Environment
Did you know that on the day a cremation or burial takes place, the volume of carbon dioxide produced is four times higher for cremation than for burial?*
But did you also know that when the long-term environmental footprint is considered, burials have a 10% greater impact than cremations?*
Neither did we, until we conducted an 18 month greenhouse gas emissions audit and became ‘Carbon Measured’.
Burial has a greater longer-term impact than cremation because it is a more labour and resource intensive process, consumes more fuels and produces larger quantities of waste.
At Centennial Park we now measure and offset all of our greenhouse gas emissions with certified carbon credits. This includes all cremations, burials and funeral services as well as operational emissions from our administration building, garden maintenance, vehicles and equipment.
This makes us ‘Carbon Managed’.
Centennial Park is committed to being environmentally sustainable and we have a dedicated Environmental Management Plan. In recent years we have reduced our energy consumption, operational waste, vehicle emissions and reliance on mains water.
Due to these efforts, Centennial Park has been certified as ‘Carbon Minimising’.
Recycling
Centennial Park has reduced operational waste sent to landfill by more than 97% — from 260 tonnes to 7 tonnes each year. This has been achieved by introducing recycling bins for our green waste, waste metals (ferrous and non ferrous), plastics, glass, cardboard and paper, polystyrene and concrete. We also now recycle all fluorescent globes.
Around 3000 tonnes of leftover soil is generated from burials each year and is now re-used within our gardens instead of being sent to landfill.
Energy
We have also reduced energy consumption by 9%.
Our high wattage light bulbs have been replaced with low wattage energy saving globes and staff understand the benefits of turning off lights, air-conditioning, computers and other appliances when not in use.
We have installed motion sensor lights and timed water pumps as well as solar panels on the roof of our administration building. We have replaced some cars with electric vehicles and we now use bio-diesel and bio-ethanol for other vehicles and machinery.
Water
Centennial Park has always used water responsibly. We have two bores for watering our gardens as well as a sub-surface drip irrigation system.
More recent measures include waterless urinals, dual flush toilets, water softeners (reducing water flow by more than 75%) and the removal of unnecessary taps. Possible future projects include storm water harvesting.
Centennial Park is looking positively towards a greener future and we have plans to reduce our carbon footprint even further.
As this takes place, Centennial Park’s environmental journey will continue.
* These measurements are specific to Centennial Park’s procedures and may vary between cemeteries.