business case 10 min read

By TerraCare

Terramation and the Re-Shaping of Funeral Service

Consumer Preference, Market Evolution, and the Opportunity for Local Provision

By Mike Reagan

A Market Shift That Can No Longer Be Ignored

In 2024 and again in 2025, the American Funeral Preferences Survey, conducted by the Order of the Good Death in conjunction with Professor Tanya Marsh of Wake Forest Law School, surveyed 1,500 Americans across ages, races, regions, and religious preferences about what they want done with their bodies after death. The findings confirm what many funeral professionals have sensed for years: consumer expectations are shifting in measurable ways.

How is terramation reshaping the funeral service industry?

Terramation is driving a structural shift in funeral service: 40.4% of Americans say they would consider natural organic reduction — approaching the percentage willing to consider embalming — and 45% have already heard of the process. The NOR market is bifurcating between centralized remote-disposition models and local empowerment models where funeral homes install their own vessels. Funeral homes that offer NOR locally maintain continuity of care, reduce channel conflict, and are positioned as innovators as 14 states have now legalized the practice.

  • 40.4% of Americans say they would consider natural organic reduction — approaching the 43% willing to consider embalming — according to the 2024–2025 American Funeral Preferences Survey.
  • Terramation stands alone among disposition methods in actively sequestering carbon, removing approximately half a ton of CO2 per disposition rather than adding to it.
  • The NOR market is bifurcating into remote/centralized models (requiring transport to distant facilities) and local empowerment models where the funeral home installs and operates its own vessel.
  • Local NOR provision maintains continuity of care, eliminates the channel conflict of centralized models, and positions funeral homes as both caregivers and innovators in their communities.
  • Early adopters deploying multi-vessel networks are projecting ROI in under 18 months, while NOR's participatory service model — laying-in ceremonies, soil return ceremonies — restores healthier operating margins lost to direct cremation.
  • 14 states have legalized NOR as of April 2026; the infrastructure to offer terramation locally is available now for funeral professionals in legal states.

Only 43% of Americans said they would consider embalming. More than half would not even consider it. Yet the regulatory and educational framework of American funeral service remains heavily structured around embalming as an assumed default.

At the same time, 40.4% of respondents said they would consider human composting, the colloquial term for what the industry calls natural organic reduction, NOR, or terramation. Nearly 45% had heard of the process. For a disposition method legalized only in recent years and currently operational in a limited number of states, those numbers are extraordinary.

Nearly 40.4% of Americans say they would consider natural organic reduction, a figure approaching the percentage willing to consider embalming.

Importantly, acceptance of NOR is not confined to younger generations. While Millennials and Gen X respondents show strong interest, Baby Boomers — the very population most funeral homes are serving today — are also increasingly receptive to terramation as a meaningful, environmentally responsible option.

The data suggests something important: consumers are not simply looking for lower cost alternatives. They are looking for alignment. Alignment with environmental values. Alignment with family participation. Alignment with meaning.

The environmental case reinforces this shift. Conventional burial and flame cremation each produce hundreds of pounds of CO2 equivalent per disposition. Alkaline hydrolysis reduces that footprint significantly. Green burial achieves a modest net reduction. But terramation stands alone among disposition methods in actively sequestering carbon, removing approximately half a ton of CO2 from the atmosphere per disposition rather than adding to it. For families seeking alignment between their environmental values and their end-of-life choices, the contrast is striking.

Comparative carbon emissions by disposition method.

At the same time, the Cremation Association of North America reports that more than 60% of Americans are cremated, with projections rising toward 75%. Yet only roughly one-third of survey respondents identify cremation as their first choice. That gap between preference and practice tells a powerful story. Cremation often wins because of cost, availability, and mobility — not because it represents families’ deepest desires.

The question for funeral professionals is whether we interpret this shift defensively, or whether we recognize it as an opportunity.

The regulatory landscape is evolving rapidly. Fourteen states have now legalized NOR, and a dozen more currently have legislation under consideration. For funeral professionals in states where NOR is already legal, the infrastructure to begin offering terramation locally is available now. For those in states where legalization is pending, the opportunity to prepare is equally compelling.

