Recently, with the continuous improvement of global awareness of sustainable development, green funerals have become an important development direction in the funeral industry. Eco-friendly wooden coffins, relying on their resource sustainability and eco-friendly characteristics, have gradually attracted market attention. The "Furniture Coffin" project developed by the Lingnan University Entrepreneurship Initiative has sparked widespread discussion, providing a new idea for the innovative application of eco-friendly wooden coffins.
It is understood that traditional wooden coffins are mostly made of virgin wood, and large-scale felling is likely to lead to ecological imbalance. In addition, some products contain chemical coatings, which will produce pollutants during cremation. At the same time, the long burning time and large fuel consumption bring multiple pressures to the environment. The new type of eco-friendly wooden coffin has achieved double breakthroughs in material selection and functional design. Taking the product developed by Lingnan University as an example, its raw materials are high-quality birch plywood and spruce plywood from Nordic forests, all from sustainably managed forests, which meet the highest standards of wood raw materials in terms of environmental protection, strength and durability, and strictly comply with the requirements of Hong Kong's Cremation and Memorial Gardens Regulations (Cap. 132M) on cremation coffins.
More innovatively, this eco-friendly wooden coffin adopts a "dual-purpose" design. It can be used as a bookshelf to place books and memorial items in daily life, and can be converted into a coffin by family members to place the remains after death. This not only reduces resource waste, but also retains emotional sustenance for the family. "Traditional coffins are only used for cremation ceremonies, which is undoubtedly a waste of resources. We hope to integrate the concept of environmental protection into the funeral process through this innovative way, making the relic a carrier of missing," said Dr. Ko Wing-yin, director of the Lingnan University Entrepreneurship Initiative and leader of the project.
Yang Mei-rong, chief executive of the social enterprise "Forget Me Not Love" which collaborated in the project, pointed out that the project not only practices the concept of environmental protection, but also advocates the public to plan their end-of-life affairs in advance, promoting intergenerational integration and the goal of "good death". Industry insiders analyze that the emergence of eco-friendly wooden coffins conforms to the transformation demand of the funeral industry towards "low-carbonization and ecologization". In the future, with the maturity of technology and the improvement of public awareness, it is expected to become one of the mainstream choices in the funeral market. At present, the project is being advanced with the participation of two Lingnan University students. In the follow-up, it will further popularize the concept of green funerals through promotion activities and workshops.
