Spanish designer Martin Azua has come up with a design for an urn — the Bios Urn — that will allow your remains to be integrated with a seed which will grow into a tree or any kind of plant you prefer. It sounds a little morbid but it is an attractive option if you care about the environment. It is definitely better than staying on the ground with a tombstone above you.

The urn is made of coconut shell, cellulose and compact peat — all of which are biodegradable materials. Human remains are placed inside the urn with a seed. It is then planted on the ground where the seed will germinate along with the remains, eventually growing into a tree. It is an awesome and poetic form of regeneration.

This is one of those rare instances when death becomes a direct component of new life. If you choose to go this route, you can spend your next life as a tree, providing shade and oxygen to the rest of the world. If that’s not enough for you, maybe you can have your tree incarnation be cut down after a few decades to be turned into paper. Yes, if you so choose, you can actually become a book. It just goes to show that design is not just about aesthetics; it can also be a helpful tool in environmental protection.