The Future of Sustainable Funerals: Embracing Electric Cremation and Eco-Friendly Caskets
Updated: Sep 29
New research is highlighting a significant opportunity in the funeral industry to cut carbon emissions: the cremator itself.
According to a report from Memoria Funerals, electric cremators can reduce carbon emissions by 80 to 90 percent compared to traditional gas-fired cremators. Despite this, only about 1 percent of the UK's cremators currently operate on electricity. The remaining 99 percent still rely on natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas.
The Impact of Cremation Methods
The numbers are important because they reflect the scale of the issue. The UK conducts approximately 550,000 cremations each year. A standard gas-fired cremation produces between 62 kg and 245 kg of CO2 per service. When we multiply that across half a million services annually, even a small shift toward electric cremation technology could lead to a significant reduction in the funeral sector's carbon footprint.
Memoria Group operates the largest number of electric cremators in the UK. About 21 percent of its facilities use electric cremators, which is roughly 21 times the national average. The group also holds two of the UK's three platinum Greener Globe accreditations, a recognized standard for environmental performance in the funeral sector.
Memoria Funerals emphasizes that the funeral sector must be more willing to discuss environmental issues with families. Funeral directors have one chance to arrange a funeral for someone's loved one, and the industry should be more courageous in having these conversations.
The findings align with guidance published in November 2025 by the Greater South East Net Zero Hub's Crematoria Decarbonisation Toolkit, supported by data from the Cremation Society of Great Britain.
For families and funeral homes already considering sustainability, it's crucial to remember that the environmental impact of a funeral extends beyond just the casket. The method of cremation, energy source, and even the choice between a cardboard or wicker casket versus a traditional timber or veneer option all contribute to the overall footprint of a service.
The Science Bit: Why Virgin-Grade Corrugated Fibreboard Caskets Are a Natural Match for Electric Cremators
The data mentioned earlier raises an important question for anyone involved in specifying or approving what goes into the cremation chamber: Does the casket or coffin itself help or hinder the equation? Specifically, for corrugated fibreboard caskets (often inaccurately called "cardboard"), there is a persistent objection based on outdated data in the cremation industry that needs to be addressed.
The Objection: "Cardboard Burns Too Fast"
Some crematorium operators argue that cardboard coffins burn too quickly. This rapid burning supposedly forces the cremator to work harder to maintain chamber temperature, which could increase total emissions. While this is a reasonable concern, it is only partially correct.
Same Energy, Different Rate
Corrugated cardboard and dry timber release nearly identical energy per kilogram when burned. Cardboard measures around 14.03 MJ/kg under standard testing, while dry oak is approximately 14.8 MJ/kg. Therefore, cardboard is not a hotter fuel. What is true is that it burns faster. The flutes and thin walls of corrugated fibreboard provide a much higher surface area relative to its mass compared to dense timber panels, allowing it to ignite quickly and release heat in a shorter burst.
This concern about "working the cremator harder" is valid, but it only tells part of the story. Burn rate alone does not determine the total heat released; mass plays a crucial role.
The Mass Difference Does the Heavy Lifting
Here's where the conclusion changes. Around 95 percent of conventional UK coffins are made from chipboard or MDF, not solid timber, and they typically weigh around 35 kg. In contrast, a Daisybox fibreboard casket weighs about 7 kg. So, even though cardboard burns faster per kilogram, there is approximately five times less of it to burn.
A faster burn rate applied to a fifth of the mass results in a smaller total heat pulse, not a larger one. The casket does not increase the cremator's workload; in fact, it requires less effort than a conventional MDF casket.
Another factor to consider is that conventional caskets often contain urea formaldehyde resin adhesives, which are known to produce highly toxic NOx emissions during combustion. Plain corrugated fibreboard does not have this resin adhesive load.
Why This Matters Even More for Electric Cremators
Modern cremators, whether gas or electric, do not operate on a fixed fuel batch that requires manual adjustments. They use continuous, thermocouple-fed control systems that modulate heat input in real time to maintain a set temperature. The well-documented failure mode in this industry is not a casket burning too quickly and underheating the chamber. Instead, it is excess combustible content, often high body fat, causing the chamber to overshoot and the burner to cut back. A lighter, faster-burning secondary fuel load like engineered "cardboard" fits comfortably within what these control systems are designed to manage.
Electric cremators take this a step further. Resistive heating elements respond to a set point with more precision than a gas flame, without the coffin's combustion contributing unpredictable byproducts to the electric heating process. A smaller, cleaner-burning secondary fuel load is easier for these systems to absorb, not harder. In practice, this means a well-engineered cardboard casket, such as Daisybox, is arguably a better match for electric cremation technology than a conventional 35 kg MDF or chipboard coffin. It requires less mass to reach the desired temperature, has no formaldehyde adhesive load, and operates within a control system designed to smooth out fast combustion events.
The Regulators Agree
This isn't just a claim from Daisybox. The UK Environment Agency and DEFRA's best available techniques guidance for crematoria explicitly states that casket or coffin mass should be minimized as a "secondary fuel load." Reducing this mass can cut NOx emissions by around 66 percent and N2O by more than 90 percent. Regulators are encouraging operators to use less fibreboard material, which contradicts the "higher carbon" argument sometimes made against cardboard.
What the Track Record Shows
Daisybox cardboard and wicker caskets have undergone over 50,000 cremations across nearly every major Australian crematorium in the past decade. This extensive real-world operation supports the physics, not just lab results.
As the adoption of electric cremators gradually increases in the UK and beyond, the case for pairing this equipment with a lighter, cleaner-burning casket becomes even stronger. Cardboard does not oppose the shift to lower carbon cremation; it actively supports it.
Sources: FSRI Materials Database (corrugated cardboard combustion data), EngineeringToolBox (wood combustion heat values), Ben Copeland's dissertation "A comparison of gas and electric cremator emissions in the UK," *GOV.UK crematoria best available techniques (BAT) guidance, and Daisybox's operational record across Australian crematoria. This post follows our earlier article on electric cremator adoption in the UK, based on reporting by Pressat and a press release from Memoria Funerals
