When planning for end-of-life, many families are looking beyond tradition and convention and are asking: What aligns with my values? What impact does this have on the planet? What actually happens to the body? Rather than attempting to preserve the body, reduction acknowledges impermanence and supports a return to the earth. Terramation uses biology and time, aquamation uses water and alkalinity, and cremation uses heat and flame. While the methods differ, the intention is shared: to transform the body back into its elemental building blocks.
At their cores, terramation, aquamation, and cremation are all ways of accelerating nature’s processes. In the natural world, a body eventually returns to its basic elements through decomposition, weather, microbes, heat, and time (while these options accelerate nature’s timelines, natural burial and sea burial are options that follow nature’s timelines). Each of the reduction options guide a transformation, but each uses different conditions to speed up a process that would otherwise take years or decades.
Understanding these options through the lens of how they mimic and accelerate natural cycles can help clarify which path feels most aligned with your values, your priorities, and your sense of meaning at the end of life.
Terramation is a gentle, earth-centered process that mirrors natural decomposition in a controlled, indoor environment. Over time, the body is transformed into a regenerative, living soil that can return to the earth to nourish new life.Families may choose to donate this soil to conservation or urban greening projects, or share it with loved ones.
Terramation is currently legal in a growing number of U.S. states, and the exact count is growing as legislation allows for it.
In California, terramation results in what is legally referred to as “reduced human remains.”
Approximately 60–90 days
Bones are reduced to a fine powder and fully integrated back into the soil, completing the return-to-earth cycle.
Terramation facilities require significantly more space than cremation facilities due to the longer process timeline.
In California, reduced human remains may be:
Permanent storage options must be confirmed in advance. at this time California Health and Safety Code does not allow for the permanent storage of reduced (composted) human remains, like they do cremated or hydrolyzed remains.
Aquamation is a water-based reduction process that gently returns the body to its natural building blocks. Sometimes called water cremation, this method uses an alkaline solution and heated water to accelerate decomposition. Aquamation uses approximately 90% less energy than conventional cremation and produces no airborne emissions. The remaining elements can be responsibly returned to the environment.
Approximately 4–8 hours
The bones remain after the process and they are dried, dehydrated, and ground into a fine powder. Because of a high salt content, they are also neutralized and safe for handling.
The resulting remains are similar in appearance to cremated remains and follow the same scattering regulations.
Flame cremation remains a widely chosen option, and it can be made more sustainable through options like filtration and carbon offsets.
Our cremation partner operates the cleanest-burning cremation technology in Los Angeles and California, with a facility fully powered by renewable energy.
Approximately 2–4 hours
Bones are removed from the retort after cremation and mechanically reduced into a fine powder.
Cremated remains may be kept, buried, or scattered in accordance with California law.
There is no “right” choice, only what feels most aligned with your values and beliefs. Understanding your options empowers you to make a choice rooted in intention.
If you have questions or want to explore these options more deeply, we’re here to guide you.
