Sudbury funeral home offers eco-friendly mushroom casket

A Sudbury funeral home now offers eco-friendly mushroom caskets. The $5,000 Loop Living Cocoon, made of mycelium and hemp, biodegrades in 45 days.

Many people are trying to live more environmentally conscious lives. A Sudbury, Ont., funeral home is helping extend those values even following an individual’s death.

The Lougheed/Jackson Barnard Funeral Homes in Greater Sudbury have a new casket option available. It’s called the 'Loop Living Cocoon.'

“It is very much for the environmentally conscious or somebody looking for a different option,” said funeral director Jeff Shrigley, who showed CTV News the casket Monday at the Larch Street funeral home.

“On the outside, this is where you’re going to feel like the mushroom-type of fibres. The inside does feel very different — it’s a hardened fibre.”

Developed by Dutch company Loop Biotech, the Loop Living Cocoon is made from parts of mushrooms called mycelium as well as hemp fibres.

It takes seven days to create one of the coffins and 45 days for it to biodegrade, enriching the soil and supporting biodiversity.

“It’s a very unique product to begin with. The feel of the casket, the inside just feels like a regular, hardened kind of shell with a moss interior, whereas the outside actually feels like a mushroom,” Shrigley said.

Shrigley said the family who own and operate the Lougheed/Jackson Barnard Funeral Homes wanted to provide an environmentally friendly option that breaks down faster than a traditional one, which could take 10 to 15 years to decompose.

“It’s obviously one of the many things that we’ve done over the years to stay environmentally conscious as a company,” he said.

“Obviously, Gerry and Geoffrey (Lougheed) have always been very environmentally conscious, as their parents were as well, as they were farmers.”

“It is important that an option is offered to reflect the loved one’s commitment to the environment even in death,” Gerry Lougheed Jr., said in a news release.

The move comes as Greater Sudbury is in the early stages of accommodating such green practices.

“There is a provision for green burials in our bylaw, however, a designated area for them has not yet been identified or developed,” city spokesperson April Low said in an email to CTV News.

In September, the Mount Pleasant Group in Toronto became the first in Canada to offer the mushroom-grown coffins, which are 100 per cent natural.

At the time, the group said the product launch “reflects a growing demand for environmentally responsible end-of-life options and reinforces MPG’s leadership in sustainable funeral practices.”

Shrigley said the Loop Living Cocoon costs $5,000, which is mid-range compared with all the options available.

“Now it doesn’t mean it has to be for the environmentally conscious,” Shrigley said.

“It could be for anyone looking for a different option, someone else looking for a more natural burial or just someone that doesn’t want to use a traditional casket and they like this idea.”