Talking sustainability and partnerships…
Bekki James, Business Development Manager
When it comes to honouring life and loss, few places do it quite like GreenAcres. Their living memorial parks are designed to celebrate nature as much as they are to remember loved ones — peaceful, biodiverse spaces where every path, tree and birdsong plays a part in the healing process.
Built on compassion and sustainability, GreenAcres’ approach goes far beyond the day of a funeral. Their woodland trails, wooden memorials and wildlife-friendly practices create spaces that nurture both people and the planet.
We spoke to Bekki James, Business Development Manager at GreenAcres, about how its partnership with SeedPrint helped bring this philosophy to life — from using our wildflower seed cards to spark gentle conversations about remembrance, to encouraging families to plant living tributes that grow long after the service ends.
Tell us a little about the Living Memorial Parks and what makes someone’s experience special when they visit the parks?
“GreenAcres offers something really special to those who have lost a loved one, because we are not just there for the day of the funeral, but we are there to offer support and a safe space every day to help people through their bereavement journey.
Connecting with nature can really help in the healing process and having somewhere that is beautiful and uplifting to visit at such a difficult time in someone’s life can help ease things. Our Parks encourage time for reflection and connection – having a beautiful, natural place to visit that doesn’t feel like a cemetery, allows time for people to heal.
We offer three walking trails around the Parks, so that people have time and space to walk surrounded by nature. I think the fact that we call them Living Memorial Parks reflects that it’s not just about the person that has died, but also about providing a space for the people left behind to grieve.
Our teams are compassionate people that really take the time to be friendly and supportive to our families – having that friendly face can make such a difference to someone’s difficult day. The Grounds team is amazing because they are not only the custodians of nature in our Parks but they also make time to connect with families. We offer all colleagues at our Parks a basic bereavement training course, so that they understand a little deeper into the grieving process as not everyone may have personally experienced a loss in their lifetime.”
GreenAcres have sustainability at the heart of everything you do, so in what ways have the parks introduced environmentally friendly impact? (Bee hives, fruit trees, wildlife etc)
“We endeavour to protect the natural environment of our Parks so that they are there for families of the future. We know that being close to nature and the ebb and flow of the changing seasons can form an important part of living with grief.
We encourage environmentally friendly practices in all of our Parks. We have bee hives across our Parks and offer five key experiences for families: woodlands, meadows, gardens, orchards and lawns. Each is designed to fit the natural environment of the local area with native flora and fauna.
We offer wooden headstones, posts or bespoke carvings to enable people to remember a loved one in the most natural way possible. It means a great deal to many families to have a memorial and to bring flowers on anniversaries and birthdays. For them we offer wooden vases in keeping with the woodlands.
There are some things we don’t allow like balloons, fairy lights or plastic to protect the wildlife and environment in our beautiful spaces. There is also no lighting in the woodlands for that reason too. Everything we do circles back to our sustainability commitment and protecting the environment and nature in all of our Parks.”
What was the idea of the wildflower prints that Seedprint created for you? How have you utilised them?
“The seedprint cards are offered to families at funeral services as a lasting memory of the person they have come to remember. They can be a gentle remembrance for children too, for example, if a grandma or grandad has died we would offer them a seeded card to take away, plant and watch it grow in their memory.
We also offer them at our family Memorial Services where we have a beautiful Memory Tree for people to write on little hearts or stars and leave a message for their loved one. If we can help one person have a better conversation with their family about their loss and make it a little bit easier, then we’ve achieved something.
We strive to help people have more fluid conversations about death and dying because it is an inevitable part of the circle of life. Anything that helps people live with loss is important to us.”
So how has collaborating with Seedprint contributed to giving back to the GreenAcres community and people spending more time in nature?
“Collaborating with Seedprint was very fitting and it has been good to encourage loved ones to take their seeded prints home and plant them, watching them bloom into wildflowers and keeping their memories alive. Whether they want to plant them in a pot or garden, having that uplifting feeling from watching them grow is amazing.
The idea of the Seedprint cards blossoming in our families’ outdoor spaces is very fitting. It feels a lovely touch to help people’s grieving process feel a little lighter.”
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Find out more about GreenAcres’ living memorial parks and their nature-led approach to remembrance at greenacresgroup.co.uk
