Our enduring strength that caters for everyone

Our Sustainable Development

We are committed to respecting our planet the best way we can - we reduce, repair, regive.

At Amanda-Louise's we are constantly on a mission to reduce our carbon footprint and be a more sustainable business. We are aware that the funeral industry has a significant negative impact on our environment, so if there is a way we can give back to the planet, we will. Whether this is ourselves being more resourceful within our funeral home, our option to families from our more eco-friendly vehicles for travel, greener funeral options and products, and how they can mitigate the carbon produced from their funeral by donating to plant a tree in memory, to soft touches with our wildflower bee-friendly seeds for our life affirming funerals commemorating the life of the person who has died.

However much we try to reduce our carbon footprint, some emissions are inevitable and difficult to avoid. That’s why, as a company, we have taken positive action to offset our carbon footprint by also supporting climate projects in the UK that prevent greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the atmosphere.

Below you can see briefly what we do to give back to our planet and become a more sustainable business model. By doing this we hope to set an example and lead the way for the industry to improve the way we all operate.

Watch out for our forthcoming initiative about repurposing books and clothes

The Difference We Make

To realise our mission, our focus is to develop and evolve a flexible benchmark of our interventions. Not only do we aim to minimise our own environmental impact, we offer a range of sustainable, eco-friendly and natural products alongside the traditional options. Here is what we do now:-

Our Eco-Friendly Products - At Amanda-Louise's, we are always trying to expand the use of eco-friendly coffins, urns, and caskets. We offer biodegradable coffins and urns as well as pine in our wood coffin range as its a sustainable source.

Our Eco-Friendly Vehicles - not only do we offer both traditional motorised hearse and limousine, but our more economical private vehicle that has been adapted as a hearse and our chauffeur driven vehicles to convey family to the funeral.

Our Eco-Friendly Funerals (funeral panning for a more sustainable future)- At Amanda-Louise's, as well as looking after the person who has died with care, supporting their family and friends, we care about our environment too, so everyone who books our services is offered a choice to funeral arrangements that right for them; then we carefully ensure every detail is considered and taken care of. With natural burials reportedly as the most environmentally friendly funeral option, we also talk through alternative funeral arrangements such as holding the celebration of life ceremony in other locations, as well as greener touches at traditional burials or cremations. For example having sensitive conversations to empower people to make their own informed decisions around embalming and a different kind of direct cremation where we wont take the deceased the other side of the country! We think keeping things local is not only more dignified for the deceased, but better for our planet.

Our wildlife and nature recovery focus sees us planting trees (see below) and our complimentary seed packets we hand out at funerals:-

Our Regiving to Charities - We know some of our products and practices won't always be great for our planet. So, we offset this by making a positive contribution while involving our clients in the process. Our financial support to plant more trees with Carma Earth Charity, makes good for the environment (as our world needs more trees) and supports veterans back into employment. (see below evidence of our impact) And our financial support to our Taunton Love Musgrove Hospital Charity, makes good to improve the experience of patients admitted to hospital creating a comfortable engaging environment and supporting that patient's family and friends -read our blog.

Our Communities (our social impacts good causes) - we are proud to live and work in our local funeral home community, and support local people in need with West Somerset Food Bank Cupboard as we believe no-one should be hungry - read our latest blog. As well as supporting our military, we also aim to use local and UK businesses to help our country's economy and workforce. Plus our latest project within the education sector, working in partnership with their Forest School Worker will see us engaging with our younger generation in schools sensitivity talking about death and funerals and equipping the school with resources for the future to support a child in their class who may suffer a bereavement.

Our Families (the final footprint) - we support our families and friends to donate to their chosen charity in memory of their loved one by collecting monies raised and ensuring everything is accounted for as we pass on those vital monies needed for those good causes. Whilst we all at Amanda-Louise's are on a journey to reduce our impact on our environment, we also offer to our families the chance to donate themselves to plant a tree in memory helping to offset the carbon footprint journey of their funeral. And we go further to create memories - our love for the wildlife, our bee-friendly wildflower seeds given to family and friends at the funeral are a much loved token during our life affirming funerals.

Our Governance (reducing our funeral home's carbon footprints) - At Amanda-Louise's we care deeply about our planet and those who live on it. So our policies and procedures underpin our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint inhouse. We recycle wherever we can, we offer zero emission meetings with our online technology, be mobile visiting families in their homes across Somerset and Devon instead of us having funeral homes in multiple towns are some of our examples.

Recycling Implants - when we remove pacemakers (this is essential for cremations) we carefully do this within our funeral home, and send it off to be recycled

‍Our Ethical Approach - being an ethical funeral directors, doesnt stop at sustainability. We are transparent giving you honest straightforward advice and support you with as much or as little as you want. Being ethical in our approach means we always aim for the highest level of service to you. We hope you like our honest, caring and open approach, being there when people need us most giving you choice.

We're proud to share that our partner suppliers are in the UK, which not only celebrates this country's economy and workforce, but keeps the footprint to a minimum. On the coffin (pandanus wicker which is made from the leaves of a prolific growing plant) we offer, is sourced from overseas made in World Fair Trade Organisation accredited workshops, making a real difference to the lives of their local people.

The Difference We Make in Partnership - Our Dashboard

We donate money to planet saving charities, we will. As the world needs more trees, we previously supported Tree Nation who plant trees outside of the UK. With our, and many of our families', commitment to doing good in this country, we have signed up with Carma Earth, our trusted climate impact partner. Their goals aligns with ours to make social and environmental impacts, creating jobs and planting trees. In conjunction with Carma Earth and The Green Task Force, we at Amanda-Louise's we donate monthly to our military veterans to plant trees in the UK, giving positive pathways to employment for those veterans and service leavers. So whilst this means we are planting less trees (as it is more costly to plant in UK -v- overseas), we feel this better matches our purpose. So we leave it to other businesses and charities to focus on positive overseas planting.

So with Amanda-Louise's support, a minimum of 12 trees will be planted every year in the UK absorbing 8.4 tCO2e. Explore our Carma Earth Dashboard to see the difference we are making.

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Thank you for choosing Amanda-Louise Lady Funeral Services

By doing so, you help us to evolve how as a society the funeral industry gives back to the planet we leave behind.