Dignifying Their Departures
A battered white pickup truck with rugs slung over the front seat isn’t what you’d expect as the vehicle of someone who wants to use design and technology to transform society and the environment. But then nothing about Gijs Zijlstra is what you’d expect. Whether he’s trying to turn insect protein into a new food source or wondering how ancient mathematical formulas might transform our energy system, this is a man bursting with unusual ideas. “The trouble is, I have too many,” he sighs. And the Dutch industrial engineer doesn’t only want to improve life for the living -- he also wants to make things better for the dead.
His EveryBody coffin could hardly be more revolutionary. Flat packed and stackable for efficient transportation and storage, the coffin arrives in pre-cut pieces, with handles integrated into the design. Sections snap together without the aid of tools, screws, staples, or glue, and one person can put the whole thing together in a matter of minutes.
Zijlstra loves innovating with wood. His first patent was for a type of garden shed construction that, because it required no screws or nails, could withstand expansion and contraction in the wood without cracking or leaking. A similar innovation proved critical to the success of the EveryBody coffin. Its “click-to-construct” mechanism -- hooks shaped like the end of a hockey stick slide into place and lock tight -- means the coffin is easily put together and extremely strong once assembled.
In designing something that -- with its minimal use of materials and lack of chemical glues or finishes -- is so elegantly eco-efficient, you might think Zijlstra’s environmental agenda was what first led him to the EveryBody coffin. After all, the 46-year-old’s long-held mission is to improve life by, as he puts it, “growing green business.”
In fact, however, it was his desire to give the dead -- particularly in developing countries and during disasters -- a more dignified departure. In 2004, dismayed as he watched corpses removed after the Madrid train bombings, Zijlstra felt there had to be a better way. “I saw all these body bags and they looked so bad,” he says. “I thought, ‘why don’t these people have something decent and human?’”
Providing a better send-off for disaster victims didn’t take off, however. Talking to relief agencies, Zijlstra learned that in crisis situations, demand is for food and shelter. “It’s about the living first, I guess,” he admits. Having spent a year developing the coffin, he found himself near desperation. Then, soon after telling his wife he was giving up on his idea, an entrepreneur with a home construction enterprise called him from a plane saying he wanted to invest in the business. The EveryBody coffin had a new lease on life.
Today, Zijlstra remains passionate about giving poorer countries affordable, environmentally friendly burial options. Over the past several months, he’s been developing a market in Africa. There, too, he’s learned lessons. While Africans might want inexpensive coffins, he explains, in many cases they don’t want them looking cheap because lavish send-offs help prevent spirits from returning to haunt the living.
Happily, the EveryBody coffin can accommodate. People catch on, he says, when they find out they can decorate the coffins any way they want -- whether to look like luxury mahogany caskets or to provide an affordable version of Ghana’s famous fantasy coffins (splendid, brightly painted wood creations carved in the shape of everything from fish and birds to Coke bottles). This, says Zijlstra, also helps generate income for local artisans. “An artist can buy the coffin and paint it,” he says. “He doesn’t need tools and has a product he can sell.”
Meanwhile, Zijlstra is seeking more resource-efficient materials for his coffins (currently largely made of wood) using agri-waste. He hates the idea of cutting down trees to make objects that sit in warehouses before being lowered into the ground or incinerated. So, working with a Dutch company, Zijlstra is now using strawboard -- a material developed by Canada’s Alberta Research Council -- to build his coffins. He plans to build a factory in West Africa that produces the strawboard so that locals, he says, can turn their agri-waste into something useful.
The strawboard coffins are stronger than chipboard. What’s more, explains Zijlstra as he fondly strokes the lid of one, the golden strands on the surface catch the light, giving them an organic, natural look that appeals to eco-conscious consumers, particularly in Europe and the US, where funeral directors are increasingly offering “green burial” options such as biodegradable coffins made of wicker or seagrass.
As an optimistic idealist who rarely stands still, Zijlstra is unlikely to make this his last foray into green burial products. “I’m an innovator,” he says with a wry smile. “And this is an interesting business for innovation.”