The Evolution of the NOR Market: A Bifurcating Landscape

As natural organic reduction moves from novelty to legitimacy, two fundamentally different go-to-market approaches are emerging. The distinction is not merely operational. It reflects a deeper question about who will steward the relationship between families and the disposition process, and where that care will take place.

Remote Disposition Models

The first category encompasses providers that require decedents to be transported to a centralized facility, often out of state or across significant distances. Within this category, two variations have emerged.

Some centralized providers operate as direct-to-consumer brands. Families engage directly with the NOR company, often online, with limited involvement from a local funeral home beyond transportation logistics. This approach tends to emphasize streamlined arrangements, simplified services, and price positioning. While it expands access and awareness, it also contributes to a broader cultural shift toward low-cost, low-touch, and increasingly impersonal disposition experiences. For some consumers, this is sufficient. For others, it represents a further distancing of families from local funeral professionals and from meaningful ritual.

A related variation blends direct-to-consumer marketing with wholesale partnerships. In this model, centralized facilities process NOR cases for funeral homes that ship decedents to a regional site. The provider markets to consumers while simultaneously courting funeral homes as trade partners. This model has helped expand legalization and visibility of NOR. However, it introduces structural channel tension. When the wholesale processor also markets directly to consumers, funeral homes may question whether they are empowering a backend partner who is simultaneously competing for brand recognition and family loyalty.

What unites these remote disposition approaches is the requirement to send a loved one away. The logistical burden of long-distance transport, the separation of the family from the process, and the limited opportunity for participatory ritual all constrain what NOR can become when it is centralized rather than local.

For a detailed comparison of how these models differ for funeral home operators, see Centralized vs. Decentralized Terramation Programs and NOR Partner Programs Ranked.

The Local Empowerment Model

The second philosophy centers on empowering funeral homes, crematories, and cemetery operators to establish their own local NOR facilities.

Under this model, created and offered by The Natural Funeral, a funeral home or crematory installs a Terramation Vessel Network™ within its own community. The operator serves its own client families directly, maintaining full continuity of care. In addition, that local operator can function as a wholesale backend provider for other local funeral homes, just as crematories do today.

This structure allows multiple funeral homes within a community to partner with a local NOR provider so that families can access terramation without shipping their loved one to a distant facility. Care remains local. Families remain connected. The funeral director remains the primary steward of the relationship.

AS Turner & Sons has deployed a six-vessel Terramation Vessel Network™ serving Greater Atlanta and the Southeast.

Sacred Soil in Whitingham, Vermont is implementing an eight-vessel Terramation Vessel Network™ to serve families and funeral homes across New England.

The local empowerment model preserves continuity, reduces channel conflict, and positions funeral homes as both caregivers and innovators within their communities. For operators exploring how this model works in practice, see Adding Terramation to Your Funeral Home Revenue.

Precision Without Complexity

For funeral directors and morticians considering NOR, the question is not whether the science works. It does. The question is whether adopting it requires taking on unfamiliar operational complexity. The answer, through the right partnership, is no.

The Natural Funeral’s TerraCare Partner Program™ was designed to eliminate the barriers to entry. It is a turn-key solution that provides partners with everything they need to begin offering terramation locally — from equipment and facility planning through training, regulatory guidance, and ongoing operational support.

The Terramation Process: From laying-in ceremony through soil return.

At the heart of the program is the fourth-generation Chrysalis™ vessel system, engineered for precision, consistency, and safety. Temperature, airflow, moisture, and organic material ratios are managed through standardized protocols refined over years of applied operation. Partners do not need to develop these systems from scratch. They receive them fully developed, field-tested, and supported by a dedicated team.

Fourth-generation Chrysalis™ vessel following a Laying-In ceremony.

Training is structured and comprehensive. Documentation is embedded into the workflow. Regulatory compliance pathways, which continue to mature as more states adopt NOR legislation, are mapped and maintained as part of the partnership. The TerraCare program handles the complexity so that the funeral home can focus on what it does best: serving families.

