●businessweek 2007-10-23：Monks Go Green

An Atlanta-area亞特蘭大(美國喬治亞州首府) monastery 修道院;僧院looks to green burials 綠色埋葬;葬禮to sustain a cloistered lifestyle ﹝Top News October 23, 2007 ﹞



Father Francis Michael, abbot of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery, spends his days watching the birds, butterflies, and dragonflies that inhabit the orders grounds about 30 miles east of downtown Atlanta. In August, the monks of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit broke a state record by spotting 59 butterfly species in a single day.



Such contemplative沈思的;冥想的 activity is occupying less of Father Francis time these days. With many of the orders 45 brothers now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, health-care costs have surged, forcing the monastery to employ outsiders to complete tasks the monks once performed. Since the monasterys founding in 1944, the monks have undertaken a series of entrepreneurial ventures企業合資, from hay farming, to raising ostriches and emus, to baking bread.



In their latest round of entrepreneurialism創業家, Father Francis and his fellow Cistercian brothers are hiring an outside company to convert 30 acres of clear-cut pine plantation into a "conservation burial ground, and perform "green burials—interments without embalming and with biodegradable caskets or urns, or simply a shroud, instead of cement and steel caskets. The monks, who have 2,200 acres, plan to charge $3,000 to $4,000 per plot and sell plants and engraving works. Father Francis hopes the green venture will appeal to monastery visitors of all faiths and enable the monks to obey their sixth century mandate to be self-sufficient, a goal that has eluded them in recent years. The orders community costs were $1.6 million last year, up from $700,000 a decade earlier, with most of the rise attributable to health-care expenses.



A Sustainable Business Model?
One could, in a big monastery, fall into being a CEO instead of a monk, because you have a big operation that you have to manage and make sure survives, Francis says. "I am trying to not get into a mindset where I think this is a silver bullet that is going to solve everything. It d be nice, but we ve tried too many other things that weren t that."

The monks green burial venture is the latest sign of just how far and wide the greening of American business has spread. That an order of monks so strict it once communicated by hand signal has partnered with eco-entrepreneurs shows how no corner of the nation s economy is sheltered from the enticement of green marketing and "cause-based" consumption.

Green burial is still very much in its infancy in the U.S., and whether it can work as a sustainable business model remains to be seen. The U.S. has five exclusively green cemeteries so far—in Florida, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, and Texas—yet they do not all adhere to the same environmental standards.

●什麼是綠色安葬？
簡單和自然的事情。 綠掩埋，或自然土葬，確保埋葬地點仍然是自然的，盡可能在各方面。 屍體做了一個可生物降解的棺木，裹屍布，或喜愛的毯子，沒有embalming液，沒有具體的拱頂。

為什麼有一個綠色安葬？

很顯然，這種性質已有意使我們的身體能夠回歸地球上的所有生物體都住，已經死亡，並歸還給土壤… …只有以循環為新的生活。不斷微生物活性，在土壤中休息，一切都下降。性質，不造成浪費，一切都循環利用。

符合你的個人價值，自然掩埋場，為你服務，家庭服務，甚至寵物，促進生長的鄉土樹種，灌木和野花，從而使鳥類和其他野生動物進入該區。水是沒有白費的，也不是農藥和除草劑用在試圖控制的性質，而是一個綠色公墓允許性質是否可以的，當然。 種植鄉土樹種，灌木和時花，在你所愛的人的榮譽，促進棲息地恢復。鼓勵土地保存，綠色公墓資助一項保護地役權，為掩埋場。

土葬與火葬

綠色土葬是一個火葬替代，並提出可行的，以"傳統"的喪葬習俗，在美國，這是一個地球友善的選擇時考慮土葬比火葬。 任何家庭選擇火葬，因為這被視為更環保，比傳統土葬。 embalming ，昂貴密封caskets及殮葬拱頂法例並無規定，雖然傳統的紀念公園內，可要求他們，一個綠色公墓或紀念性質的保存沒有。簡潔的綠色土葬是真雕的性質，也不需要昂貴的。

直到最近， 在一個環保的墓地，是不是一種選擇，現在我們可以考慮，並鼓勵自然掩埋，有利於維護遊憩用地在整個美國，這將越來越成為火葬替代。

選擇綠色土葬，現在解除你的親人的危難來，在不得不作出困難的，往往需耗費人力，決定後，你及格。牽涉到你的家人和朋友，所以非常困難的決定，並不需要作出修改，在時間的悲痛。

	主持人	Businessweek

全球精選》Monks Go Green原全文
City of Atlanta Online亞特蘭大在線
全球精選》Monks Go Green原全文
Atlanta, Georgia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedi
green burials 綠色安葬