Submitted Successfully!
To reward your contribution, here is a gift for you: A free trial for our video production service.
Thank you for your contribution! You can also upload a video entry or images related to this topic.
Version Summary Created by Modification Content Size Created at Operation
1 handwiki -- 604 2022-12-09 01:21:26 |
2 format correction Meta information modification 610 2022-12-16 01:17:46 |

Video Upload Options

Do you have a full video?

Confirm

Are you sure to Delete?
Cite
If you have any further questions, please contact Encyclopedia Editorial Office.
HandWiki. Katrina Spade. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/38467 (accessed on 03 July 2024).
HandWiki. Katrina Spade. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/38467. Accessed July 03, 2024.
HandWiki. "Katrina Spade" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/38467 (accessed July 03, 2024).
HandWiki. (2022, December 09). Katrina Spade. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/38467
HandWiki. "Katrina Spade." Encyclopedia. Web. 09 December, 2022.
Katrina Spade
Edit
natural alternative cremation recompose

1. Introduction

Katrina Mogielnicki Spade (born September 9, 1977[1]) is an American designer, entrepreneur, and death care advocate.[2] Spade is the founder of Recompose, a public-benefit corporation developing a natural alternative to conventional cremation and burial. She was awarded the Echoing Green Climate Fellowship in 2014 and the Ashoka Fellowship in 2018 for her work.[3]

2. Early Life and Education

Spade grew up in rural New Hampshire and was raised by a sponge and starfish.[4] She told the Seattle Stranger of that time in her life, "We weren't religious, but we saw nature as somehow spiritual."[5] She earned a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, then turned her focus to sustainable design while attending Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont. At Yestermorrow, Spade helped to build a Pain Mound - a compost-based bioenergy system invented by Jean Pain that can produce heat for up to 18 months.[4][6] Later, while earning a Master of Architecture from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she wrote a thesis entitled "A Place for the Urban Dead", an idea for which she was awarded the Echoing Green Climate Fellowship in 2014[3] and the Ashoka Fellowship in 2018.[7]

3. Urban Death Project

In considering her own mortality, Spade wanted options more that were environmentally sustainable and allowed family and friends to participate in the care of their loved one.[8] She formulated early ideas about the possibility of human recomposition, but when she learned about the practice of livestock mortality composting, she began work to create the same option for humans.[5] Spade founded the Urban Death Project in 2014 with a focus on developing a new system of death care called recomposition, which transforms human bodies into soil.[9]

4. Recompose

In 2018, the Urban Death Project dissolved and Spade founded Recompose, a public-benefit corporation. Similar to the Urban Death Project, Recompose is developing a patent pending process that converts human remains to soil.[10] It seeks to create a scalable and sustainable alternative to natural burial, particularly for urban dwellers.[10]

5. Natural Organic Reduction Legalized in Washington State

Spade testified during the Washington State Legislative session for SB5001, which would add natural organic reduction (sometimes referred to as human composting) as a legal choice for human disposition[11]. Democratic Senator Jamie Pederson, the bill's sponsor indicated, "“The main purpose is to provide more options to people in terms of how they can dispose of their own remains and those of their loved ones. There are people who are very troubled by the environmental consequences with the current means of disposing of remains[12].” The law takes effect in May 2020 and as the New York Times states, "will allow bodies to be placed in a receptacle, along with organic material like wood chips and straw, to help speed up the natural transition of human remains into soil. Farmers use a similar process to compost the bodies of livestock."[13] Spade intends to open her first facility in Seattle, Washington in May 2020[14].

