The Giving Gardens: Regenerative Deathcare for Community Nourishment

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Experiencing the loss of their father at a young age birthed Lindsey’s interest in the sanctity of a place that brings people together for collective healing. Their interdisciplinary background in social work, urban planning and early childhood development enabled them to explore the variety of support systems and spaces that grieving people, from a young age through adulthood, need for processing loss. As a Master of Urban Planning student, their research has investigated the conversion of underutilized spaces into fresh produce gardens to strengthen local food systems and the ecological impact of environmentally sustainable death care. Today, they are building upon that knowledge to lead the development of innovative built environment solutions that address both the need for collective grieving spaces, as well as access to fresh produce.

IMPORTANCE

Each year, 67 million people die across the globe, and most are buried in a conventional cemetery or cremated. Conventional burial consumes land, contaminates soil, and adds to the climate crisis through resource-intensive manufacturing and transportation of caskets and headstones. Cremation contributes to air pollution through the burning of fossil fuels and emission of carbon dioxide and particulates.

Fortunately, green burial practices have been on the rise over the past decade. From water cremation to tree burial, opportunities for reducing one’s environmental footprint through deathcare are becoming legally and financially more accessible.

But, what if we take green burial a step further and create death care spaces that contribute to the development of local regenerative food systems? The Giving Gardens model will allow cemeteries and memorial spaces to become a place for people to easily pursue a variety of green burial options for their loved ones, including fruit tree burials whose fruit can be in abundant availability to the wider community.

IMPACT AND REACH
Intended Goals:
– Develop a fine-tuned version of the Giving Gardens model
– Achieve governmental approval for development of a model prototype
– Build a local prototype of the Giving Gardens model
– Produce a consultancy version of the Giving Gardens model that enables ease of integration into existing cemeteries and implementation in new death care spaces globally
– Contribute to the cultural shift towards more sustainable death care practices and provide an exemplary model for policy makers to look for in their policy decisions

Intended Measurable Outputs:

Short term:
– Number of families who pursue Giving Garden services at the local prototype site
– Number of trees planted
– Number of people who visit the Giving Gardens
– Number of fruit consumed by visitors

Medium Term:
– Number of cemeteries who adopt the Giving Gardens model locally
– Number of cemetery leaders who receive consultancy services
– Number of families who opt into green burial options at client cemeteries

Long Term:
– Amount of water and air pollution reduced by green burial (vs traditional burial) at each cemetery

Intended Outcomes and Measures of Success

-Reduce the amount of pollution produced by death care at a global scale
– Increase access to high quality produce in both cities and rural areas across the globe

MY ROLE WELL DEFINED

As the founder of the Giving Gardens model, my roles and responsibilities will include guiding the overarching vision for the model, developing and leading an interdisciplinary team in the creation of our prototype site, and creating a long-term expansion plan for the work. Because green burial is still a niche topic and relatively new to the field of death care, I will need to develop a targeted outreach plan that includes speaking at events and starting an online campaign. Because the financial accessibility of our offerings is important to me, I will also need to develop partnerships with tree nurseries and organizations that already support tree planting locally. While building partnerships, I will incorporate my social work and urban design perspectives into environmental justice discussions, connect scientific research and sustainable urban planning approaches, and engage community members and policy leaders with the Giving Gardens model.

My commitment to community-driven solutions will inform how the model is integrated into different contexts and spaces – ensuring that residents themselves are at the forefront of envisioning, designing, and building the model locally, based on their needs and desires. As the model expands, I foresee opportunities for interdisciplinary, community-led research based on local urban agricultural development goals including green infrastructure, adaptation to climate change, water management, urban waste elimination, and food insecurity alleviation.

To ensure that the Giving Gardens model integrations are preserved in the long-term, I envision opportunities to tackle sustainability site issues by building a network of community land trusts that feature green death care spaces, edible urban forests and farms, seed banks, and plots for biointensive gardening that take into consideration impacts across the entire ecosystem as soil is cultivated and food is produced. As a future urban designer, I also foresee myself contributing to the expansion of biophilic design and living walls to reconnect children and adults alike with nature, cool neighborhoods, and reduce the carbon footprint of death care sites. As a life-long network weaver, I will act to connect people, ideas, and resources that collectively contribute to cities becoming healthier, more equitable, and resilient places for all species to coexist.

COLLABORATORS

In order to develop the Giving Gardens Model, I need to first create a prototype that allows potential clients to envision what is possible at their own existing or future planned cemetery, memorial, or death care space. Before creating the prototype, I’ll need to bring together a collaborative, interdisciplinary team who is eager to work alongside me on this venture and holds a variety of expertise in land use, landscape architecture, food policy, and death care. My consultant team will include experts such as a death doula, cemetery owner, food scientist, land use lawyer, and landscape architect. Once the prototype is underway, I’ll need to hire full-time staff to maintain the site, conduct outreach, manage social channels, and provide support to grieving families and loved ones.

In the short term, clients will be those who select Giving Gardens as their chosen site for burial care. In the medium to long term, clients will expand to existing cemeteries who would like to integrate the Giving Gardens model into their own death care sites.

NEXT STEPS
1. Business Development (Years 1-3)
2. Prototype Phase (Years 3-5)
3. Expansion Phase (Years 5-10)