About us

Get to know Leavewell

Leavewell is a team of committed professionals from scientific, research, funeral and entrepreneurial backgrounds keen to deliver a new, environmentally friendly solution to support families looking for a solution that matches their day to day environmental values and help the funeral sector contribute towards UK net zero and circular economy goals.

Launched in March 2022, the Leavewell team have made significant progress towards launching this service in the UK. We are a collaborative company believing that Leavewell is much bigger than just us, it’s a commitment to change for the environment and for wellbeing around bereavement. We are proud to have been supported by Exeter University, Set Squared South West and Innovate UK with our research to date which has included the following.

Consumer demand

A large scale independent consumer survey to understand what enhanced organic reduction means to you, what your concerns are and how we can best prepare a service that meets your needs.

Funeral pod and monitoring design

Each process occurs within an individual pod or cylinder which creates the perfect conditions to accelerate the natural decomposition process. Our team of designers and engineers have created equipment to allow us to provide a highly streamlined and effective process. Further development and testing of this equipment is in progress ahead of our launch in 2024.

Soil Contribution

Each process produces one cubic metre of super rich compost substitute. Our research confirms that the contribution that this soil can make to environmental initiatives such as reforestation and development of nature reserves is essential in underlining the meaning behind a Leavewell funeral. This provides part of our research focus to close this loop, identify potential recipient organisations of the soil that share our values and understand their qualification criteria in more detail.

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Founders

Donna Baker

Founder & Business Development/Research Manager

Donna’s career has focused on innovation, particularly in the digital retail space as CEO of Poundshop.com. She has always been keen on value propositions with the consumer at the heart of any venture. Always keen to move the traditionally reluctant funeral industry forward, Donna & Mark were more recently involved in supporting direct funeral providers until launching Leavewell. Donna says ‘It’s a privilege to have an opportunity to create a service with the Leavewell team that benefits families and our environment. A Leavewell funeral meets the needs of families looking for options which compliment their lifestyle choices and supports their concerns around their own environmental impact. I’m particularly conscious of the value proposition with Leavewell. We want to help reduce funeral poverty in the UK and increase access to an environmentally positive option that helps make more sense of death as part of the natural world’s life cycle.

Mark Baker

Head of Funerals

Mark is a 4th generation funeral director with an appreciation of tradition and what this means to us as well as a drive to ensure that funeral’s become more about wellness on an individual, financial and global level. Mark manages all funeral services at Leavewell with his experience at every level of the industry helping each family manage bereavement in their own unique way. There are no rehearsals for saying goodbye to a loved one and our families couldn’t be in better hands.