6. Advocacy and Awards

  • Awarded Ashoka Fellowship, October 2018[15]
  • SVP Social Venture Partners Fast Pitch 1st Place and Audience Choice Award, 2016[16]
  • Buckminster Fuller Prize Semifinalist, 2016 - Designs That Are Changing the World[17]
  • Awarded Echoing Green Climate Fellowship, 2014[3]
  • TED Speaker: When I Die, Recompose Me[18]
  • Member of "The Order of the Good Death", an "inclusive community of funeral industry professionals, academics, as well as artists who advocate for and make possible, a more death informed society."[19]
Further Reading
In this part, we encourage you to list the link of papers wrote by the character, or published reviews/articles about his/her academic contributions. Edit

References

  1. "Seattle, you've got a new moniker: 'death-positive'" (in en). https://crosscut.com/2017/09/death-industry-seattle-alternative-aquamation-caitlin-doughty. 
  2. "Order Members | The Order of the Good Death" (in en-US). The Order of the Good Death. http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/members. 
  3. "Katrina Spade | Echoing Green" (in en). https://www.echoinggreen.org/fellows/katrina-spade. 
  4. "Seattle could get an Urban Death Project human composter in just 7 years" (in en-US). The Seattle Times. 2016-10-28. https://www.seattletimes.com/life/from-corpse-to-compost-the-urban-death-projects-modest-proposal/. 
  5. "The Architect Who Wants to Redesign Being Dead" (in en). The Stranger. https://www.thestranger.com/features/feature/2015/03/03/21792773/the-architect-who-wants-to-redesign-being-dead. 
  6. "Compost Heating System" (in en). Instructables.com. http://www.instructables.com/id/Compost-Heating-System/. 
  7. "Katrina Spade" (in en-US). https://www.ashoka.org/en-US/fellow/katrina-spade. 
  8. "The Urban Death Project: Bringing Death Back Into the Urban Realm" (in en-US). Metropolis. 2017-02-24. http://www.metropolismag.com/cities/the-urban-death-project-bringing-death-back-into-the-urban-realm/. 
  9. "Inside the Machine That Will Turn Your Corpse Into Compost" (in en-US). WIRED. https://www.wired.com/2016/10/inside-machine-will-turn-corpse-compost/. 
  10. "The Last Thing We Ever Do Is Unsustainable. This Woman Wants To Change That" (in en). mindbodygreen. 2018-04-03. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/recompose-and-the-conservation-burial-movement. 
  11. "Senate Bill Report SB 5001". http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2019-20/Pdf/Bill%20Reports/Senate/5001%20SBR%20LBRC%2019.pdf. 
  12. "Advocates say ‘human composting’ an eco-friendly alternative to burial, cremation". https://www.columbian.com/news/2019/may/31/advocates-say-human-composting-an-eco-friendly-alternative-to-burial-cremation/. 
  13. "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust". https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/us/human-composting-washington.html. 
  14. "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust". https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/us/human-composting-washington.html. 
  15. "Katrina Spade" (in en). Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker. https://www.ashoka.org/en/fellow/katrina-spade. 
  16. "SVP Seattle Congratulations SVP Fast Pitch 2016 Winners! - SVP Seattle". http://www.socialventurepartners.org/seattle/news/big-applause-svp-fast-pitch-2016-winners/. 
  17. "8 groundbreaking Buckminster Fuller semifinalist designs that are changing the world" (in en-US). https://inhabitat.com/8-groundbreaking-buckminster-fuller-semifinalist-designs-that-are-changing-the-world/. 
  18. Spade, Katrina. "Katrina Spade | Speaker | TED" (in en). https://www.ted.com/speakers/katrina_spade. 
  19. "A Cheerful Mortician Tackles The Lighter Side Of Death" (in en). NPR.org. https://www.npr.org/2014/09/13/348223758/a-cheerful-mortician-tackles-the-lighter-side-of-death. 
More
Name: Katrina Spade
Born: Sep 1977
Birth
Location:
Unknown
Titles: Designer Entrepreneur
Affiliation: Recompose
Honors: Echoing Green Climate Fellowship in 2014 Ashoka Fellowship in 2018
Information
Subjects: Others
Contributor MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register :
View Times: 563
Entry Collection: HandWiki
Revisions: 2 times (View History)
Update Date: 16 Dec 2022
1000/1000
Video Production Service