wednesday 16 June 2010 at 10:07:00

Row over auditor’s report could see Japan’s third largest wind energy firm delisted from Tokyo Stock Exchange

Shares in Japanese wind power firm Japan Wind Development are today going untraded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the second day running after the firm faced delisting for failing…

After working diligently to raise money to translate The Cove into Japanese, and advocating like crazy to get it allowed into theaters in the country, the team behind the ground-breaking documentary is finding it is being met with little enthusiasm. Screenings across Japan are being canceled as pressure from protesters grow, saying that the documentary is a “betrayal of Japanese pride.” Unplugged, the distributor of the documentary in Japan, said that the two cancellations that occurred last week came about from concern over the safety of moviegoers and businesses nearby. Angry phone calls and picketers with bullhorns are proving effective at keeping t…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image credit: Obliot/Flickr The estuarine crocodile, more commonly known as the “saltwater crocodile,” has the largest geographic range of any crocodile species. Spanning more than 10,000 square kilometers of ocean, the crocodiles make their home from India to Australia, Indonesia to China, and have turned up as far north as the Sea of Japan and as far east as the Pacific Islands. To occupy such a vast marine realm, the crocodiles must be excellent swimmers—at least, that is what logic would sugge…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Japan Electric Vehicle Club toppade sitt gamla Guinness-rekord genom att köra en elbil i över 100 mil utan att ladda om batterierna.

Background
As the old saying goes, the only things guaranteed in life are death and taxes. Burial rites have become increasingly involved over time, particularly for those who can afford it – as the Great Pyramids testify. Today, in the United States, a US$25-billion death-care industry oversees 1.8 million burials a year, with the average funeral costing about $6,000. As millions of baby boomers are expected to die by 2040, the market will only expand.

Funerary options vary widely around the world, depending on culture and lifestyle. In Bombay, India, the Parsi community follows a centuries-old tradition of using vultures to dispose of the dead. U.S. residents can buy specialty urns bearing the insignia of the deceased’s favorite sports team. And one enterprising company, LifeGem, will create a certified, high-quality diamond from the carbon of your loved one.

Environmental Impacts
Modern funerals are resource-intensive. Bodies are typically embalmed in toxic formaldehyde; sealed in impervious, laminated wooden caskets (often derived from slow-growing trees); and then placed in lined graves or cement vaults.

Cremation is considered a more eco-friendly option, requiring less land for burial, but it’s not without impact. Between 1975 and 2004, the share of Americans cremated grew from 6 percent to 31 percent. Today, there are more than 1,800 crematoriums nationwide, and some 200 new ones are built each year. These facilities require energy, typically from fossil fuels, and the incineration process releases dioxin and mercury (up to 6 grams per body). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that crematoriums emit 145 kilograms of mercury per year (largely from dental fillings), though activists say the real figure could be as high as three tons.

Cremation may be greener overall, however. An Australian study found that a cremation generated 160 kilograms of CO2 on average, compared to 39 kilograms for a standard burial. But when the cost of maintaining grave sites was included (high pesticide, water, and mowing requirements), burials released 10 percent more emissions.

Closing the Loop
Residents of several U.S. cities have successfully fought plans to build new crematoriums, and critics have called for stricter emissions controls on them. Other proposals for reducing emissions include removing mercury fillings from corpses before cremation and using liquid nitrogen to reduce bodies to dust. Adelaide’s Centennial Park cemetery plants trees to offset the site’s emissions, and Koekisha, a major funeral home operator in Osaka, Japan, uses dry ice and a cold insulator to reduce carbon emissions from bodies.

Eco-friendly burials, popular in the United Kingdom for years, are catching on elsewhere. Low-impact offerings include natural fiber shrouds, fair-trade bamboo caskets lined with unbleached cotton, and the $5,000 Ecopod, a biodegradable coffin made from recycled newspaper. In Japan, options include vegetable protein urns and capsules made from tea leaves.

Death is also becoming a vehicle for conservation. The UK is home to some 180 natural or woodland cemeteries, accounting for more than 10 percent of all burials. And Fernwood Cemetery in California, one of a handful of U.S. natural cemeteries, offers low-impact burials in wildflower meadows or redwood groves. Georgia company Eternal Reefs will incorporate your ashes into artificial coral reefs, used to restore fish habitat.

Lisa Mastny is senior editor of World Watch. She can be reached at lmastny@worldwatch.org.

This article originally appeared on the Worldwatch Institute.

Image of Fernwood Cemetery in California, which offers low-impact burials, courtesy of Flickr photographer kqedquest under the Creative Commons License. Image of Ecopod via the company website.

Other “Life-Cycle” studies from Worldwatch include:
Concrete
Post-It Notes
Toothpaste

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Sustainable Design at 9:00 AM)