The result is an operational model that delivers state-of-the-art precision and efficiency without requiring partners to become process engineers. For funeral homes and crematories accustomed to running a retort or managing a preparation room, the transition to operating a terramation vessel network is a manageable, well-supported step — not a leap into the unknown. Learn more about what TerraCare certification involves and how long partner training takes.

Participation, Margin, and Professional Reinvigoration

Beyond environmental considerations, terramation reintroduces something many funeral professionals have felt slipping away: participatory care.

Unlike direct cremation, which often compresses service opportunities, NOR naturally invites layering of meaningful engagement. Laying-in services. Family witness experiences. Private visitations. Educational moments. Soil return ceremonies. Community memorialization.

These are not mandatory add-ons. They are organic extensions of the process itself.

Regenerative Living Soil™ produced by Terramation.

For funeral homes and crematories, this creates an opportunity to deliver highly valuable services that generate meaningful experiences for families while also restoring healthier operating margins. Early adopters deploying multi-vessel networks are projecting return on investment in under 18 months, with the pace of return driven by regional demand, pricing strategy, and case volume.

The economic implications are significant. Terramation is not merely another disposition method. It is a platform for re-engagement. It invites funeral homes to move beyond price compression and toward differentiated service models rooted in values, participation, and sustainability.

As consumer expectations evolve, funeral homes that provide NOR locally position themselves not as passive responders to market change, but as leaders shaping the future of deathcare. For the full ROI picture, see Why Terramation Commands Premium Pricing and the TerraCare ROI timeline.

Responding to the Shift

The American Funeral Preferences Survey reveals a measurable alignment between consumer openness to natural organic reduction and declining attachment to traditional embalming models.

This is not a marginal trend. It is a structural shift.

Legislatures and regulatory bodies across the country are steadily expanding the legal framework for NOR. As that framework grows, the infrastructure and partnership support to implement terramation locally are already in place. The path from consideration to operation has never been more clearly defined.

The opportunity before the profession is not simply to make terramation available somewhere. It is to provide it locally, responsibly, and participatorily.

The funeral homes, crematories, and cemetery operators who step forward to offer NOR within their communities will not only meet consumer demand. They will help reinvigorate the profession and strengthen the long-term economic vitality of funeral service.

Schedule a discovery call with TerraCare Partners

Mike Reagan, CEO of The Natural Funeral Inc., began his career in the funeral industry at age 15 as a laborer at his local cemetery and an apprentice embalmer at his local funeral home. A seasoned executive, end-of-life doula, hospice volunteer, and grief facilitator, he has dedicated himself to creating meaningful, participatory farewells. Passionate about empowering families with services that honor both their loved ones and the planet, he leads The Natural Funeral in expanding access to terramation across the country, enabling funeral homes, crematories, and cemetery operators to provide NOR services to the families they serve.

This article was originally published in The Scope, the official publication of the National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association (NFDMA), March 2026 issue.

Sources

  1. American Funeral Preferences Survey (2024, 2025) — Conducted by the Order of the Good Death in conjunction with Professor Tanya Marsh, Wake Forest Law School. 1,500 respondents across ages, races, regions, and religious preferences. Key findings: 40.4% would consider NOR; 43% would consider embalming; 45% have heard of human composting.

  2. Cremation Association of North America (CANA) — National cremation rate exceeding 60%, with projections toward 75%. cremationassociation.org

  3. NFDA 2025 Cremation & Burial Report — 63.4% national cremation rate; 61.4% of consumers interested in green funeral options. nfda.org/news/statistics

  4. The Natural Funeral — TerraCare Partner Program (local empowerment model, Chrysalis™ vessel system, partner training and support). thenaturalfuneral.com/terracarepartnerprogram

  5. AS Turner & Sons Funeral Home — Six-vessel Terramation Vessel Network™ deployment, Greater Atlanta and Southeast region. asturnersons.com

  6. Sacred Soil LLC — Eight-vessel Terramation Vessel Network™ implementation, Whitingham, Vermont, serving New England. sacredsoilvt.com

  7. National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association (NFDMA) — The Scope, March 2026 issue. nfdma.com