May 26th, 2008 · 3 Comments

After more than a decade in the reef-rebuilding business, Eternal Reefs considers itself a top choice for natural burial. The company’s products are less expensive than traditional funeral services and in line with alternate services, such as scattering of remains. Prices range from a community reef at $2,500 to a 4,000-lb. Mariner Memorial Reef at about $6,500. Another aspect of Reef Balls that make them a unique memorial product is that relatives are welcome to take part in the memorial reef-making process.

The growing trend of cremation has given companies like Eternal Reefs more competition, as well, as more suppliers of death care products and services cater to the natural burial movement. (Of those who died in 2005, 32% were cremated, according to the National Funeral Directors Association; by 2010 the proportion of those being cremated is expected to grow to 38 percent.)

Additionally, with more companies serving this niche of the market, it’s increasingly difficult for consumers to determine whether companies are really green and eco-conscious or just saying so. “There is no question that natural burial is a change in death care that is here to stay,” says Frankel, “and it will be affecting the collective death care industry in the near future as the Baby Boomers age. Eternal Reefs has been the pioneer in concept of reef memorials and we have the arrows in our backs to prove it. Our focus is to build reefs and not underwater cemeteries, which is what we expect is emerging as competition.”

Photo: Eternal Reefs
 
The memorials include flowers and eulogies.

Even big companies serving the industry, whether they’re green or not, will be brainstorming about how they, too, can tap into the natural burial niche. The world’s largest death care provider, Houston-based Service Corporation International, has seen a steady increase in the number of its North American services that involve cremated remains. During its 2007 fiscal year, the $2.3 billion company generated some 41% of its North American revenue by selling cremation memorial products and services. The company made plans in 2008 to continue to focus on its memorial business for revenue growth for years to come. (See SEC filings for more information on the funeral industry.)

Frankel cautions consumers about businesses that are touting themselves as green.
“With all the green-washing going on in the business community it is hard to determine fact from fiction as to what is really green,” says Frankel. “While we are most definitely an environmental memorial choice, we are at least as much of a ‘cause’ as we are ‘green.’”

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