You might take solace in the fact that when you die, your days of polluting the planet are over. But the truth is that the method you choose to dispose of your mortal remains has more of a deleterious impact on the environment than you might think.

That’s according to Katrina Spade, founder of the Urban Death Project. The Seattle architect is leading a growing effort in support of a green alternative to caskets and cremation: human composting. She'll visit Cal State Monterey Bay on Oct. 2 to discuss the project.

She is working with a team of engineers and scientists on a process that would allow corpses to decompose into nutrient-rich fertilize rover a period of a few months, according to a Kickstarter page set up by the nonprofit. Spade proposes to set up a network of facilities where loved ones could bring their nitrogen-heavy deceased to decompose naturally in carbon-abundant piles composed of materials like wood chips and sawdust for roughly $2,500 per body, The New York Times reported. Every year, Americans who bury relatives in coffins commit to the ground an amount of metal sufficient to construct a new Golden Gate Bridge, wood that could be used to build 1,800 single-family homes and an amount of carcinogenic embalming fluid adequate for filling eight Olympic-size pools, Spade estimates. Cremations emit 600 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually — the fossil fuel equivalent of 70,000 cars driving for a full year, she notes.

“In other words, the very last thing that most of us will do on this Earth is poison it,” Spade says in the Kickstarter video. “But the truth is our bodies are full of potential.” At CSUMB, Spade will discuss the current funeral industry and why it matters that we do better. She’ll talk about the trajectory of the Urban Death Project from its inception as a thesis she did while in architecture school to the current plan for a new type of architecture for our cities where we can honor the dead and contemplate our place in the natural world. The public is invited to this free event. Visitors will need to purchase a $1 parking permit from a machine at the entrance to the lot. Details: