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The ICCM Journal | Winter 2021 | V89 No. 4
in touch “I look around, leaves are brown now And the sky is a hazy shade of winter” from Hazy Shade of Winter by Paul Simon
And so, Autumn is turning into winter and we are approaching the end of 2021. By the time you receive this Journal in December we may well have already had some snow and freezing conditions. Will it be a white Christmas this year? The current odds are 4/1. A snowflake has fallen somewhere in the UK on Christmas Day 38 times in the past 52 years, meaning we can except roughly three-quarters of all Christmases to be white. But I won’t be rushing to place a bet on 2021 being a white Christmas. With global warming leading to some freak weather conditions who knows what might happen? We could be in for a heat wave or a cold snap. We won’t know whether to get out our Christmas jumpers or our Christmas tee shirts! Behind this joviality lies a very serious issue, probably the most urgent and critical issue that we have ever faced, or are likely to face. The simple fact is that our current style of living is killing the planet, which in turn will kill us, along with many other plants and animals. It could be the end of life on earth as we know it. It is a worldwide issue, but solutions must start locally. In the global scheme of things, the impact that the funeral sector has on the environment is probably relatively minor. There are different interpretations of which industries are causing the most damage, but they all include the fuel industry, mining, waste management, agriculture and food production, the fashion industry, construction, transport, and product manufacturing. Some serious top level action is needed to clean up these major polluting industries. But that doesn’t mean that lesser polluting industries shouldn’t also do their bit. Or that every individual shouldn’t make changes to how they live. Every small action taken collectively leads to big change. For example, if every person in the UK turned their TVs off rather than leaving them on standby, many thousands of watts of energy would be saved. To extend this further, it is estimated that turning off home appliances can save a family up to £60.00 per year in money, but with an even greater environmental benefit. There are over 19 million families in the UK; If every household made this simple switch, imagine what an impact that would have. The same is true of the funeral sector. Don’t be put off by the enormity of the problem, and don’t wait around for regulations to be imposed to force change. Take whatever small steps you can to improve your carbon footprint and lessen your impact on the environment. It might be something as simple as making sure you and your colleagues turn your computers off at the end of the day and turn the lights out before leaving the office. Or it may be bigger steps such as banning the use of pesticides and reducing the frequency of grass cutting in your sites. Or it could be some type of financial incentive to encourage consumer change, such as the waiving of a cemetery memorial fee for memorials made from sustainable materials such as wood. There is a lot of good practice already happening, and I’m sure that more will follow as we collectively respond to the climate emergency. With 600,000 funerals in the UK each year, and over 12.5 million worldwide, we have the potential to make significant changes through simple actions.
Julie Dunk ICCM Chief Executive
