The first time Laura Muckenhoupt felt a glimmer of hope after the death of her 22-year-old son Miles was the drive home from the Washington state facility that had turned his body into hundreds of pounds of soil.
"We're going to grow him," she remembered thinking. "We're going to grow him, and we're going to continue to be his parents and his sister and his friends."
Human composting turns bodies into soil by speeding up "what happens on the forest floor," according to Tom Harries, CEO of Earth Funeral, the human composting company the Muckenhoupt family worked with.
"What we're doing is accelerating a completely natural process," Harris told CNN. Human composting is emerging as an end-of-life alternative that is friendlier to the climate and the Earth — it is far less carbon-intensive than cremation and doesn't use chemicals involved to preserve bodies in traditional burials.
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📸 : John Naccarato/Earth Funeral
Climate pressures are redefining sustainable construction. UN scientists warn of severe water scarcity, compelling developers to integrate water security into sustainable building design. Municipal systems under stress in the Mountain West illustrate why low carbon construction materials and green infrastructure are now central to environmental sustainability in construction. Projects that factor in hydrology and climate resilience through whole life carbon assessment and lifecycle assessment deliver measurable value by reducing the carbon footprint of construction and ensuring long-term viability.
Persistent flooding in Scotland and landslides in India expose the costs of ignoring ecological systems. Resilient cities depend on eco-friendly construction and circular economy principles, combining low carbon design with life cycle thinking in construction to reduce embodied carbon in materials and extend building lifecycle performance. This signals a shift from reactive rebuilding to proactive adaptation, where sustainable building practices become a financial and regulatory necessity.
Corporate campuses are setting benchmarks for net zero carbon buildings through integrated sustainable design, demonstrating that resource efficiency in construction scales effectively when guided by whole life carbon metrics. Award-winning housing initiatives in the US highlight how eco-design for buildings and circular construction strategies can align cost, performance and community value, moving beyond pilot schemes to standard practice.
Public participation is reinforcing social licence as a critical project factor. Early engagement in planning supports sustainable urban development by aligning sustainability goals with community priorities. Cities incorporating green construction and renewable building materials experience smoother delivery while reducing litigation risks and achieving higher BREEAM ratings.
Global policy fragmentation and uneven decarbonising of the built environment are altering investment patterns and life cycle cost projections. Developers are mitigating risk through flexible systems designed for varied hydrological and regulatory contexts, safeguarding both carbon neutral construction outcomes and portfolio resilience.
The industry now recognises that net zero whole life carbon, embodied carbon control and circular economy in construction are determinants of insurability, finance and long-term asset value. Firms embedding BREEAM v7 frameworks, end-of-life reuse in construction and sustainable material specification will define the next growth cycle through demonstrable reductions in whole life carbon and measurable environmental impact of construction.
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