June 2022: Sustainable Living Festival
The Sustainable Cemetery
Watch the event here.
The session was facilitated by James Reid, Chief Future Built Environment Officer at Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT). James briefly introduced GMCT before inviting each panellist to present. Each panellist presented on the topic of sustainable cemeteries and their involvement in the development of a new public cemetery at Harkness in the City of Melton in Melbourne’s west. The panellists and perspectives they brought to the conversation were:
- Alli Coster - Design Lead for GMCT’s Future Built Environment Team – Managing cemeteries sustainably
- Theo Gouskos - Managing Director of Greenshoot Consulting – Embedding First Nations Knowledge Systems and celebrating Culture through infrastructure design
- Miranda Wilkinson - Associate Director of McGregor Coxall – Design strategies for sustainability
- Samuel Holleran – Researcher for DeathTech at Melbourne University – The future cemetery - technology and trends
Presentation summaries
Alli Coster
Alli flagged that cemeteries often play a significant role in the grieving process for ‘one of life’s most truly fragile moments.’ In addition, cemetery land also plays a large role in the preservation of native plants and animals. At its core, GMCT provides end of life services, and the most current and popular interment strategies are cremation and burial, both of which are highly unsustainable. Alli pointed out that one cremation produces the CO2 emissions equivalent to driving 600km in a car.
Theo Gouskos
Theo explained that a truly sustainable cemetery should seek to understand the profound meaning that connection to country has to Indigenous Australians. Caring for country must consider social equity, environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and cultural sustainability. The idea of a sustainable cemetery presents an opportunity to reflect on the histories of First Peoples, create a new space for creation, art and artefact, and support people to connect with the qualities of nature and history.
Miranda Wilkinson
Miranda explained that sustainability is at the heart of the master plan for the new site at Harkness, not only environmental, but quadruple bottom line sustainability. The intersection of design, culture and sustainability is a challenging proposition for cemeteries. Miranda suggested that this intersection is intrinsically linked to caring for country. If people have the ability to understand the site more through art and history, then people may be more likely to care for the land.
Samuel Holleran (Researcher, Death Tech)
Samuel explained that cemeteries are beginning to evolve into multipurpose greenspaces. These sites contain multitudes of environmental assets like tress and waterways which contribute positively to managing the impacts of climate change. Samuel also spoke to new, innovative memorialisation practices, such as human compositing and hydrolysis. Although both practices require further research prior to implementation, they are seemingly far more sustainable than our current normalities.
Key themes of our audience questions
The questions from audience members during our seminar presented numerous key areas of interest. They could be summarised as follows:
- What are the most sustainable interment methods and what will the new cemetery at Harkness consider?
- How will the site facilitate peace and comfort for its users?
- Is there an opportunity for more sustainable interment strategies to be implemented across Victoria?
- Will green burials consider options for family members to have a place to visit?
Our panellists favourite cemeteries
At the conclusion of the seminar, following audience questions, each panellist was asked, ‘What cemetery have you felt most connected to and why?’
Samuel Holleran
Green- Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn - Samuel lived adjacent to the Green- Wood Cemetery and loved the peaceful qualities of this site, including that connection to history.
Alli Coster
Fawkner Memorial Park and Northern Memorial Park - These cemeteries resonate particularly as Alli is able to feel a particular connection with place and nature on these sites.
Theo Gouskos
Fawkner Memorial Park - Theo said this is the site which he feels most connected to as his family are all buried there and the site provides him with a place to reflect and relive his family’s experiences.
Miranda Wilkinson
Melbourne Cemetery - Miranda said Melbourne Cemetery because she lives in close in proximity and during Covid-19 lockdowns it provided a peaceful place to reconnect with history and nature.
To learn more
To discover more about the master planning process currently underway for the new site at Harkness and have your say about what you would like to see at the site, visit the website at yoursay.gmct.com.au.
To learn more about sustainable death practices and future research or keep up to date with the latest research from DeathTech, visit their website here.
Thank you
We thank The Sustainable Living Festival for hosting our event.
